Starting Climbing Team or Clup

Hey, first time poster here.
So I have been doing the applying to colleges grind and some of the schools that I got into and that I really want to go to (one in particular) doesn't have a climbing team or club from what I could gather. Im thinking on starting one up if any of you guys have any success doing that sort of thang, advice would be appreciated.

We did it at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, when I was there. You'll probably have to get in contact with your school's Student Life / Club department, find an advisor (usually a staff or faculty member), and prove that there is adequate interest for the club. After paying dues / filing paperwork, you'll probably also want to get the word out. Websites, social media, and physical signs around campus worked for us.

did you guys initially start going outdoors or get a gym group together. The school in question is UCSC and I know theres some nice bay area stuff in reasonable distance but I don't want to have these guys as a liability. In my limited anchor building experience I don't find myself qualified with these guys' lives. Would getting a carpool or a bus schedule together to go to a near by gym be effective

tl;dr outdoor or indoor

School policy didn't allow us to officially organize outdoor trips, due to liability. Instead, we had a school team which competed in an indoor collegiate climbing series. At weekly meetings, we usually had presentations on various climbing topics, and organized "unofficial" outdoor get-togethers and workshops. I could have sworn UCSC had a team/club...

Thanks for your help. You may be correct about them having some sort of thing, but due to my limited data available (or lack of prudence) I might have missed it. I'll research more about getting a team registered to compete, do you have any sites you can direct me towards?

The info is buried somewhere on the CCS site: usaclimbing.net/ccs/home.cfm

I'm also not noticing UCSC listed this year...interesting.

Heh, decided to check out this post and the Cal Poly climbing club actually had its first meeting last week to try to revitalize the club Ryan.

Good luck with possibly getting a club started Kevin. Maybe we'll see you at some CCS event sometime.

It's surprising how low the stoke was when it came to a climbing club at Poly, especially considering how many people climb there. Good luck getting it going again!

Hey Kevin,

I recently took over a climbing club at my university, and revamped it to include more, well...climbing. Since they weren't doing a whole lot of that. I definitely understand where you are coming from with not wanting to be responsible for your members' lack of experience. There are a few things that you can do to help mitigate potential risks with new climbers. The first thing we did as a club was make sure they were competently taught how to belay, lower, and just climb while being on TR. This was able to be done on our own wall we have in the school's gym, well it's more of a glorified woody than anything. Once they are "checked out" we give them some waivers to sign, and each member needs to sign them to participate in club activities.

If you have a gym close by I would HIGHLY recommend you do the first outing or two there. Helps the group dynamic teach itself easier, i.e. the more experienced people will assist the newer ones and the moderately experienced climbers can become more proficient. Unfortunately in Prescott we don't have a full-scale gym to do that ourselves.

A second idea for you, is ask local guides for a day out on the rock to help teach the club members proper techniques. We were fortunate enough to have an awesome guy actually offer his services, pro bono, to the club. I would maybe ask around and see if the same can't be done by you, even if it is just a discounted price, the instruction would be invaluable.

Having said all of that, that's if you are able to get the club up and running. You said that you are applying for colleges right now, so you are not currently attending one? If that is the case, I hope you don't get overwhelmed with paperwork. The process is probably similar to my university, so I'll run through it real quick for you.

Ryan hit the main points above, you need a Faculty or Staff advisor and a good amount of interest from the student body first. We had to get 10 people to sign up in order to apply for the club. At the beginning of each semester my school holds a club fair where every club on campus hosts a booth and basically tries to recruit people. I'm not sure if other school's do this as well, but I find they usually aren't very successful. Once you gain your members you register your club with the governing body of the school, mine is Student Government Association, after obtaining several signatures you have a club. The tricky part is maintaining it, especially with a climbing club there will be A LOT of people that will "try it" because they saw "...that one guy climb half dome without a rope and that looked awesome!" and then leave. My club doesn't have dues, we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be financially supported by my school (to a small extent). Oh, and all the paperwork to register he club needs to be re-done each semester.

To get your name out too I would suggest hosting events, i.e. REEL Rock Tour or Banff Mountain Film Festivals. Again, more paperwork, coordination etc., but the amount of PR and fundraising you receive is substantial at those events.

Hope it all works out for you, good luck, and enjoy gaining the extensive amount of bureaucratic experience. Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions.

-Mac M

On a qwerty board, the letter p is nowhere close to the letter b (eliminating the fat finger excuse); plus there is an edit button. Yet, there it is.

Old and Busted wrote:On a qwerty board, the letter p is nowhere close to the letter b (eliminating the fat finger excuse); plus there is an edit button. Yet, there it is.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE research good crag etiquette. It's very easy when showing up with a large group to ruin the experience for anyone else sharing the area with you. This generates a lot of ill will towards your group and climbing clubs in general, in addition to just being rude.

Be conscious of things like music, hogging routes, being so loud no one can hear their belayer, littering, dogs out of control, etc.