Director Jud's Blog

When people are just getting into crack climbing, there’s often a tendency to rely on brute strength instead of technique. At Stone Mountain Adventures (SMA), a top-tier rock climbing summer camp, we help campers develop skills like the layback move—an essential technique for tackling corner cracks and overlapping sections. While this move can be strenuous, using it strategically can help climbers navigate tough sections with efficiency and control.

What is the Layback Move?

The layback move works by creating opposition between your hands and feet, leveraging your body to move up the rock face with minimal effort. Here’s how it works:

• Your fingers grip the crack, pulling with your arms.

• Simultaneously, you press your feet against the opposing wall to create a counterforce.

• By keeping your feet high and maintaining tension between your hands and feet, you can make small controlled movements up the rock.

One key mistake beginners make is rushing the movement and standing up too far, causing their feet to slip and losing their position of strength. Instead, keeping heels dropped and feet high ensures a stable stance, allowing for steady, controlled progression.

As you consider summer activities for your teenage campers, outdoor rock climbing stands out as an exceptional choice for numerous reasons. Not only does it offer physical challenges and rewards, but it also fosters emotional growth, builds self-confidence, and provides a host of other benefits that contribute to your teen's overall development. Here are the top 10 reasons why outdoor rock climbing is a fantastic choice for your teenager:

As a summer camp director here at Stone Mountain Adventures I talk with a lot of parents and teenagers about the activities we do at camp.  One of the most exciting and popular activities at our overnight teen camp is rock climbing.   A questions that I am often asked by perspective families is: What is the difference between Outdoor and Indoor Rock Climbing?  In the post I will contrast and compare the similarities and differences.

Stone Mountain Adventures will be attending the Greenwich High School Summerfare on Wednesday, January 22 from 6 to 9pm. The Summerfare is a Camp Fair that is hosted by the Greenwich High School Parent Teacher Association (PTA). According to the Greenwich Sentinel "SummerFare is designed to give families an opportunity to find exciting and unique summer experiences for their children and teens for Summer 2020." They are expecting over day camps, overnight camps, teen camps, rock climbing camps and travel program to attend this years event.

What: Greenwich High School Summerfare

When: Wednesday, January 22 from 6 to 8pm

Where: the Greenwich High School located at 10 Hillside Road, Greenwich, CT 06830

The sport of rock climbing is essentially the process of safely scaling an outdoor rock face or an indoor climbing wall from top to bottom. In this blog post we will explore 5 essential benefits you will gain from rock  climbing.

The snow has finally melted away and it's time to go rock climbing! Though we've had a relatively mild winter, our beloved Donation Rocks Climbing Area is messy with leaves, sticks and branches. With that in mind, a Donation Rocks Spring Clean Up day hosted by Ken Hull is being held Saturday, April 2nd from 9am to noon. We plan to remove debris and do some trail work as well. And did I mention climbing... the plan is to do some spring clean up work in the morning and climb in the afternoon!  

Here is second of two blog post Q&A with 2 former SMA Teen Rock Climbing Summer Camp Staff Patrick McManamon and Jason Criswell.  Over the 2015 / 2016 holidays these climbing partners embarked on a rock climbing trip that took them to Red Rocks, Nevada and Joshua Tree National Park in California.  Both Jason and Patrick are from Huntingdon, PA and were friends before working together at SMA 2 Week Adventure Camp. As we learned in the Part 1 of this blog post, they both first rock climbing at SMA Teen Summer Camp.  By the end of our conversation I was ready to go climbing!