Rock Climbing Instructor assessment

Climb365 has been a registered Mountain Leader training course provider of Mountain Training courses since 2006.

We provide the Mountain Leader, Rock Climbing Instructor and is a Course Director for the Rock Climbing Development Instructor training and assessment courses which Esther Foster is the Provider.

Stuart, a key member of the team, serves as one of the regional moderators for Mountain Training. In this role, he works alongside a select group of colleagues to ensure quality assurance and provide ongoing support and advice to other course providers. This opportunity allows Stuart to engage with numerous experienced providers and course directors, facilitating the exchange of up-to-date information and best practices.

As a result, Climb365’s courses are not only enriched by the vast expertise and experience of its staff but also reflect the latest trends and high standards in mountain training. The content of these courses is thorough, professionally delivered, and rooted in current best practices.

Thank you for creating a fun, relaxed, yet professional environment for my RCI assessment last week. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would recommend Climb365 to anyone. I look forward to taking more courses with you in the future, Chelsey.

Chelsey

Oct 2022

I have now done my learn to lead, RCI and ML with Stu and his team and all have been amazing. They make learning easy and fun on training courses and put everyone at ease on assessments. Couldn’t recommend Climb365 enough!

Caleb

Mountain Training info

This qualification is all about taking people climbing and abseiling on single-pitch crags and artificial structures. Whether you’re a parent, a volunteer or an outdoor centre instructor, the Rock Climbing Instructor qualification trains and assesses experienced rock climbers to instruct climbing.

Candidate requirements

Before you attend a Rock Climbing Instructor assessment, make sure you have done the following:

You must have attended a Rock Climbing Instructor (or Single Pitch Award) training course or been granted an exemption from training.
You must be familiar with the syllabus.
You must be competently leading Severe grade climbs on outdoor crags with leader-placed protection.
You must have led a minimum of 40 graded rock climbs with traditional protection at a variety of venues (of which at least 20 MUST be at Severe grade or above).
You must be proficient in the use of climbing walls and have a minimum of 30 climbing wall leads graded at F4 or above.
You must be proficient in outdoor bolt-protected sport climbing and have a minimum of 10 sport climb leads graded at F4 or above.
You must have assisted in the supervision of 20 instructed sessions. These sessions should be at a variety of different venues with 10 being on indoor climbing walls and the other 10 on outdoor crags. A session is a half-day or evening. At least five of these sessions must have personal reflective comments recorded on DLOG. (For guidance see question 3 in the DLOG section on this page.)
You must have physically attended and completed (i.e. not online) a first aid course which involved at least two full days or sixteen hours of instruction and included an element of assessment.

The Rock Climbing Instructor assessment is 2 days long.

Helpful Mountain Leader links

Rock Climbing Instructor frequently asked questions

Rock Climbing Instructor handbook

Rock Climbing Instructor skills checklist

Potential outcomes

Following the assessment, the course director will complete a course report on CMS which will record one of three possible results:

Pass: awarded where the candidate has demonstrated appropriate knowledge and application of the course syllabus and has shown the necessary experience and attributes of a Rock Climbing Instructor.

Defer: awarded where the candidate has generally performed well and has shown the necessary experience and attributes, but where complete proficiency has not been attained in certain aspects of the syllabus or where a lack of experience has been identified.

Fail: awarded where the candidate’s performance has been generally weak, or the necessary experience and attributes have not been shown. A complete assessment course will need to be subsequently attended.

Support for people with additional needs

Mountain Training is committed to ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity to attend our courses.

Leadership qualifications are equally open to all who can demonstrate their competency outlined in the scheme syllabus.

Please follow this link to read more info: https://www.mountain-training.org/help/resources/support-for-people-with-additional-needs

Course info

Our Rock Climbing Instructor assessment courses are another opportunity for you to learn.

Whilst assessing, we are always chatting through ideas and offering tips to help you improve. We are looking for inspiring, sound, safe instructors.

As assessors, we are also continually learning; even though we have been fully qualified Mountain Instructors for many years we are still open to new ideas.

We really understand assessment stress, each candidate reacts differently to being assessed. We try and find what works for you and seek your best performance.

This is our aim!

We want you to show us the best of yourselves. Our aim is for you to relax and show us that you are able to be safe, good, motivating, and enthusiastic instructors.

We believe in ongoing learning. We see the Rock Climbing Instructor assessment course as being another chance to learn from your peers and our coaching input.

We find many of the skills and knowledge candidates develop through training and the consolidation period are deepened during the assessment course.

Accommodation

We run the Rock Climbing Instructor courses as non-residential. That way we can meet candidates at the crag and spend more time at the venue. Please see this link for suggestions of accommodation.

We do have a friendly dog on our courses called “fly”, if you do not like dogs please let us know and we won’t bring him along.

Rock Climbing Instructor assessment

Day 1

We meet at 8:30 am on the morning of the first day and then journey to a crag (venue arranged around the weather)

We usually cover the group use of crags on day one. However, we do sometimes ask candidates to lead climb on both days.

The evening of day 1

We visit the indoor wall for the evening.

Day 2

We meet at 9 am at a different crag venue.

We tend to cover personal lead climbing and then allow time to go over any skills that need further time.

Results, Debriefs and course review and finished by 5 pm.

Course dates & prices

Dates

2025

Thurs 27th & Fri 28th March

Mon 2nd & Tues 3rd June

Thurs 31st July & Fri 1st Aug

Mon 8th & Tues 9th Sept

Mon 17th & Tues 18th Nov

Prices

Rock Climbing Instructor assessment course cost £215

Note: Climb365 will pay your entry fee for the climbing wall.

We usually stop for a quick bite to eat between being on the hill and going to the wall.

Climb365 will cover the cost of your Mountain Training course completion fee. However, if you receive a “First Aid defer” due to not having a current First Aid Certificate at the time of attending the Mountain Leader assessment course we will charge a £40 fee when you subsequently complete your first aid course and wish to have your “defer” amended to “pass”. This is to cover the duplicated course completion fee and extra admin cretaed by having to file the course report twice.