but gary, their policy of having former students (with minimal experience after their first round of classes) teach new students is just asking for trouble...couple that with inflexible dogma about how things MUST be done and you are really courting disaster...
The other thing that i have serious issues with, is that they are so damn focused on the technicalities (wrong word) of climbing that they don't teach the actual act of climbing very well...maybe if they spent a wee bit more time on this aspect of climbing (how to climb, and this is really where last year's class is woefully unprepared to teach this years class), we would see less of these "slips" on 3rd and 4th class terrain. Dirty harry is not far off the mark about 5.4 technique being the protection for 5.4 climbing...don't fall, you won't get smucked.
several posters mentioned that (NOLSe i believe) that getting prepared on single pitch but harder terrain before venturing ontto multipitch is a good way...i agree
Also, and i hate to sound like a punk so don't take this the wrong way, but some people just should not be climbers...just cuz you got the dollars does not mean you'll make a good climber...