Women's Climbing Weekend
Friday, April 26th - Sunday, April 28th 2024All-Inclusive Climbing Training Weekends Taught by and for Climbers Who Identify as Women, Femme, and Non-Binary People
Climbing Education for Women, Femme, and Non-binary People
Why women-specific training?
Every time we offer women-only events, the energy feels unique from coed learning environments. Empowering. Open. Safe. Inspiring. Our female instructors climb with guys often - and we enjoy it! - but there is an undeniable charm and power to women-only training.
WCW gatherings bring together climbers of all abilities for learning, connection, and growth. The clinics offer specific curricula to gather around and organize ourselves, and the sum is always more than its parts. Sizable women’s gatherings build connections, grows relationships, and sparks new ideas.
Our Women’s Weekends include clinics, camping, food, and evening events hosted by DLCG and guest instructors. We’re excited to offer this instruction at a great value while providing an opportunity for women of similar interests to spend time together.
Nutshell Summary
- Devils Lake State Park
- Fri 4/26 - Sun 4/28
- $450 all-inclusive
- No experience necessary
- Climbing equipment provided
- Camping & meals included
Sign Up Details
The event includes camping, meals, and activities at Skillet Creek Campground and two full-day climbing clinics at Devils Lake State Park. There are clinic offerings for all levels of experience and prior knowledge. Our instructors are great at teaching to each student's needs, offering demonstrations, support and challenges to help push your skills and knowledge forward, wherever you are on your climbing learning curve. Participants should identify as woman, nonbinary, or genderqueer and be 16 years or older.
Scholarships
Limited scholarships are available based on financial need. To apply, fill out our Scholarship Application Form.
Cancellations
Please familiarize yourself with our Cancellation Policies before booking. Women’s Climbing Weekend is a special, limited-enrollment event that will run rain or shine. Registration is non-refundable unless the event sells out and we can find another climber to take your place.
We recommend purchasing trip insurance to avoid losing money in the event of an emergency or a change to your travel plans. Forbes has a great trip insurance search tool for finding the right option for your situation.
$450 total tuition
$100 deposit, $300 balance due 45 days before
Choose your clinics after you add this product to your online cart!
If you are registering for more than one participant, please add one person to your cart at a time.
Clinic Offerings
The event includes two full-day clinics. All climbing equipment is provided, though we encourage you to bring and use your own if you have it.
Clinics run approximately 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM Saturday and 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM Sunday. We will gather in the morning at Skillet Creek after breakfast and caravan to Devils Lake State Park.
Clinic offerings are available for all experience levels, from someone trying it for the first time to the wizened multipitch adventurer. Please read each clinic description carefully and consider the course pre-requisites prior to enrolling. With limited space available in this event, switching clinics after enrollment may not be possible.
Have questions about which clinics best fit you? We’re happy to discuss your clinic choices! Reach out to your Camp Host, Carrie Van Lanen, with questions. No matter where you’re at in your climbing journey, rest assured everyone will have ample opportunity for learning, practice and personal, specific feedback. .
You’ll get to choose your clinic preferences during the enrollment process. Some clinics span only one day, while others span both days (traditional lead climbing). We’ll tailor the event’s clinic schedule to the clinic preferences of all participants, and you’ll receive a clinic schedule, instructor contact information, and clinic details two weeks prior to the event.
If a clinic should fail to meet a minimum enrollment of three participants, we will cancel that clinic and allow you to transfer into another available clinic. In the case of inclement weather, clinic locations and curricula are subject to change.
Course Descriptions
Open top-rope Climbing
(One or two days)
Join us for a fun, casual day of guided top-rope climbing. Instructors will set up a variety of routes for participants to climb. Participants will learn to belay, if needed, and spend the day climbing and building community with a supportive group of women. All experience levels welcome!
Prerequisites: No prior experience necessary
Traditional Lead Climbing
(two days)
This two-day course is for those interested in learning more about traditional lead climbing in a safe, supportive environment. You don’t need to have any prior lead climbing experience - or even be ready to lead - before taking this course.
We teach all lead climbing curricula on "mock-lead," meaning the leader is always connected to a top-rope system in addition to a lead rope. Meanwhile, your instructor ascends next to you on a fixed line, enabling in-the-moment feedback, consultation and reassurance.
This course will review traditional gear placement and anchor systems, and build fundamental lead climbing skills. We will emphasize placing solid gear on lead and artfully belaying a lead climber.
Prerequisites: Climbers should be familiar with traditional protection and have some experience placing gear and building traditional anchors. Students with little or no anchor building experience should take an Anchors clinic first. *Note: This course does not include or focus on sport lead climbing.
Intro to traditional Climbing Anchors
(One day)
Learn foundational concepts of traditional anchor building in this one-day course. You will learn about fundamental concepts, materials, knots, and techniques that go into building anchors to use in traditional top-rope or lead climbing contexts. The one-day course will focus mostly on applying these concepts to simple anchors using natural protection (trees, boulders).
Plan on lots of anchor practice, but little actual climbing.
Prerequisites: Some previous climbing experience (indoor or outdoor) recommended
Intermediate traditional Climbing Anchors
(One day)
Advance your anchor building skills in this one day course. Students will build on the fundamental concepts presented in Intro to Traditional Climbing Anchors, expanding to more complex anchoring systems. Students will learn how to identify, place, evaluate, remove and incorporate traditional hardware (cams, nuts, etc.) into anchor builds.
Plan on lots of anchor practice, but little actual climbing.
Prerequisites: Some climbing experience recommended. Students should know basic and intermediate knots and have familiarity with traditional anchor building concepts (Intro to Traditional Anchors, Anchors I or similar).
Bouldering
(one day)
Bouldering is a type of rock climbing where the climbs, or “problems,” are shorter than typical climbing routes (usually 5 to 20 feet high). Instead of ropes, bouldering uses spotters and thick pads to protect falls.
For a group, bouldering tends to be more dynamic and fluid than roped climbing, since it’s easy to hop on and off a problem, “working the problem” with the group to hone technique. We’ll provide instruction on pad placement, spotting, falling, and climbing technique, with plenty of time to just have fun! All experience levels welcome.
Prerequisites: No prior experience necessary
Multi-pitch Climbing Skills
(one day)
This course will give climbers an opportunity to explore what it means to be a competent and efficient multi-pitch climber. You will get something out of this course whether you are an aspiring multi-pitch leader or want to learn how to follow like a boss. We will cover equipment, belaying, rappelling, risk management, route selection, and more based on the experience and goals of the participants.
Prerequisites: Climbers should have some previous outdoor climbing experience, familiarity with sport or trad anchors, and be competent belayers.
advanced Rock Rescue
(one day)
Learn to identify and mitigate common risks and the skills necessary to safely handle some common problems that can arise when rock climbing. Whether you drop your rappel device, need to lower or raise a stuck follower, or need to ascend your rope, this course offers the tools needed to take care of the problem before it becomes an emergency that requires outside help. Truly a “must-have skill” set for all self-guided climbers.
Prerequisites: Climbers should have some previous outdoor climbing experience, have familiarity with sport or trad anchors, and have familiarity with rappelling. A solid understanding of belaying with an assisted braking device such as the Petzl Gri-Gri is required.
becoming a sELF-GUIDED CLIMBer
(one day)
Learn the skills it takes to become a self-guided top-rope climber at Devils Lake. Whether you’re looking for ways to efficiently contribute to your climbing party, or you’re hoping to lead a team of less experienced climbers, this course is for you! We will cover what & how to pack, navigation (locating your crag & climbs, choosing the best masterpoint, and managing cliff top safety in difficult terrain), rappelling, efficient transitions, risk management considerations, and more based on the experience and goals of the participants. This course will allow for some climbing time in addition to skills practice.
Prerequisites: Some previous climbing experience (indoor or outdoor) recommended
Instructor Team
We will assign instructors to specific courses as the Women's Weekend nears, but you can meet our guide team below.
Weekend logistics
Camping
Camping is included with registration for the Women’s Climbing Weekend. Join us Friday and Saturday at Skillet Creek Campground for food, events, camaraderie, and conversation around the campfire.
Participants should bring their own tent and camping equipment. Space is limited, so no RVs, please. Participants will need to break camp before clinics on Sunday.
MEALS
We include meals in the weekend event to provide an opportunity to gather and build community and to allow participants to focus on fun and learning.
Registration includes a casual dinner on Friday, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. We can adjust to meet any dietary restrictions, just let us know ahead of time!
ADDITIONAL EVENTS
In addition to our clinics, Women’s Climbing Weekend also includes opportunities to continue learning in the evenings back at the campground. On Friday night, there will be a panel discussion and Q&A with Devils Lake Climbing Guides’ women instructors. We’ll talk about our climbing journeys, aspirations, and challenges.
On Saturday morning, we will offer a sunrise gentle yoga session. Participants should bring their own mat or blanket. On Saturday night, we’ll offer several mini-clinics for another opportunity to learn new skills with a new group of women
Capacity
Each course has a limited capacity to allow for personalized instruction and risk mitigation. Specific capacity varies by course offering, but our participant to instructor ratio never exceeds 6:1.
Clinics with three or fewer enrollees may be canceled. We will reach out to you three weeks prior to the event if your chosen clinic(s) need to be canceled due to low-enrollment. You will then have the option to change clinics or receive a refund.
We will limit capacity to 50 people, total.