TRG - Top Rope Guide (Climb/ Abseil) qualification.
As part of our ongoing qualification review process our TRG qualification has been reviewed and revamped, with a few changes to improve the quality, relevance and accessibility of the qualification.
There were a wide variety of factors that were taken into account when looking at this qualification, some of those were,
- The majority of climbing guiding delivered in Australia is at this level, delivered to people as their first experience of outdoor climbing
- A significant amount of the areas used to deliver TRG type activities have been developed for this purpose, and have in-situ anchors (bolts, bollards, natural features etc.)
- The qualification was compared to similar national and international qualifications
- What truly makes a high quality, enjoyable and productive Top Rope session, that gets participants enthused about the outdoors and climbing activities?
With the above considerations in mind the whole qualification was reconsidered and a few specific changes made, these changes and some of the thought processes behind them are outlined below.
- Removing the need to use Trad placed protection - A significant number of the areas used for top rope climbing activities do not need traditional placed protection to create anchors; by removing it from the qualification it makes the qualification more accessible and achievable for more people, and more relevant. The anchors covered in the qualification will be in-situ anchors (such as bolts, bollards, threads, trees, large natural features). Removing the use of trad placed protection also provides an entry pathway to the ACIA scheme that reflects the broader climbing community and is not trad climbing dependent. Note - if people operate in areas where trad placed protection is required then the SPG qualification would be the most appropriate, use of trad placed protection requires significant experience and judgement which realistically needs people to be trad lead climbing to gain the level of experience to do so properly.
- Extending the training to four days - Many peoples first experience of outdoor climbing will be through some form of top rope session, delivered by a TRG qualified person, so we wanted to ensure that these sessions would be of a really high quality, by extending the training to four days it allows the time for the aspirant TRG guides to develop a better level of understanding and skills around what climbing should be about (climbing and moving on rock!). By developing a better understanding of teaching and coaching climbing movement, and games and activities related to that it enables better quality sessions to be run. The additional time also allows for a bigger range of systems (different belay systems and set up, alternate approaches) to be explored and developed. Training courses should be about broadening knowledge and understanding and inspiring people to want to further develop, this extended training will achieve that.
- Specific problem-solving skills - Having the ability to assist participants who are having issues, or solve problems is essential for all climbing guides, use of good systems, set ups, and supervision though can pre-empt and prevent the vast majority of issues. The single pitch top rope environment is relatively controllable, and the skills needed to solve genuine issues are well known. The problem-solving skills taught at this level will be specific and realistic ones that link to issues that could genuinely happen, strategies such as, approaching from the bottom to assist clients, approaching from the top to assist clients, being able to lower, or hoist a short distance, understanding how choices of belay systems affect these options.
- Extending the assessment to two days - As an entry level qualification, that will allow successful candidates to be delivering many peoples first outdoor climbing experiences, we want to ensure that high quality inspiring sessions are being delivered. Extending the assessment to two days allows the time for assessment candidates to demonstrate their full range of competence both in specific technical context and in a holistic guiding context, fully showing their ability to apply judgement and decision making. For candidates who are well prepared and practiced this should allow them to leave the assessment with a high degree of confidence in their abilities, and confidence that the assessor thinks they are a quality TRG also.
There are other small changes also, the broad intent of all of it is to improve what is delivered through the qualification scheme, further information on the qualification can be downloaded from the website (TRG syllabus and guidance notes) from the TRG training page.
So, if you have an interest in climbing, and wish to guide top rope climbing and abseil activities in single pitch environments, then this could be the qualification that you have been looking for. There are many reasons to do an ACIA qualification and be part of the ACIA, get in touch and get involved.
