Abuse Prevention for Climbing Guides
Clients trust you with their lives. Earn that trust in every way.
Free resources and practical guidance for guide services, climbing schools, and independent instructors. Build consent into how you coach, prepare your team to respond, and make sure every client knows support is always within reach.
Elevating survivors. Confronting the silence.
Why it matters in guiding
The trust that keeps clients safe can also be misused.
Most guides would never cause harm. But the conditions of guiding can make abuse easier to commit and harder to report. Knowing them is the first step to closing the gaps.
01
Remote by design
Backcountry approaches, multi-day trips, and no cell signal can leave a client with no easy way to leave, call someone, or speak up in the moment.
02
Hands-on by necessity
Harness checks, spotting, and close belay stations can all involve touch. Without clear norms, clients can’t easily tell what’s routine and what isn’t.
03
Power runs one way
Guides hold the expertise, the ropes, and the decisions. New climbers and youth clients may not feel free to say no or raise a concern.
Consent is a safety system. Check it like you check a knot: every time, out loud, before you climb.
The free Guide Kit
Everything your team needs, ready to print.
Guiding means remote terrain, physical contact, long days, and real power dynamics between guide and client. Clear consent practices and a visible path to support protect your clients, your guides, and your reputation. Safety has always been your job. This is part of it.
Put it to work this season
- Roll the toolkit into pre-season staff training and guide onboarding.
- Include a hotline card in every client welcome packet and gear bag.
- Post the hotline in your shop, office, guide shack, and basecamp.
Guiding Company Toolkit
PDF guide
Consent-based coaching and spotting language, a remote-setting response protocol, a staff code of conduct template, and client communication templates.
Hotline Business Cards
PDF, print-ready
3.5×2 in, double-sided, 10-up print sheet. Slip one into every welcome packet and gear bag.
Download the complete Guide Kit
Every file in one download. Free for guide services, climbing schools, and independent instructors.
Running a gym, non-profit, or just climbing with friends? Browse the full Never Solo Resource Library.
Prevention in practice
Build it into how you guide.
Before the season
Hire and train with intention
Check references, adopt a written code of conduct, and train every guide on boundaries and disclosure response before their first trip.
Before the trip
Set expectations up front
Share your conduct standards and a hotline card with every booking. Tell clients who to contact if something feels wrong, including someone other than their guide.
On the rock
Ask before you touch
Explain why contact is needed and ask first: “I’m going to set up your rappel device. Is that okay?” Offer to demonstrate on yourself or let clients self-check.
On overnight trips
Close the gaps
Avoid unnecessary one-on-one time with minors, keep sleeping arrangements clear and separate, and make client check-ins routine, not an exception.
If a client or guide discloses
What you say first matters most.
You don’t need to be a counselor. You need to listen, believe, and connect them to support. The Guiding Company Toolkit includes a full remote-setting response protocol.
01
Listen and believe
Stay calm, thank them for telling you, and let them share as much or as little as they choose.
02
Secure safety first
If they are hurt or at risk, handle immediate safety and medical needs, even if that means ending the trip.
03
Don’t investigate
Don’t question details or confront the person named. Write down only what was said, in their words, and follow your protocol.
04
Connect to support
Offer the Never Solo 24/7 chat, respect their choices about next steps, and meet any mandatory reporting duties, especially for minors.
Questions from guides
Frequently asked questions
Are Never Solo resources free for guiding companies?
Yes. Every poster, card, sticker, and toolkit is free to download and print. Co-branded materials and staff training are available through our partner program.
What is in the Guiding Company Toolkit?
Consent-based coaching and spotting language, a remote-setting response protocol, a staff code of conduct template, and client communication templates you can adapt for your company.
Can independent guides and instructors use these resources?
Absolutely. The kit works for a solo instructor as well as a large guide service. Start with the hotline card and the consent-based coaching language.
Who can use the Never Solo support chat?
Anyone affected by sexual abuse in the climbing community: survivors, and the friends, family, partners, and witnesses supporting them. It is free, confidential, chat-based, and available 24/7.
Go further
Bring Never Solo to your guide team.
Want co-branded client materials, a pre-season staff training, or help writing your response protocol? We’ll build it with you, so every client and guide in your program is believed, supported, and empowered.
If you need support right now
You don’t need to know what to say. A trained crisis specialist will meet you where you are: free, confidential, 24/7.