On the first Saturday of October, November, March and April, Clan members of all abilities signup for outdoor climbing.
These sessions, held in small, friendly groups near home, offer a chance to climb and socialise together.
You sign up ahead of time, letting us know your skills, where you're travelling from, and your preferences.
On Friday afternoon, we look at your preferences and the group's skills and locations and put you into a little group heading to a nearby sport or trad crag that matches everyone's skill levels.
On Saturday, you go and climb there together - supporting each other and having a fun day together.
We often are able to help people get there with a combination of driving and public transport.
On our signup form, we'll ask you where you're travelling from and if you need, or can give a lift.
We'll try and match you up with transport options that'll support you.
It can help a great deal if you're able to make your way to the centre of Manchester or train stations like Whaley Bridge, Mauldeth Road, Stockport, Levenshulme, Dove Holes or Staley Bridge - if you can get to these places, we almost certainly can get you a lift the final distance.
People tend to meet from 6pm onwards, though some people arrive earlier, and some people get there later.
There's no set time, and it's impossible to be late.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to come climbing with us this week.
We need enough time to figure out the right climbing locations, so that there is the right balance of leaders, seconders and the right transport options at each crag.
Once we've done this, we're not keen on people joining late - whatever your skills and transport situation - as it can unbalance the groups, and undermine the process where everyone else has to sign up by a deadline.
It would be ideal if you didn't need to cancel after midday on Friday.
We need to know if you can't make it ASAP. The best way to tell us is by Messaging Us.
If you cancel at last minute, it can stop other people from climbing, so please give us as much warning as possible - and try to tell us before we make the groups.
These evenings take hours of time behind the scenes to run smoothly, so we ask everyone to play an active role in taking on some of the admin to make them happen. Everyone takes part at some point or other.
Whilst a small team of permanent volunteers run the evening, and are always on the lookout for new faces, everyone does a little bit to help make these evenings happen.
At each crag, each week, there's a Crag Coordinator who is in charge of the evening at that crag, an Assistant Crag Coordinator to support them, and a Crag Reporter, who's job it is to share back to the Clan what happened that evening.
Other roles also exist.
And there are many others in our sights.
You can see see a bit more on this page about how we organise our outdoor climbing events.
We tend not to go bouldering, but Sport and Trad climbing both regularly happen.
Usually there's always a Trad climbing group, and sometimes there are Sport climbing groups.
If you're particularly keen for Sport Climbing, make that clear when you sign up and we'll try to accommodate it.
Before 7pm on Friday, you'll receive an email telling you where to go to, and you'll be added to a Facebook Messenger Group chat where you can coordinate lifts and arrival times.
If you don't have Facebook Messenger, you won't be able to receive a message or join the group chat to coordinate lifts etc, but you'll still receive an email explaining where to head to.
Some Clan members who are less keen on Facebook have set up profiles which they specifically use for communicating with Clan events.
The UK weather is never predictable, and looking at the weather forecast is rarely particularly helpful ahead of time - unless you want an excuse to stay at home and not climb.
We try to match people to crags with the right level of challenge.
We don't always get it right, and as we're a mixed ability group, it can require a bit of understanding at both ends of the spectrum, but mostly we do a pretty good job.
Outdoor climbing is just like indoor climbing - it ranges from very easy to very hard.
These evenings are for people of all climbing abilities so whether you top rope 3's or 8b's, you'll be welcomed and supported.
We tend to have leaders who lead just Mods and Diffs, or 4s and 5s to leaders who push the E numbers and the outdoor 7s and 8s.
The minimum skills for these sessions is that you must be able and competent at lead belaying indoors.
You absolutely do not need to be able to lead climb, but lead belaying is something you should have a fair amount of experience and confidence with indoors.
There are several ways you can learn to Lead Belay:
You can do a course with your local climbing centre:
You can attend climbing sessions with the Clan on Wednesdays and improving your volunteering with the Clan.
You can contact an external climbing climbing instructor like:
who can often arrange private lessons and came be very reasonably priced.
Probably not. These are fun social climbing evenings rather than training evenings.
You should get to climb, whilst people may be willing to pass on skills - the expectation is that you have a fun evening climbing rather than anyone shows you how to do things.
The more you volunteer with the Clan, the more we'll push training opportunities your way.
This year we've already helped ~20 people learn how to trad climb and the more you volunteer, the more eager we'll be to support you on your learning journey.
The kit list shows the minimum equipment you must have for outdoor climbing - and it's our suggestion that these would be good purchases.
The Clan doesn't have any to lend, and we don't know anywhere you can hire them to take away..
It may be possible to borrow something if you ask on the facebook group, but as Decathlon sell Climbing Helmets for less than £30, we'd suggest you trust your life to one you know the history of.
If you're looking for a taster in outdoor climbing
You might want to contact a commercial operator like Essential Climbing or Parthian Manchester or Summit Up Climbing's outdoor taster's days to see if you like it.
Unlike Wednesday evenings, there's not usually a break where everyone stops climbing.
The best way is usually to arrive, get sorted for climbing - put the cakes/snacks in an obvious place and tell everyone where it is.
People will usually be very grateful, and think you are a wonderful person.
Sadly not.
The minimum skills needed to come outside with us are being able to Lead belay, and it's best to learn this indoors.
They're welcome to come on one of our indoors Extra-Welcoming sessions, and our learn to lead belay sessions.
Alternatively, it may well be better, if they're looking for a introduction to outdoor climbing, to contact a local climbing centre or instructor.
all run outdoor taster days through the summer.
Local climbing instructors like Essential Climbing can also offer great value on days at the crag for people new to climbing.
If they're over 18 - yes, please do!
These events are specifically organised for over 18s only, in accordance with our over 18 policy.
Everyone needs to be signed up through this page so that everything is done properly.
In general, the Clan loves well behaved crag dogs, however, some venues are much more friendly to dogs than others.
If you're keen to bring your pooch, please let us know in the comments box on the signup form.
If whether or not you'll come is dependent on you bringing your dog, please drop us a message.
If your dog is a registered guidedog, please sign up and let us know in the comments box.
We do our best to support climbers with all mobility and accessibility requirements who meet the minimum requirements for these events.
If you have specific requirements, please sign up and put them in the comments section of the signup form.
If you want to talk it over with someone beforehand, please feel free to message us.
We are not perfect, and we're developing our awareness of different venues' strengths and weaknesses for different people, but we will try to support climbers as best we can.
In the past, we've supported pregnant ladies, and wheelchair based paraclimbers and the Clan is very supportive of climbers with different requirements.
We are keen to support as much climbing activity as we can.
We know that not all climbers have a good understanding of what crags are best for them, and what's nearby.
By organising our events like this (feel free to read about how it actually works) we manage to support more seconders and leaders, than we otherwise would be able to.
We're also able to diversify the crags we visit more, and help the planet, by sending small groups to crags nearest them, and support lift sharing.
Our approach is not for everyone, and fortunately, we're lucky to be in an area where many climbing groups operate and some may have approaches that work better for people who prefer the other approaches to organising outdoor climbing events.
We need everyone to have membership before they come on our outdoor events to make sure everyone has 3rd party BMC insurance as required of us by the BMC.
Every week we send out feedback forms, to gather your feedback and input.
Every piece of feedback is read and considered in detail, and this is by far the best place to pass on information to the team.
Often messages get lost, conversations quickly get forgotten, but when we're contemplating places and ways to improve our events - the feedback from our feedback form is the first thing we consult.
Feedback is super useful, and constructive thoughts and things we could do better are things we're very grateful for. Even "it was ok" can be surprisingly useful.
Really helpful things to have, even if you’re not leading
If you have any of these things, bring them:
If you're a trad leader, you should know what to bring (everything!).
The weather and time of year is important to think about, but this is the British Isles, we have to plan for all weathers at all times of year.