Learning to Climb

There are a couple of ways to start climbing: you can come with an experienced friend who must show you the core skills that climbers have to know; or take one of our novice courses.

For concise information on who can supervise novice climbers at the Castle follow the path to "Who can climb here".

Alternatively, The Castle runs several novice climbing courses, each requiring different time commitment & depth of subject coverage. We run a Four-Week Introduction, a Two-Week Introduction, an Afternoon Introduction and an Off-Peak Introduction, all aimed at novices. For more information on these and to book a course, please look at our Adult Courses.

Post - Course Options

Once you've learned the basic skills of climbing, your journey has only just begun and after finishing your course you have a myriad of options:

You can join any of the many climbing clubs operating in the London area.

You could consolidate your climbing and then take one of our more advanced courses focusing on movement in climbing, or lead climbing.

The Castle also operates Women With Altitude, a free service offered to registered female climbers and hosted on an informal basis by a female member of staff.

We also run The Session which is a co-ed facilitated free session for all members of the Castle.