Melbourne Climbing School was formed in late 2015 and aims to offer Melbourne’s rapidly growing community of climbing enthusiasts a safe and effective transition into the amazing world of outdoor rock.

Who are we?

Aaron LowndesACIA Multi-Pitch Guide and qualified Climbing Instructor

Aaron has more than 2 decades of rock-climbing experience. He has travelled all over the world in pursuit of amazing rock, and enjoys classic low-grade adventure routes just as much as harder technical climbing (if grade 29/8a/5.13a means anything to you, that’s his top so far). Over more than a decade Aaron has spent countless weekends voluntarily teaching organised groups rock climbing safety skills, and has facilitated hundreds of new climbers in their transition onto real rock. His “Learn to Lead” series was instrumental in building MUMC’s base of capable, experienced climbers to sustainable levels, and the club now has a strong culture of teaching and passing on skills – which he would like to continue into the wider climbing community.

Aaron is fully committed to the rock climbing industry -in the past he has held numerous committee roles in the climbing space – including treasurer and executive board member for Sport Climbing Australia (SCA). SCA is the association that governs (mainly indoor) rock-climbing competitions nationwide and helps Australia’s top athletes onto the international competition scene. Aaron was also Treasurer/executive board member of Sport Climbing Victoria, the state-based branch of SCA when it formed. Aaron has volunteered for various university clubs and has acted on committees for them in the past decade or so, notably the University of Canterbury Climbing Club (in Christchurch, New Zealand) and the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC).

Mona John von FreyendCommunications strategy and project management

Mona is the behind the scenes person responsible for MCS’ social media channels and planning for future projects.

She has been rock climbing for 10 years and loves trad and interesting cracks and just generally enjoys being out in nature. She’s super passionate about creating inclusive and welcoming spaces that bring people together and foster their love of the outdoors.

Follow her on instagram @mona.is.happy.in.nature

Jo LeeACIA Single Pitch Guide

Jo is no stranger to the climbing world – she spent 6 years travelling, climbing and instructing around the globe, easily enthused about long, epic, multi-pitch trad climbing, is a lover of all big furry doggo friends and the founder of Women Uprising (give her a follow at @womenuprisingaus)
Anyone who’s participated in one of our @shewentwild.co trips will know her as the super friendly, competent, smiley person who can coax the most timid newbie to attempt the big airy abseil.
As a qualified SPG guide, she will be MCS’s go-to person for all things guiding related.

What do we think about Rock Climbing?

Rock climbing is an incredible sport that we love wholeheartedly, and Melbourne Climbing School was formed to share it with the world. Rock Climbing does not discriminate on the basis of age, strength, fitness level or gender (…or race, sexual orientation, disability or anything else of course). It is a sport that is open to every person no matter what, is challenging both physically and mentally and can be enjoyed at any level, from beginner to advanced.

We can guide you or teach you something new whatever your skill or experience level – beginner to advanced, we have you covered. We are all about safety here, and we love teaching as much as we love climbing. We hope to see you on our courses and experience days.

What does “intelligent rock climbing” mean?

Here at MCS, our aim is to help more people safely and confidently take up the sport of Rock Climbing. Yes, we love it so much we simply want to share it with the world. To do that, we have narrowed our mission statement down to a few guiding principles:

Share
- To share the experience of this wonderful, fulfilling sport with as many people as possible
- To remove mental barriers that stop people from getting into the sport – “I’m too weak/unfit/young/old” or “I’m the wrong gender/height/religion/race” – none of these matter, nor should they.
Teach
- To teach and encourage responsible climbing safety knowledge and techniques
- To promote a concept of “continuous learning”. Starting with ourselves we pledge to never – not after 5, 20 or 50 years – stop learning new things about this ever-evolving sport (note that Aaron has 20+ years of climbing experience and still loves learning new things).
Engage
- To engage with the climbing and outdoors communities, valuing and adopting their feedback as and when we can
- To promote environmental awareness in Victoria’s beautiful but delicate outdoor areas. This awareness that cultural values may exist in the places we climb. For this, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we live and work and pay respect to Elders past and present.

Check out the pages in the menu above to see some of the things we can offer you right now.