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North Carolina Climbing
Guides
 What we offer:
Granite Arches Climbing Guides offers private rock climbing instruction
and guiding in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Our climbing
venues are just hours from from Atlanta, Charlotte, Knoxville, Asheville,
and other large southeastern cities. Looking
Glass, Table
Rock, Linville
Gorge, Moore's
Wall, Pigeon Mountain, Whitesides,
Shortoff,
Tennessee
Wall, Mount Yonah--and other nearby mountains--can provide
a lifetime of first-class adventure right here in the southeast.
Granite Arches' intensive instruction and can help both beginning and more
advanced climbers meet their goals with maximum enjoyment, efficiency and
safety. Guided instruction is personalized and can cover beginner,
intermediate, lead climbing and rescue material. Guided
instruction and climbing is tailored to the client's goals, is highly
personalized, and is loosely organized around the following
knowledge suites:
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Intro to
Outdoor Rock Climbing:
gear overview; basic climbing movement and techniques;
belaying and ground anchors; basic risk assessment; and more.
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Top Rope Setup:
rock and tree analysis; rigging options; media selection and ERNEST
analysis; cliff side safety systems; and
more.
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Climbing I: single-point protection
workshop (nuts, sliders, cams, etc.); rope physics/selection;
rack selection and organization; reading routes, choosing placements
and riggings; avoiding zipper, z clips and backclips; learning to
control rope travel and drag; lead climbing psychology. The
course makes extensive use of mock leads with transitions into anchors. |
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Climbing II: advanced leading concepts,
theory and practice (exploiting cam angles, wedge physics, building
awareness of vector dynamics; utilizing multidirectional anchors as
URPs while leading; identifying and managing critical curvature) and
involves advanced mock leading problems. |
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Multi-pitch
Climbing: complex anchors, macro-micro
route finding, anchor selection and orientation, and more.
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Self-Rescue
I & II: belay escapes, directs, knot passes, raises, lowers, ascensions,
pick-offs, rescue theory/planning, and more. |
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Guide
Skills Course: client care, climbing with multiple clients, advanced belay
systems, advanced rappel systems, transitions, and more. |
Who we are:
Swis Stockton, head guide at Granite Arches, is an American Mountain
Guides Association (AMGA) Certified Rock Instructor (the new name for Level
1 Rock Guide), and he is an Endorsed Rock Instructor by the United
States Mountain Guides Association (USMGA).
Additionally, he has completed a UIAGM high mountain guides rescue course.
Medically, Swis has attained the highest level of both pre-hospital and
wilderness medicine training and certification available in the United
States. Swis is a current and certified Wilderness Emergency
Medical Technician/Paramedic (WEMT-P). This requires WEMT
training and NREMT paramedic certification. Finally,
Swis has completed Wilderness Advanced Life Support (WALS)
training--the highest level of wilderness medicine training offered.
No
other guide in the southeastern U.S. holds these credentials.
Swis has guided extensively in the U.S.,
Ecuador, and Peru on rock, snow and ice. Additionally, Swis has
taught climbing for
Red Top Meadows Center in Jackson Wyoming, guided for North Carolina Outward
Bounds School, and developed and implemented the climbing program for the University of Georgia Recreation Department. To
check rates and book a climbing date with us, click here. Click
here to learn more about our
guiding and climbing trips in North Carolina and the surrounding
mountains. |
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