Crack Climbing Course
Learn How To Crack Climb In Grand Junction, Colorado
Crack climbing requires a completely different set of movement skills than face climbing. Instead of relying on crimps, slopers, and jugs, climbers use torsional pressure created by finger locks, hand jams, arm bars, and body positioning to create secure points of contact inside the crack. Skyward Mountaineering's two day Crack Climbing course teaches these techniques through hands on instruction on the sandstone cliffs at Escalante Canyon, outside of Grand Junction, Colorado.
From finger cracks and thin hands to perfect hand cracks, fists, offwidths, and chimneys, you'll learn how to climb efficiently across a range of crack sizes. Your local, expert rock climbing guide will provide individualized instruction and feedback throughout the course, helping you develop the technique and movement skills needed for longer, harder crack climbs.
Intermediate rock climbing course, focused on crack climbing technique.
Routes range in difficulty from 5.9 to 5.12 with sizes from finger locks to hand jams and offwidth.
Previous indoor rock climbing experience required. Climbers should be comfortable toprope climbing at least 5.9.
2 full days (8 hours each) of rock climbing. See open enrollment dates below or choose custom dates.
The Crack Climbing course is taught in Escalante Canyon, outside of Grand Junction, Colorado.
What Skills Will I Learn On The Course?
Tape gloves
Foundational crack climbing movement techniques
Learn to jam cracks of all sizes from finger locks, ring locks, hand jams, fist jams, offwidth and chimneys
Learn the nuances of footwork: toe jams, heel-toe cams, calf locks and knee locks
Improve your efficiency on long and sustained crack climbing routes
Who Is the Crack Climbing Course For?
This course is designed for intermediate rock climbers who have basic climbing experience and want to develop the specialized movement skills required for crack climbing. Previous crack climbing experience is not required, but participants should be comfortable toproping or climbing routes rated 5.9, at least.
The course is a good fit for climbers preparing for desert climbing in Indian Creek or Moab, climbers transitioning into trad climbing, or experienced sport climbers who want to become more comfortable on cracks and corners.
Plan Your Crack Climbing Course
Crack Climbing In Escalante Canyon
Escalante Canyon is our primary venue for the Crack Climbing course. The canyon offers excellent sandstone crack climbing in a remote corner of the Colorado desert. The relatively short routes make it possible to focus on technique rather than simply surviving on a long pitch. This makes Escalante Canyon particularly well suited to developing efficient crack climbing technique.
FAQs About Our Crack Climbing Course
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Our Crack Climbing course is offered in Escalante Canyon, outside of Grand Junction, Colorado. The climbing style is very similar to Indian Creek splitters but most of the routes are shorter and have more variation to the sizing so you can practice the full gamut of jamming styles. Because crack climbing is such a unique style of rock climbing and highly dependent on having good technique, the grades typically start around 5.10, though Escalante Canyon has a few moderate routes in the 5.8 and 5.9 grades as well, making for a good warm-up and/or confidence boost.
Because our crack climbing course focuses predominately on helping climbers develop good technique, it is common for climbers to “session” a section of a route. This often helps improve movement techniques without burning out your energy and get instant personalized feedback from your guide. It is often possible to have the guide ascend a fixed line adjacent to the route to provide on-route coaching as well.
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Yes, crack climbing gloves are a valuable piece of equipment for sustained comfort when hand jamming. We actually wrote a blog post detailing how to make crack climbing gloves and comparing manufactured “hand jammies”. Check it out!
Your guide will assist you in making tape gloves at the crag if you don’t own manufactured gloves.
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Yes! Skyward Mountaineering puts a lot of value in working with you to personalize every guided climbing trip and courses are available for open enrollment or on a private basis. A private rock climbing course ensures you receive the highest level of personalization and individual attention.
Contact us to discuss a private crack climbing course in Escalante Canyon or Moab.
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We host crack climbing courses during the spring and fall seasons, since temperatures are cooler and winter storms are rare. Most of the cliffs in Escalante Canyon face south so they receive plenty of sunshine.
If you’d like to book a private crack climbing course we can adjust the venue and dates.