Devils Lake Climbing Guides

Our 7th annual Arbor Day tree planting was a huge success. The largest volunteer team we’ve ever had made the effort fun and efficient; we finished before noon!

Altogether, we planted 108 trees. These trees will provide beauty, shade, habitat, and carbon sequestration for decades to come. 
 
Huge thanks to the following folks:
 
• Brent Valentine and his crew at for ordering, storing, caring for and transporting all the trees, bringing loads of tools and equipment, and teaching us all how to plant trees well.
• Jim Carter and the DLSP staff for hosting us, marking planting locations, providing wood chips, and watering the young trees this season.
• for contributing funding toward the project, and Bri Jimenez-Hull at orever for facilitating our grant.
• Taylar Foster and the for becoming new fiscal and volunteer partners this year.
• Bruno Klein and his team at  for showing up to help for the third year in running.
• Maya Wilkes for cooking up a lunch feast to meet everyone’s dietary needs
 
Thanks to all our volunteers for bringing energy, extra shovels, and great attitudes to the planting event. 
 
Small business owners, we were inspired by other folks, and we’d love it if we inspired you. If every small business did one or two community service projects annually, our country would be a different place.

will be teaching our next Tradawan Camp Thurs Apr 23rd - Sun Apr 26th. Want to join him?

This 4-day intensive trad climbing camp helps “lead curious” climbers learn trad techniques and practice applying them in a relatively controlled atmosphere. Learning alongside peers is pretty darn fun, empowering, and bonding.

Topics we visit often in Tradawan include:

• Placing great gear on lead
• Bringing the right stuff
• Best practices for racking up
• Giving and getting a great lead belay
• Planning and executing good transitions
• Falling on gear (while protected on top rope)
• Managing a follower from above
• Building bomber anchors
• Choosing elegant solutions
• Getting yourself out of sticky situations

Having four days together really helps us marinate in concepts and curriculum. There’s lots of opportunity for one-on-one instructor feedback, as well as opportunities to try things multiple times, in multiple ways.

Most Tradawan students emerge from camp feeling empowered to start leading on their own. Others have been leading for some time, but find they have unlocked another level of confidence, understanding and skill.

All students are welcome to stay at our group campsite. We often enjoy meals together, but food is not provided.

Learn more at link in bio. Hope to see you at a Tradawan this season!

Still enrolling for Women's+ Climbing Weekend!

Women's+ Climbing Weekend includes:
• Women, femme, & non-binary climbers from across the Midwest
• A fantastic team of DLCG instructors & guest instructors
• Clinics for the full range of novice & experienced climbers
• Gourmet menu provided by Chef Mark & team
• Morning of yoga instruction
• Bonus activities at camp including games, prizes, campfires offer lots of opportunities for socializing and connecting
• Friendly, outgoing atmosphere where everyone is supported & welcome
This is an all-inclusive weekend - food, camping, instruction & fun are provided. You just need camping gear, dishes & cutlery.

Join us Friday evening, May 15th - Sunday afternoon, May 17th for climbing clinics, camping, and connection.

Sign-up and share: https://www.devilslakeclimbingguides.com/courses/women?srsltid=AfmBOoqzGRfpcqK_qe1uZqJFECnZUrTh53hHUC6yfNt52DXAJtTbYa5Y

Join us Friday evening, May 15th - Sunday afternoon, May 17th for climbing clinics, camping, and connection.

Women's+ Climbing Weekend includes:
• Women, femme, & non-binary climbers from across the Midwest
• A fantastic team of DLCG instructors & guest instructors
• Clinics for the full range of novice & experienced climbers
• Gourmet menu provided by Chef Mark & team
• Morning of yoga instruction
• Bonus activities at camp including games, prizes, campfires offer lots of opportunities for socializing and connecting
• Friendly, outgoing atmosphere where everyone is supported & welcome

This is an all-inclusive weekend - food, camping, instruction & fun are provided. You just need camping gear, dishes & cutlery.

See the link to sign-up and share!
https://www.devilslakeclimbingguides.com/courses/women?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Meta+Add&utm_campaign=Women%27s%2B+Climbing+Weekend&utm_id=W%2BCW

Happy snow day everyone! I want to share this before I go out to shovel:

Registration for our 2026 summer climbing camps starts at noon this Monday, December 1. This includes:

• Teen Climbing Camp (alumni only until 12/8), week-long overnight sessions for 7th to 12th graders
• Junior Climbing Camp, weekend camps for 5th - 8th graders
• Camp Quartzite, a climbing-focused adult summer camp
• Tradawan Camp, 4-day immersive progression camp for aspiring trad climbers

Full details are on the website:

https://www.devilslakeclimbingguides.com/camps

Perfect clouds, brilliant lake, motivated clients, empty Park. Best day of the season? Maybe?

Kyle put it perfectly, “If only people knew the best time of year is just beginning.”

📸

Late season climbing is pretttttttttttty sweet. Thanks to all the great folks who have joined us the past few weeks. Maybe we have a month left before snow flies? What do you think?

We ask every client for feedback after our trips. Many folks don't respond, but the ones who do often offer a lot of insight into what they valued about their experience and how we can improve. We often use the feedback to adjust our communications and practices. Our clients are the experts on us, and they our best teachers. Below are some answers I read this morning:

Do you have any specific feedback to share about your instructor?

"Each instructor was amazing! Each one personally connected with me in multiple different ways and really made sure that I was valued and not overlooked in the entire group."

What would you say to someone who asked about us?

"I would say this trip is going to be nothing like you’ve ever had before. Once you show up, you are transported into another world! Between meeting new friends and living out in the woods for a week, so much is done and so many experiences happen in such a short amount of time. Seriously one of the best camps I have ever been to!"

Huge thanks to our amazing staff, like Vicente here, who make amazing TCC days par for the course.

We are busy preparing for another great Women's Climbing Weekend, this time running Fri Sept 6th - 8th. Same highlights per usual:

• Fantastic group of women & non-binary climbers
• Awesome team of DLCG instructors & guest instructors
• Clinics for the full range of novice & experienced climbers
• Gourmet menu provided by Chef Mark & team
• Saturday morning yoga instruction (thank you Kingfisher Yoga)
• Games, prizes, campfires offer lots of opportunities for socializing and connecting
• Friendly, outgoing atmosphere where everyone is supported & welcome

All-inclusive weekend - food, camping, instruction & fun are provided. You just need camping gear, dishes & cutlery.

We still have 10 spots left! Wrangle a friend or come alone, we'd love for you to join the fun with us. Learn more or sign up at link in bio.

Have a friend who might love this? Please share! Thanks all!

Anchors One course with Jake, Sam, Mike & Zach. Kudos to Sam who was out here at 18 weeks!

Anchors One is all about knots, rigging and natural protection. In other words, how can we use a handful of simple tools, trees and boulders to build bombproof 💣 climbing anchors. Once we can do this, we build from there, adding artificial hardware and more advanced techniques in Anchors 2 & 3.