Getting started in climbing
How does anyone ever get started in rock climbing? It's a good question, and the answer has changed over the last century. In the early days, people started by walking in the hills, or scrambling around on hillsides, over rocks and up through gullies. Equipment was repurposed household items - washing line or curtain cord (don't do this!), army boots. By sheer chance a scrambler might encounter a 'real climber' and be introduced to the wonderful world of roped climbing.
Read on to learn how Pinnacle Club members got started. Or, if you want to give it a go yourself, visit our Resources page (opens in new window).
The role of the Pinnacle Club in teaching beginners has changed over the years
Many early members joined the club as Associate members, i.e. novices, and were taken climbing by more experienced members until they were considered competent enough to progress to leading climbs.
With opportunities to learn to climb becoming more widely available, whether with a local climbing club or youth group, on a course, or at a climbing wall, the teaching role was no longer needed and members are now required to be competent leaders at their chosen grade on joining. The Pinnacle Club website lists some ways to get started.
Pictured: members and prospectives at Stanage Edge on a Pinnacle Club Intro Meet in 2019
![Womens Trad Festival -19-Jessie_Leong-[F79A4522]a.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e30984cd4be6126d4f602a7/1616264196068-7CL0J8489ELHZ6GFFZTQ/Womens+Trad+Festival+-19-Jessie_Leong-%5BF79A4522%5Da.jpg)
Because the Pinnacle Club no longer caters for beginners, we’re keen to support others who do
For example, our members have supported the Women's Trad Festival from its inception, by volunteering as leaders to share skills and experience with women starting out in trad climbing.
Our newly launched Pinnacle Club Centenary Sponsorship Fund will support women who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to get started and develop their rock climbing outside. Learn more.
Pictured: 2019 Women’s Trad Festival. Credit: Jessie Leong
How some of our members started
Warning! This section contains descriptions of risky practices that you are advised not to try...
“Two or three times a week we bicycled up to Ogwen
This persistence at last attracted the attention of a climber who... offered to take us up the Milestone Buttress a few days later. There were five of us, with two ropes. I was on the first one, led by Mr B., and I shall always be grateful to him for the completeness with which he ignored me. I do not mean that he failed to take proper care of me but, to any feebly piped enquiry as to how to do a pitch, he invariably replied, ‘I just came up’... And so we went on, getting help here and there, but gradually becoming bolder and attempting climbs we had not seen before.” — E.H. Daniell, Reminiscences, Pinnacle Club Journal no. 4, 1929-31
Pictured: EH Young, née Daniell
“In the early days we had a great deal of help from menfolk
— mostly members of the Rucksack Club, and we owe a lot to them for their patience and forbearance. They taught us technique, leadership, and gave us a great deal of confidence. We often held small practice meets on gritstone at Almscliff, Stanage, Laddow, etc. and these meets helped the novices a great deal.
Our larger meets, in the Lakes and in Snowdonia, were well and truly organised. Before setting out, 'ropes' were arranged - a sound leader, a good second, and a novice or two. If you were a novice, you carried the rope; if you were a second and your leader cared to change her footwear on a difficult pitch, you carried her boots!” — Trilby Wells, The Early Days, Pinnacle Club Journal no. 14, 1969-70
Pictured: Emily ‘Trilby’ Wells, Cow & Calf Rocks, Ilkley in 1981
“I met with no rock climbers in those days. I knew that they existed
— but they were as the gods, and far beyond my ken... I did lots of scrambling up and down gullies, with no fear of accident, and never seeing a climber or a rope... Millican Dalton came to see us one evening and sat late with us, talking and singing round the camp fire. Rock climbing was mentioned. Oh yes, he would take some of us for a climb if we liked!
What? Could such a wild and impossible dream be realised?
On July 31st 1913 we stood at the foot of the Needle.
'Skirt detachable?' said he.
'Yes'.
'Take it off.' I obeyed, and knew the feel of the rope for the first time.”
— Mabel Barker, The Way of a Neophyte, Pinnacle Club Journal 5, 1932-34
Pictured: Mabel Barker on Pillar Rock. 1930 © FRCC Archive
“One hot summer we spent a short holiday [in the Nant Ffrancon pass]... before many days had gone, we were begging to be allowed to climb a mountain
Though the one chosen for ascent was a mere rocky slope, clothed with monstrous bilberry bushes, it seemed a most formidable undertaking when we set out. Alas, the short legs of my five year-old sister grew too weary, and the bracken twigs and heather scratched our bare feet unmercifully. Our courage weakened and we did not even reach the cairn. But the desire to get to the top of things had been strongly stirred within us, and after this, we climbed every available tree, wall, lamp-post and haystack. We startled neighbours with our simian poses in the branches overhanging their gardens, and on wet days practised glissades down the banisters or perilous traverses round the edge of the bath.
Neither my sister nor I followed the best mountaineering principles. We chose a fine day, put on as few clothes as possible, and started up a mountain, hoping for the best.” — Daloni Seth Hughes, Early Days in the Welsh Hills, Pinnacle Club Journal 5, 1932-34
Pictured: Daloni Seth Hughes, Penelope Seth Hughes, Brenda Chamberlain on Far West Buttress, Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, in 1935
“A local climbing club, all male then, taught me the ropes
They were supportive, but I always felt they were being kind to let me lead a Severe before I belayed them on their next E1. So it wasn't really until another woman joined the club that we got together and decided to do our own thing on borrowed gear, starting on Diffs and working our way up to harder routes. We were learning together and pushing ourselves and each other.” — Hazel Jones
Pictured: Hazel on Blue Sky (VS), Pembroke, 1986
“I first discovered climbing at school
I was lucky enough that it was part of our PE curriculum in France and I loved it immediately. Unfortunately there were no commercial climbing walls in the town I grew up in and my parents didn't know anyone who climbed and could show me the ropes. It wasn't until I started studying at the University of Sheffield that I was truly able to pursue rock climbing as a passion. My first real steps in climbing were trad climbing on gritstone in the Peak District. Older members of a local club taught me how to place gear and build anchors. We spent many weekends climbing all across the country, crowding into tiny cars with all our kit ready for an adventure. When I graduated I joined the Pinnacle Club. Being a member of the club further helped me grow my confidence as a leader and introduced me to an incredible community of female climbers. I often wonder what I would have thought as a little French girl climbing in my school gymnasium if I knew that one day I would fall in love with trad climbing on the sea cliffs and mountain crags of Britain.” — Milena von und zur Mühlen
Pictured: Milena in Tremadog, North Wales. Credit: Jessie Leong
Audio stories
Denise Evans with her mother Nea Morin on Nea (VS), Clogwyn y Grochan. Credit: John Cleare
Chris Watkins in 1974, aged 19, on her first mountain trip - Mount Harvard, Rocky Mountains, USA. Credit: Jonathon Daunt
Jill Croskell seconding Gargoyle Flake (VS), Bamford Edge, Peak District, in 2006. Credit: Nikki Smith
Sally Westmacott
Mandy Glanvill in 2020
Jean Drummond, Miyar Nala, Himalaya, 1980. Credit: Denise Wilson
Photo gallery
Click any image to open a slideshow.
Cathy Woodhead takes her daughter Tamsin climbing in the Avon Gorge in 1981.
Further reading
Advice on starting climbing: Pinnacle Club Resources page (opens in new window)