Join the Appalachian Mountain Club climbing committee. An eighty year old community of local climbers. Check out the link.

http://www.amc-ny.org/recreational-activities/climbing/climbingtrainingclass

Or spend a few days with one of the excellent guide/training operations in the Gunks and not have to spend 25 trips becoming an "AMC qualified second" or be forced to join the creaky, crotchety AMC.

Oh, the AMC is not so creaky, crotchety these days. Like so many things these days it has unfortunatly become far more commercialized than it used to be. It had some good years in between and I think it still does good things. But, the post here is nothing more or less than commercial advertisement.

don't mind him. he's just spamming every climbing board he can think of

is there a Iphone app for AMC?

i support nynjtc.

I knew this was an add before I verified and this was the basis of my comment. It was more a lamment of what the AMC has become than a complaint about a single add.

Its not new news though.

Mark, I think the AMC is a nonprofit?

Spamming is when you (or more typically a bot) posts or emails in hundreds to millions of places for products that are unrelated to anything. I don't think posting the AMC climbing info to a handful of climbing boards qualifies.

The Boston AMC does a great job with their climbing training program. They take utter beginners and spit out climbers who are actually ready and somewhat aware of their own safety & participation in climbing. That just cannot be done in a three-hour gym class or in one day of guiding, with every amount of due respect to the guides. As far as I know, it's on a volunteer basis by the leaders.

I'm not an organized-group person myself, and I've never had much to do with the AMC personally, but I do have a decent amount of respect for at least the novice-training aspect of it.

My friend introduced me to a friend of hers whome she climbed with through AMC. They suggested I might be interested in the club.

I said "I don't think I would be a good Appie. I heard that the Appies insist the belayer is anchored in each and every time. Even on the ground!"

The guy went on to explain why this might be a good idea, to which I countered with "On the GROUND? When there's no real weight difference? When it's flat? You're trying to say this is reasonable???

It went on a bit, and then he said... "You know, you're right."

Surprised, I was, that I could win an old Appie over to my side of an argument. I said "No kidding! Whay would you have to anch..."

"Not about that," he interrupted. "You're right that you wouldn't make a good Appie."

Ha nice. I wonder if the gumbies that had a 20' "anchor" sling attached to the Rhodo tree stretched all the way to the middle of the carriage road were AMC i really really wish i had taken a picture >:(

I have ranted this rant before but I'm old so indulge me to make a couple of points:
1. The AMC is NOT one monolithic entity. There are numerous factions within it that offer climbing and they are mostly autonomous. So it would be more accurate to identify some behavior as "New York AMC" etc. Not that you couldn't find something to quibble about with just about all of them. The general public thinks that all climbers are dufusses while in reality we know its only the trad/sport/boulderer/ice/aid climber (take your pick) who is the dufus.
2. There is a lot of stereo-typing as a result of events that happened quite some time ago. the AMC has a lot of heavy baggage to deal with. These various internal components of the AMC are sometimes aware of this - sometimes not - some care to improve that image - some don't. But the point is that things do change.

I have been loosely associated with the Boston Chapter Mountaineering Committee and it's rock climbing instruction program (that Julie mentioned for a long time). It's been a mission of mine to "enlighten" some of the - shall we say "more set in their ways" (old farts - except few are as old as me) members for a long time. Ironically using ground anchors on the deck is one of the points I am battling (actually its more complicated - the real battle is instilling proper lead belay habits - and of course what constitutes "proper" leads to endless debate) and using a ground anchor is one issue. I think I am slowly making progress.

What fraction of accidents are attributable to poor belay technique, requiring this to be 'battled'? Not trying to be combative, just curious. We've all seen people do all sorts of dumb stuff and its usually fixed with a quiet word or two.

A person could DIE (of embarrasment) by being forced to anchor in on the flat ground, when belaying a person who weights no more than they do.

Imagine some poor n00b who was so excited after a day of gym climbing that they went online searching on how to get outdoors, only to find themselves hooked up(really - hooked up in a ground anchor).

Suppose this person actually gets bit by the climbing bug and away they go, happily leaving the protective tethered nest of their first day coach and learning the ropes as many do - through a series of climbing partners.

They excel, and are soon leading, and then leading harder routes. The girls, or boys, all clamber for their rope gunsmanship.

Then it all comes tumbling down when an image arises from the ashes of the internet... an image the person is unaware even exists. It is they - tied to a tree like a crag dog, belaying some person on Bunny.

Even the historical NY Appies were not as monolithic as the the conqueror's history would have it. Folks like Lester Germer went their own way while still being members of the club.

It seems to me that anyone trying nowadays to teach climbing is likely to end up promulgating hard and fast rules that shouldn't be hard and fast, partially because it is very difficult to teach the full range of responses that are appropriate for situations with a lot of variables.

I suspect that groups like the Appies provide a valuable service, and if some of their students find that they may have to unlearn a few things, they are still better off than those of us who learned by trial and error and had to unlearn not a few things but a whole host of things.

And, as Terrie illustrated, there is a self-selection process going on too, so no danger of those independent spirits somehow being squelched by Appie stodginess.