elevate your skills

Develop your capability & empower your adventures with specialty skills courses

The Climbing Company (formerly Melbourne Climbing School) has courses designed to teach safety skills to all levels, from absolute beginner to advanced rescue skills and these courses are suitable for both professionals and enthusiasts.

  • Rescue Skills 1-day Refresher

    Stay sharp, stay safe

    A focused one-day review of essential rescue skills for climbers who want to maintain their emergency response capabilities. Perfect for keeping your rescue techniques current and efficient.


    What will we cover?

    – Quick review of essential rescue skills
    – Practice of common rescue scenarios
    – Updates on current best practices
    – Efficiency improvements for your existing techniques
    – Equipment checks and updates

    Key Skills Refreshed:

    – Escaping the belay
    – Assisted hoists and lowering
    – Rope rescue techniques
    – Casualty management
    – Emergency response protocols

  • Top-Rope Solo

    Climb alone, climb smart

    Learn the complex art of top-rope soloing with expert Andy King. This two-day course covers equipment, setup, safety systems, and risk management for competent single-pitch trad leaders ready to climb independently.


    What Will We Learn?

    Equipment and Systems

    • Specialised gear selection (rope, pulleys, lanyards, backup devices)
    • Rope management systems
    • Equipment setup and inspection
    • Personal anchor systems
    • Backup device configuration
      Safety Protocols
    • Risk assessment and hazard identification
    • System redundancy principles
    • Equipment failure scenarios
    • Environmental considerations
    • Emergency protocols when climbing alone
      Practical Techniques
    • Rope feeding and management
    • Transition techniques
    • Redirect systems
    • Getting started and finishing routes
    • Troubleshooting common issues
      Advanced Applications
    • Route selection criteria
    • Training applications
    • Efficiency improvements
    • System modifications for different scenarios
  • Advanced Rescue Skills

    Rope skills that would make Andy Kirkpatrick proud

    This advanced course expands on the essential skills covered already, tackling some more advanced topics that will hopefully be seldom used, but are carefully designed to get you safely out of some of the most complicated situations. We will take turns acting as the “casualty” and the rescuer, inventing and responding to some really far-out situations competently and efficiently.


    What will we learn?

    Among the skills you will learn are:

    • Assisted Abseils (getting an unconscious person to the ground)
    • Lowering past a knot (getting a conscious casualty to the ground from a multi-pitch climb)
    • Z-drags without an auto-block belay device
    • Rescuing an unconscious person from a lead climb
  • Big Wall Course 2

    Life on the wall awaits

    Master advanced big wall techniques including portaledge camping, complex hauling systems, and multi-day strategy. For those ready to spend multiple days on major walls.


    What Will We Learn?

    Advanced Aid Techniques

    • Complex aid climbing scenarios
    • Efficient progression on difficult terrain
    • Advanced placement techniques
    • Managing steep and blank sections
      Portaledge Systems
    • Portaledge setup and breakdown
    • Living systems on the wall
    • Bivy management and considerations
    • Weather management strategies
      Advanced Wall Systems
    • Multi-pitch hauling strategies
    • Complex hauling solutions
    • Simultaneous climbing techniques
    • Rope management for longer routes
      Safety and Rescue
    • Big wall specific rescue techniques
    • Managing emergencies on the wall
    • Retreat systems and strategies
    • Route planning and risk management