Smith Rock Oregon Climbing Courses

Smith Rock State Park Rock Climbing Courses and Guided Experiences

Get ready to learn new climbing skills that will leave you excited to discover more! Learn rock climbing from AMGA certified instructors and guides. Choose a course based on the skills you want to learn. Click the date on our calendar to see which course is offered.

Single Day Courses

Beginner Rock Climbing – This course is the perfect excuse to satiate your appetite for the beautiful outdoors and take advantage of outdoor climbing. Put your bouldering to the test and get your hands onto some real rocks. It’s the perfect family and friends outing as well as the perfect opportunity to learn all the necessary skills to pass a top-rope belay test. Take your next Saturday off and spend it out with a Kaf instructor/guide climbing real rock with ropes and harnesses. When you’re done, congratulate yourself for breaking through the barrier of entry into rock climbing! Then continue practicing weekly at your favorite climbing gym.

Sport Lead Climbing – If you already have some climbing experience under your belt, this course is the perfect opportunity to graduate from an indoor climber to a rock climber. Learn the techniques and skills neccessary to lead sport routes, properly belay lead climbers, construct two bolt anchors, and safely clean anchors. This course will teach you everything you need to know to be a safe sport climber, including equipment, knots, and lead climbing technique. Leave the climbing gym for the rainy days and go confidently as a sport climber to explore your favorite sport climbing crags.

Traditional Climbing Fundamentals – Beyond the world of climbing gyms and bolted sport climbing is traditional climbing. It allows climbers to explore the vertical world without the need for pre-placed bolts and hardware. This style of climbing opens up vast new areas and an abundance of vertical terrain to climbers seeking to diversify their skill set. Kaf guides will teach you the critical foundations to start your development in traditional climbing. This course will teach you how to place active and passive protection, clean trad gear, build solid anchors, rack up for a climb, safely clean anchors, and rappel. In addition, you will get to practice crack climbing techniques and learn advanced climbing movement that will facilitate your climbing in this new discipline.

Trad Lead Climbing – Leave the quickdraws at home for this one! Further your rock skills by learning as your instructor educates you on placing traditional protection in cracks, constructing EARNEST gear anchors, and leading cracks. You will leave feeling empowered to climb cracks at Index, explore vertical terrain above Washington Pass, and adventure into the backcountry of the North Cascades. Start your tick-list because you’ll have a whole new set of skills as a traditional climber!

Two-Day Courses

Kaf’s Smith Rock Weekend trip is the perfect opportunity to discover a new skill or develop ones you have been practicing, all in a stunning high desert setting. This course is run with an open format, letting students focus on specific skills they want to develop under the professional guidance and mentorship from Kaf instructors. For both climbing days, instructors will take students to crags that best suit their objectives, spending the day custom tailoring skills practice and real-world scenario applications that can best foster student growth. Expect action-packed clinics that will leave you tired but satisfied at the end of a good day.

Multi Pitch Climbing Course – Build the technical knowledge and experience to venture farther up the rock walls. This course is intended to build on your knowledge of sport climbing and traditional gear to introduce strategy about climbing multiple rope lengths off the ground. This course helps both sport and traditional climbers build a skillset to lead and follow multi-pitch routes. With coaching and instruction, you learn the skills necessary to lead and manage partners efficiently in the multi-pitch setting. You will learn about knots used for multi-pitch climbing, advanced anchor techniques, efficient belay transitions, rope management, belaying from above, communication on multi-pitch climbs, managing multiple rappels, basic self-rescue and more in this action-packed two-day course. Leave this course ready to take your climbing to new heights as you gain the skills and confidence to take on bigger routes.

Rock Rescue – Whether you climb 5.12 sport routes, moderate alpine routes, or typically just follow your partner, it’s crucial that you know how to get out of a rock climbing emergency. This course is intended for all multi-pitch climbers who lead and follow, as well as sport and traditional climbers who are interested in climbing farther above the ground. Technical rescue skills are critical for your safety and enhance your enjoyment and confidence every time you leave the ground. Continual practice and refinement of these skills is necessary in order to master them before an accident occurs.

Custom Courses – Don’t see one that’s right for you? We love running custom rock courses to meet your group’s needs. Please contact us about group rates and custom courses.

The Location

Smith Rock State Park has 3,000 sport, trad, and multi-pitch routes. It is a world-famous climbing destination located in the heart of Central Oregon, near the town of Terrebonne, close to Bend. Famous for incredible rock, warm weather, and stellar scenery, there isn’t much more that you’ll be left wanting from Smith Rock.

Sport climbing was revolutionized here, the first place in the United States where rock faces were bolted, and to this day, it continues to be a world-renowned rock climbing destination with something for everyone.

With stellar face-climbing, strenuous crack climbing, and breathtaking views of the Oregon high desert you’re sure to get your fill of climbing. If you are ready to rock climb in a world-class destination, these are great options for you.