With the Young Climbers group we want to offer the older children the opportunity to stay active and to learn the basics of mountaineering and rock climbing. It is also a great way for Junior Mountaineers to continue their outdoor adventures.
Like the Junior Mountaineers, the Young Climbers are organized in semesters, September to January and February to June. The age range for the group is 13 - 17 years and the number of participants is strictly limited to 10 young climbers.
The Young Climbers meet twice per month during the semester. We have a total of 5 sports sessions in Accra and 5 climbing days outside Accra.
Training Days
A typical training day - usually Saturdays- will start with an early departure from Accra. By 05:30 AM we need to be on the road latest to avoid traffic when leaving the city.
From the drop-off point we will hike to our campsite for the day where we immediately start practicing basic skills and climbing.
We prepare a simple lunch on open fire and then learn and practice some additional mountaineering and outdoor skills.
At round 16:00 - 17:00 we will be back in Accra.
Climbing Skills
We start each semester with reviewing the basics and cover the following skills:
- intro to basic climbing gear
- preventing injuries
- essential knots for climbing
- rappelling
- belaying & spotting
- belay escape
- basic rock climbing techniques
Advanced topics ( depends on group )
- building anchors
- self rescue
- lead climbing
Outdoor Skills
Mountaineering is more than climbing, so we add some training from the following areas to each training day
- first aid
- map & compass skills
- route finding
- basic survival skills ( shelter, water, fire )
- navigation by night
- strength and endurance training
Physical fitness is essential for mountaineering and climbing. Automatically each training day will have lots of exercise both for strength and endurance. Especially in the second half of the semester the approach hikes become quite strenuous and rock climbing itself is a full body workout.
But to be able to fully enjoy the training days and the rock climbing, we encourage the Young Climbers to train by themselves several times per week during the semester. We will guide them and introduce them to exercises that they can do by themselves and without buying expensive equipment.
Equipment needed
- Backpack
- Hiking shoes / boots
- Torch light
- Sleeping mat
For the beginning the following can be borrowed from us, but eventually every Young Climber should have:
- Climbing Shoes
- Helmet
- Climbing Harness
- Belay device
- 2 x Carabiner
- 1 long sling ( 120 cm )
- 2 x medium sling ( 60 cm )
- 1 x prusik sling ( 50 cm )