Follow Clare’s journey in learning the basics of trad climbing on a five day-course with instructor, Alice Kerr. Clare has been climbing for three years, starting off indoors and more recently sport climbing outdoors in north Wales and Spain. In part 1 of this series, and their first meeting, Clare explains what she’d like to get out of the course. Before they head to the crag, Alice covers basic climbing checks, belaying using a manual belay device and introduces double rope technique.