Newish to climbing! Need help/guidance

Hi I’m 20 and I live in NE IA, 

 and being young and generally stupid I’ve done lots of bouldering and climbing up things for as long as I can remember, and looking back there’s definitely situations that could have gone very wrong. I want start to learn how to climb by myself and with others safety. I’m not quite sure how to start the process. I don’t live near any indoor gyms(nearest one is hour and a half away) and that doesn’t particularly interest me anyway as I’d rather be outside on real rock. How should I go about learning, I know how to belay from few times in rock climbing gyms and Boy Scouts. But except form teaching myself off of YouTube I’m not sure how to go from here. Any ideas or help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!! 

In reality and in addition to self education via YouTube, you only have a few options…

1-find a friend (climbing indoors, while far away and not what you want, can be conducive to meeting people and learning proper safety protocols) who is willing to show you the ropes. Or check meetup.com or post on the climbing partner section here

2-hire a guide for you and a buddy to become  proficient in climbing top rope/lead and belaying for both

For routes you can hike to the anchor, you just need to know how to set up an anchor, belay and understand various failure modes so you can avoid deadly errors.

I was in a similar situation during covid. Had never heard of rock climbing, much less done it, but a buddy found an old static rope in his grandfathers attic and asked if i'd join him to try. We spend the lockdown at a local crag, getting super psyched on youtube videos and instagram and going to the rocks to just figure stuff out. Toproped to start, and eventually got a pad, shoes, and chalk to start bouldering. Spent all of our free time out there and really got into it. Was a year of climbing before I ever stepped foot in a gym or even met another rock climber. 

Just do it man. If you've got a decent noggin in your head youll be okay. Get out there with someone who shares the psych and get yourselves in some situations. Finding someone that already knows what theyre doing isnt a bad way to go, as long as they still have the adventure spirit and wanna have fun.

Jonah Kauffman wrote:

Hi I’m 20 and I live in NE IA, 

 and being young and generally stupid I’ve done lots of bouldering and climbing up things for as long as I can remember, and looking back there’s definitely situations that could have gone very wrong. I want start to learn how to climb by myself and with others safety. I’m not quite sure how to start the process. I don’t live near any indoor gyms(nearest one is hour and a half away) and that doesn’t particularly interest me anyway as I’d rather be outside on real rock. How should I go about learning, I know how to belay from few times in rock climbing gyms and Boy Scouts. But except form teaching myself off of YouTube I’m not sure how to go from here. Any ideas or help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!! 

You really need to buy some guidance books, YouTube helps too.