What is Multi Pitch Trad Climbing?
Multi pitch trad climbing is a type of roped climbing where you and a partner climb a route longer than the length of your rope while placing your own protection along the way. The leader is tied in to the top end of the rope and places the protection as they climb.
Once the leader reaches a comfortable point before the rope runs out, they build a belay station. The follower is tied in to the bottom of the rope and cleans the protection as they climb.
The process then repeats as you and your partner make your way higher in elevation. Once at the top, you either rappel down or hike off.
This type of climbing can be either very terrifying or very calming, and sometimes both. Getting started is a daunting process and it’s hard to know where to begin.
Multi pitch trad climbing is inherently more complex than whatever climbing you currently do, and is therefore inherently more dangerous— more moving parts means more can go wrong. Following these steps will help guide you into each stage of learning, but it is ultimately up to you to be sure you receive the proper training to mitigate the risk as much as possible.
If I could give you one piece of advice before we get started, it would be to acknowledge the inherent risks and know when to bail, descend, and call it for the day, as well as all of your options for how and when to safely do so. If you are confident in this, you can achieve a lot with this sport.
A Solid Foundation for Multi Pitch Trad Climbing
Since you’ve set multi pitch trad climbing as your goal, I’m going to assume you have at least some basic climbing experience.
You have a harness and shoes, you can lead belay safely, and have a bit of experience leading sport climbs. That’s about how much experience I had when the ideas of multi pitch climbing and traditional climbing showed up on my radar.
I watched a few Reel Rock episodes and decided I wanted to learn how to extend my adventure higher than one pitch. Multi pitch trad climbing quickly became the goal.
The only thing left to do was to start start accumulating trad gear and asking around and taking steps toward safely accomplishing my first multi pitch trad climb.
Along the way, I realized I could break down my training into easy hurdles and create a step-by-step guide to help explain to others how to do the same thing as straightforward and efficiently as possible, as well as include things I wish I knew before embarking on certain steps.
Contrary to what you might think, the first step is not learning to place gear. That will come in time. Setting a good foundation in safety, technique, and efficiency will be important to have when you place your first piece of protection on lead.
Step 1: Climb Outside on Varied Terrain
The first step towards your first multi pitch trad climb is to climb outside on varied terrain as often as possible.
The first step to a successful outdoor climb— especially a very long climb— is to climb outside as much as you can. Gaining experience and endurance in many styles on many types of rocks will help your confidence and technique on unknown terrain, which you’re sure to encounter frequently.
You can probably get pretty used to overhangs and positive holds in the gym, but cracks and slab climbs are a bit trickier to find on artificial walls.
When I began trad climbing, I quickly discovered that no many how many videos I watch online, I am still terribly insecure when I’m crack climbing.
Crack climbing uses different muscles than face climbing, and the only way to improve is to climb cracks. Since I hadn’t done much crack climbing before starting to lead trad, I was in for a lot of scary moments on climbs that should have been well within my ability because it’s a style I’m not confident in.
And guess what? Most trad climbs involve some sort of crack since cracks are the perfect place for your protection. Learn to climb them and learn to love them.
Wherever you find a crack, usually slab is not far away. Many of the best trad climbing areas with splitter cracks are in places like Joshua Tree and Yosemite where the rock is granite and learning to balance on unfeatured rock is key. Learn to press from below and trust your feet or you’ll be crying on a 5.5.
Step 2: Lead and Fall on Sport Climbs
The second step on your journey is to get comfortable leading and falling on sport climbs with a rating of at least 5.9.
In terms of difficulty, ideally, you should try to lead harder than 5.9 and take falls on progressively less overhung routes. You may never be fully comfortable above the bolt on unstable or slabby terrain, but I guarantee the fall on a classic sport climb will be prettier and feel more secure than a fall on trad gear.
Practicing falls will help calm your mind on sections above gear where the climbing is more difficult than you’d expect.
As a new trad climber, I quickly discovered that most of the climbs worth doing (i.e. popular, interesting, lots of placements to practice) start around 5.5 to 5.6 at the very easiest, and many of those are sandbagged and more… adventurous… than the typical sport climber is accustomed to.
The best part is that you probably won’t know which are sandbagged or run out until you’re on lead halfway up the wall because whoever graded them most likely did way harder and scarier stuff back in the day. I’ve been on my fair share of “5.6s” that felt more like 5.9s. In addition, most of these climbs are crack climbs since that’s where you have reliable placements.
I also discovered that I’m not very good at crack climbing— a weakness that many sport climbers share.
Even on routes with accurate difficulty ratings, you will still be faced with run outs. By nature, multi pitch trad routes will be more run out if only for efficiency’s sake.
Placing gear every seven feet will inevitably limit how far you can climb vertically due to the time to both find placements and clean said placements. At first, you will not have confidence in your placements either, so even moves that feel secure above the bolt on sport climbs will make you second guess your climbing ability above your own gear.
Some of my first trad climbing experiences were at Joshua Tree National Park. I’m capable of leading 5.11 sport and I almost bailed off of a 5.5 “beginner” trad route there.
Due to the inevitability of unexpected challenge, aim to lead 5.5-5.6 trad at first, but make sure you are comfortable leading sport climbs at a much higher level to help manage fear and still make good decisions during those unexpected situations.
Step 3: Anchor Building, Cleaning, and Rappelling
The third step is learning and becoming confident with sport anchor building, cleaning, and rappelling skills.
These three skills are critical to your safety as well as your partner’s in multi pitch trad climbing especially, but also single pitch sport routes. This is also the time when most fatal accidents happen. Learn these skills and learn them well.
Sometimes it can be challenging to find a teacher, or the desire to ask a more skilled climbing partner to show you, but most of us are happy to show you the ropes. If not, maybe find a new climbing partner.
Once you’ve been shown what to do, get a second opinion. Many climbing skills are spread through word of mouth, and a climber that seems to be more skilled might have learned from someone who wasn’t.
There are good resources to be found in books and Youtube videos that can supplement your in-person lessons.
These are the Steps I Took
First, I highly recommend reading Advanced Rock Climbing by Bob Gaines.
It covers everything from tying in on top rope to aid climbing. It took all of the sporadic lessons I’d been taught at various times by various people and comprehensibly explained everything clearly and concisely. Read it. Understand it. Practice it. This book was a critical source of information for my climbing progression.
Next, watch the videos I linked below.
Then, head outside with skilled climbers to gain more insight and advice.
Lastly, practice often. Build a legit anchor instead of using quick draws. Offer to clean. Rappel instead of lower to get it locked into your brain and muscle memory.
More information on each skill as well as useful resources for learning them can be found below.
Sport Anchor Building
Realistically, at this point in your climbing, you should be able to safely and efficiently build a safe anchor setup, clean it when you are done, and rappel safely.
If you’ve gotten away with placing two opposing draws as the anchor thus far, or even worse— top roping through fixed gear, now is the chance to brush up on your sport anchor building skills. You’ll need it for every step moving forward.
Learn to build a variety of sport anchors using both slings and cordalettes. Get comfortable with the acronym SERENE-SA.
My favorite anchor is a quad anchor setup. You can use it on any 2-point anchor, and since it utilizes a cordalette doubled over, you can take it apart and create a longer anchor if need be.
The quad anchor is especially useful during multi pitches due to the plethora of places you can safely clip in and belay from as well as the versatility of the gear if you need it for another purpose.
Cleaning a Sport Anchor
After climbing, you should be able to clean your anchor safely.
Get yourself a PAS with a locking carabiner and a second biner as backup. Always use a backup.
There have been too many incidents while cleaning that could have been avoided with a little bit of redundancy.
Always tie knots to avoid dropping your rope if you must untie. Always weight the gear you plan to trust with your life before unclipping anything. And always rappel in areas where the gear is worn and requires it.
Rappelling Safely
For places where lowering is discouraged due to worn gear, you should learn to rappel with a friction hitch (e.g. auto block, prusik, or klemheist) in the event of emergency, or more commonly in the event that you must sort out a snag on the way down.
Snags are common, so protect yourself accordingly and prepare to potentially go hands-free as a last resort.
Always use a friction hitch (they are easy to make and cheap to find), and always tie stopper knots in the ends of your rope to avoid the unlikely (but unfortunately all too common) scenario of rapping off the end of your rope.
Useful Resources
Here you can find resources I found very useful during my climbing progression:
Books
Advanced Rock Climbing: Mastering Sport and Trad Climbing
Videos
Step 4: Belaying from Above
The fourth step on your journey from single pitch sport to multi pitch trad climbing is learning belaying from above.
This is a skill that everyone said was so simple. However, I couldn’t for the life of me find anyone to actually show me how to do it.
In my opinion, the easiest belay device to use is a Grigri, but I bring an ATC with guide mode capabilities as a backup in case I do something really dumb like drop my belay device. I use the ATC for rappelling anyway, so it serves a dual purpose.
Learn to belay from the anchor, and how to lower or haul someone up safely with your respective device. Belaying from the anchor removes the follower’s force from you and makes it much easier to belay.
In addition, the physics of lowering are different when the belay device is upside down, and you might need to add carabiners to redirect the rope for friction. Practice these skills on short single pitch climbs where you can easily see and hear your follower.
One more piece of advice: the clove hitch is your friend. It replaces the need for a PAS in most scenarios by providing an adjustable but reliable tether to the anchor without need for extra gear.
Learn to clove hitch in with one hand, and your life will be 100x easier when belaying from above.
Here are a couple videos that may help you wrap your head around this skill before being shown in person:
Step 5: Multi Pitch Sport Climbing
The fifth step to multi pitch trad climbing is multi pitch sport climbing.
You are halfway to your goal! Now you can start taking on some longer climbs and higher adventures!
After you have the sport climbing basics dialed in, it’s time to practice piecing them together on a short sport multi pitch so you can focus on efficiency.
Choose a route that involves multiple rappels for the descent so that you can practice swapping rappels and pulling the rope while clipped in to an anchor. This step should allow you to dial in the process and timing without having to worry about placing your own gear and building complex anchor systems on a time crunch.
My personal favorite moderate multi pitch sport climb near me is Spontaneous Order (5.9+) located at The Fortress above Ojai, California. Check your local guidebooks or ask your local climbing gym employees for some local recommendations near you!
My Biggest Challenge Multi Pitch Trad Climbing
For me, the most challenging part of multi pitch climbing was actually knowing what supplies to bring in my pack and how long certain steps take me to complete. Those two factors have a huge effect on everything else.
Luckily, you can figure most of them out while on a sport climb. Really start asking yourself questions.
How much water is too heavy?
What do I wish I brought?
What do I wish I left behind?
How long does it take me to reflake the rope and set up a belay?
What do we do if we can’t hear or see each other?
Are my shoes comfortable enough for hours on the rock?
At what point should I call it and descend?
What would I do if my partner is injured, if I were injured, if I drop my belay device?
You should answer all of these questions before adding pounds of trad gear and minutes of time to every pitch. You will learn that inefficiency adds up and may be the reason you have to bail off and leave gear behind before the top.
My Most Useful Tips for a Successful Multi Pitch Climb
My main tips for transitioning from single pitch to multi pitch sport are things I learned along the way but was never taught.
Stay organized. Flake the rope neatly to prepare for belaying the next pitch.
Be consistent. Do you usually pull the rope up before or after you put the follower on belay? Think from the follower’s point of view. They might be expecting to be on belay when they feel the rope pull tight, especially in a scenario where they can’t hear you. The next tip also helps avoid this scenario.
Establish a plan with your belayer while on the ground. Know what to expect at each step, how to identify a problem, and what to do if something goes wrong. Part of this is establishing nonverbal cues (i.e. rope tugs) with your belayer ahead of time in case of a loss of ability to see or hear them. We’ve started bringing handheld radios and it makes a HUGE difference.
Also, be sure to clip into the anchor as your first piece of protection to minimize upward force and reduce risk of a factor two fall. Okay, this one I was taught and thankfully didn’t have to figure out on my own.
Step 6: Learn to Build Gear Anchors
The sixth step for multi pitch trad climbing is signing up for a trad anchor building class and putting it into practice.
Whenever I’m asked how to learn to trad climb, this is my short answer:
There is no governing body for how to teach climbing. AMGA is the closest thing to it in the US. Most people learn from friends which is an incredibly accessible yet incredibly dangerous part of climbing culture.
As a beginner, it is difficult to gauge someone’s ability and regard for safety. Your partner could be fully qualified to show you the ropes, or they could have learned to place gear from a friend who learned from a friend who learned from a friend who fell to their death in JTree because they didn’t know how to properly place gear.
That being said, friends are a valuable resource for learning and motivation in your climbing progression. However, due to the inherent risk of learning from friends, take their advice respectfully with a grain of salt. Listen to all the advice, but also add a climbing course to your repertoire of climbing knowledge.
Who Did I Learn From?
As a southern California local, friends recommended signing up through Vertical Adventures Rock Climbing Guides— founded by Bob Gaines, author of multiple AMGA manuals.
I can definitely say that the guides are very knowledgable and flexible and I left with a ton of knowledge and new appreciation for the craft. Only then did I feel adequately prepared to dip my toes into the art of traditional climbing.
Practice Your New Skills
The best way to get used to placing gear and building anchors from scratch is to practice building three to four point anchors in random cracks on the ground. Get creative with different types of gear.
Once you feel confident with both horizontal and vertical placements, take it up a notch and build anchors on gear at the top of climbs that have a walk off. From there, you can really build those crack climbing skills (step 1) by top roping from the anchor you just built. Attach your personal anchor to gear as soon as you can.
Once finished, be sure to double check that your rope is on the ground before walking back to the base, or rappel to fix any snags.
Step 7: Mock Lead and Follow as Often as You Can
The seventh step for multi pitch trad climbing is to mock lead and follow an experienced leader as often as you possibly can.
Mock Leading Practice for Multi Pitch Trad Climbing
Take those top ropes you’ve set and try to place gear while climbing! For a more realistic challenge, coax your belayer to leave a bit of slack in the line.
Quickly identifying what piece will work where and what size to grab whilst precariously holding yourself to the wall with one arm and sketchy feet is a skill worth practicing. You’ll soon be able to look ahead and determine a comfortable stance for your next placement and opportunistically place a piece or two before a difficult looking or run out section.
Additionally, you’ll quickly realize the best placements for gear are also usually the best placements for hands and feet, and how to combat kicking your own gear out of the wall.
Lots of valuable lessons can be learned while on the safety of a top rope!
Following Multi Pitch Trad Climbs
If you’re lucky enough to have a multi pitch trad climbing friend, buy them as much beer as it takes to follow them up the wall as much as possible.
See where they place gear as you clean. Start thinking about how you’d place the same gear, and if you’d change anything if you were the leader to make things easier for the follower.
Get used to being high up on the wall while having to troubleshoot issues and make logistical decisions. For some reason, it’s a tad harder to think clearly when you’re exhausted and a wrong move can have serious consequences.
Step 8: Lead Easy Routes to Bolted Anchors
The eighth step for multi pitch trad climbing is leading easy routes with bolted anchors.
At this point, you are well on your way to your first multi pitch trad climbing adventure! However, because each step takes so long at first due to the inevitable deliberation involved with placing gear as a beginner, I’d recommend breaking the leading part down into manageable steps.
First, begin leading easy climbs that are multiple grades below what you can onsight while sport climbing. Personally, I could onsight 5.10a’s, but I chose to lead 5.5’s and easy 5.6’s while learning to lead trad, which was honestly the perfect difficulty for me.
Choose climbs with bolted anchors, so you can focus on placing gear on lead then quickly lower or rappel afterwards. You’ll get more volume in this way and can check out how your own placements held up on the way down.
Take your time, sew it up, and place as many pieces as possible for the practice.
There are even some areas with partially bolted climbs, where you might only have to place a piece or two during a run out section. Corpse Wall is one such area near me in Los Angeles. If you’re lucky enough to live near such a crag, they are great confidence-boosters and require much less heavy (and expensive) gear.
Step 9: Lead a Full Single Pitch Trad Route
The ninth step combines steps 7 and 8. This time, you’ll lead an entire single pitch on gear, build a gear anchor up top, bring up your follower to clean, and walk off.
This time, you’ll need to put all of your skills together from the bottom up. You’re essentially ready for a multi pitch trad climb, but the benefit here is that there is no time crunch.
Unlike a multi pitch trad climbing trip where you’ll have to be quick and efficient to complete your goal, here you will have the chance to sort it all out before you start doubling or tripling the work load.
Give yourself a full day to find single pitch climbs where you can go through every step until you get your rhythm down. Identify areas you could improve and try to be more efficient on each consecutive climb.
Step 10 of Your Multi Pitch Trad Climbing Journey: Add More Pitches!
After nailing the past nine “easy” steps, you are now ready to embark on your multi pitch trad climbing adventure!
Be sure to make a plan with your partner ahead of time for every step including descent. Additionally, figure out an alternate descent if you must bail early.
Start off small and expect every pitch to taker longer than expected. You will inevitably hit snags along the way that will slow you down as you problem solve on the wall.
Finally, stick to the plan and turn-around time, and remember, bailing isn’t failing! You can always come back to try again another day!
