Date: Sunday, August 6th

Time: 8:30am-3:30pm

Location: Vent 5 Climbing Area, CA-1, Stinson Beach, CA 94970

Course Description 

Flash Foxy’s Intro to Outdoor Top Roping* course is great for everyone from first-timers to experienced indoor climbers. Top roping is one of the most accessible forms of climbing, and this course will give you all the tools you need to get started or build on the knowledge you already have. We'll cover basic outdoors skills, technical systems, and all the tips and tricks you need to have the best outdoor climbing experience possible.

*Top roping is roped climbing with an anchor already established at the top of the climb. Falls are virtually inconsequential since the rope will catch you almost immediately.

Outcomes 

By the end of the course, students will:

- Have a working knowledge of key equipment, including climbing shoes, harnesses, helmets, chalk, climbing rope, carabiners, and belay devices.

- Experience and participate in common practices, including stretching, warming up, reading a route, and working a route.

- Be proficient belaying a top rope climber with an assisted-braking device, including setting up to belay, taking and giving slack, and lowering a climber.

- Be proficient climbing up and lowering down a route, including tying-in with the figure eight follow-through and doing system checks with their belayer.

- Practice and receive coaching on basic and intermediate climbing movement.

- Be knowledgeable about top roping jargon.
Connect with other climbers interested in top roping.

Prerequisites 

Experience top roping or bouldering indoors is helpful but not required.

The Crag

Vent 5 in Stinson Beach is a seaside cliff with routes ranging from 30 to 60 feet in height and has a high concentration of moderate sport routes.

Flash Foxy is partnering with Vertical Pursuits, who is providing permits, insurance and gear to facilitate the day. There will be 3 guides leading the group - Erik (Vertical Pursuits), Narinda (Flash Foxy) and Alyson (Stanford University).

Guests are highly encouraged to carpool as parking is limited and can get busy on the weekends. Guests are also encouraged to bring their own water, food and sun lotion.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to walk to Vent 5 from the Stinson Beach parking lot. The trail has quite a bit of loose dirt and rock hopping, so we highly recommend wearing closed toed shoes for this portion. Anyone with disabilities that limits mobility may have a difficult time getting down to the area. Also, poison oak exists on both sides of the trail, so we suggest wearing long pants to avoid getting the oil on our skin. 

About Flash Foxy 

Flash Foxy originated to empower women climbers and offer a virtual space to connect over climbing, being outside together and building community. The inaugural Women’s Climbing Festival in 2016 helped the group establish an alternate climbing space in real life that did not center cisgender men. The climbing community is not static and Flash Foxy has adapted over the years to meet the needs of its membership as they grow, change and continue to self-actualize. 

Presently, Flash Foxy stands with the women and genderqueer community - including but not limited to gender non-conforming folks - who need a space to pursue their love of the sport without having to deal with historic barriers to access.