Zion National Park and the surrounding Southern Utah and St. George areas comprise a diverse rock climbing mecca.  Thousands of climbs at varying locations provide amazing year round rock climbing of all styles, lengths, and difficulties.  It is a perfect place to take a rock climbing course and build upon your skills and experience. At Zion Mountain School we provide a range of instructional rock climbing courses that are suited for climbers of all levels and abilities.

Christine and her son Brian came to Zion to take our Top Rope Rock Climbing Course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine and Brian has some experience rock climbing in a gym and some climbing outdoors.  They were interested in learning the skills needed to safely climb on their own outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This two day course is for the climber with basic climbing and belaying skills looking to learn the skills needed to safely top rope climb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian and Christine got lots of experience setting up anchors on climbing routes and then getting climb on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We visit different climbing sites in the area for more variety and hands on learning opportunities.  This course gives you the opportunity to get a lot of practice and experience under the guidance of a professional instructor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the top rope course Brian took our 2 day Lead Climbing Course and then visited some of the local rock climbing areas to climb with his mom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I first met Broni last year on a full day climbing trip. The Zion bug got into him, and decided to come back and get some more of the sweet desert sandstone. This time around, he brought Teresa. Teresa has never done a multi-pitch climb before and was both excited and anxious to give it a go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The goal was a 5 pitch route called The Barbarian, a fun mixed bolted and crack climb that is great for beginner and intermediate climbers alike. With perfect ledges good rock, and just enough exposure, it allows for an enjoyable day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After rappelling back down the route, we had enough time to climb the first pitch of Living on the Edge 5.10. This is a pretty wild route that climbs to the right of a rather larger left-leaning dihedral corner. This aspect gives you some wild exposure the whole route.

After our climbing was done we caught up over a refreshing beverage. Its always a pleasure to climb up high with new and old friends.

-Mike

 

 

 

Some cliffs that have been closed due to peregrine falcon nesting have been reopened.  As of 04/26/11 the East Temple, Mt Spry, Cable Mountain, and the Great White Throne have been reopened.  Due to active nesting sites Angels Landing, Mt Issac, Mt Kinesava, Mountain of the Sun, North Twin, Middle Fork of Taylor Creek, and Tunnel West area which included all routes west of the tunnel entrance including the Kung Fu amphitheatre.  The confluence, cragmont, and routes on Ataxia tower are not affected.  More information can be found here on the NPS website. The cliffs with active nesting sites will remained closed until sometime in June.

Zion National Park has closed the backcountry campsites in the Zion Narrows.  This is as a result of the  major flooding that occurred in December 2010.

This mainly affects people trying to use the online reservations system to book permits in advance.   It will probablly be at least a month before backcountry rangers can  assess the damage.

It is likely that some of the sites will reopen but some may need to be moved or repaired. This Zion National Park press release has more information about the closures.

Zion National Park has annual cliff closures for Peregrine Falcon Nesting.  This affects many of the popular cliffs for rock climbing in the park and include Angels Landing, Mt Kinesava, Tunnel Wall west, East Temple, Mt Spry, Issac, Mountain of the Sun, Great White Throne (climbs longer than 2 pitches), Sentinel, North Twin, and Middle Fork of Taylor Creek.  They go into effect on March 1st and get lifted in two phases.  Initially they close all cliffs with a history of nesting.  After monitoring  by park biologists they determine what cliffs have active nesting and keep those closed until the summer.  Check out our Zion Current Conditions page for more information on these closures and when they get lifted. Here is a link to the official Zion National Park press release.