Mountain Madness to offer AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Course

Pro­fes­sion­al Amer­i­can Moun­tain Guides Asso­ci­a­tion (AMGA) train­ings and Moun­tain Madness

With the grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of rock climb­ing as a pro­fes­sion­al progam activ­i­ty in sum­mer camps, high schools Uni­ver­si­ties and adven­ture / lead­er­ship pro­grams, the demand for qual­i­fied instruc­tors has increased ten fold in the last ten years. As with many seem­ing­ly high risk activ­i­ties, if facil­i­tat­ed by trained and qual­i­fied instruc­tors, the risks involved can be manged and the risks min­i­mized. The Amer­i­can Moun­tain Guides Asso­ci­a­tion’s ​“Sin­gle Pitch Instruc­tor course (SPI)” is becom­ing rec­og­nized as the stan­dard train­ing for rock climb­ing instruc­tors. The core com­po­nent is a 27 hour cur­ricu­lum that focus­es on all aspects of sin­gle pitch rock climb­ing instruc­tion and res­cue. Par­tic­i­pants can then choose to get cer­ti­fied by par­tic­i­pat­ing in a 16hr two day assessment.

Anchor instruc­tion. Mark Gun­log­son photo

In 2013 Moun­tain Mad­ness will be offer­ing four SPI dates; in Leav­en­worth Wash­ing­ton (6÷3−5 & 9÷23−25) and in Red Rocks Neva­da (3÷25−27 & 10÷17−18 Exams 3÷28−29 & 10÷19−20). Exams can be arranged on cus­tom basis in Wash­ing­ton (Leav­en­worth, Maza­ma, or Mt Erie). For more infor­ma­tion vis­it us on the web AMGA Sin­gle Pitch Instruc­tor course or con­tact Jaime Pol­litte North Amer­i­can Pro­gram Direc­tor at NW@​mountainmadness.​com. Our guides will be in Red Rocks through­out March, so join us for some great cus­tom rock climb­ing trips as well! 

Res­cue prac­tice. Mark Gun­log­son photo

His­to­ry

In 1998 the AMGA cre­at­ed the Top Rope Site Man­ag­er Pro­gram specif­i­cal­ly to address the needs of pro­fes­sion­als that teach climb­ing in the sin­gle pitch envi­ron­ment. After three years of cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment and input from climb­ing instruc­tors across the coun­try and from Climb­ing Instruc­tor Asso­ci­a­tions over­seas we have upgrad­ed the pro­gram to become the AMGA Sin­gle Pitch Instruc­tor Pro­gram in 2008. The Sin­gle Pitch Instruc­tor Pro­gram bet­ter suits the needs of today’s climb­ing instruc­tors and is designed to enable instruc­tors to ​‘pro­fi­cient­ly facil­i­tate and instruct the sport of rock climb­ing in a sin­gle pitch set­ting’. The three day SPI course mod­ule cov­ers all the required skills sets for man­ag­ing a sin­gle pitch site from the base or top of the cliff where can­di­dates can either access the top by non tech­ni­cal ter­rain or by leading.