Son of Rock logistics

Sun of Rock is the first big rock climbing event of the year. This trip is usually held on the first or second weekend of May, before Victoria Day Long Weekend.

Disclaimer: It is recommended that the upcoming Vice President elected in March of the same year organize this event as a learning experience in preparation for Rock Party.

Venue - Mamquam River Campground

• Must be paid and reserved at the end of March - it is preferred that we pay this and the Rock Party camping fee as a single cheque from the AMS as soon as possible after the new Vice President is elected (preferably by the end of March at the latest).
• Total Cost for the two nights was $650
• This is a great location and the VOC will hopefully be able to hold both Son of Rock and Rock Party (Longhike) for the foreseeable future.
• Since Son of Rock is a smaller event (116 attendees this year) so we only rented out a portion of the campground to cut down costs. This included renting:
  • Friday night: the RC Area (as the campground manager calls it - a whole corner of the campground with 11 walk-in campsites and a large group campsite including two group fire pits in the NW corner of the campground), and;
  • Saturday night: The RC Area and the 7 drive-in spots around it.
• Because of this additional fee, everyone had to pay $10 to come on the trip. Instructors did not have to pay (this was used as incentive to get people to instruct).
• Son of Rock has been held on the Squamish River on a sand bank island up the Squamish Valley for free in the past. The executive have agreed that it is a good idea to permanently move the event to the campground (even with the fee associated with it) to reduce the club's impact on the local environment.
• This is not a large event like Rock Party where we serve food to attendees. Everyone must bring their own food for all their meals as well as lots of water.
• Please note that the campground DOES NOT have running water; make this very clear to everyone at the pretrip. Water bottles may be filled up at a bike wash station on the east side of the Brennan Park parking lot, only 2 minutes drive down the road.
• It is also expected that the club pay between $20 to $40 for firewood to burn in the group fire pits from the campground (talk to manager or other staff). $20 buys you one wheel barrel full of wood (as much as you can carry). You will need to purchase this before 8 pm as fire sales close after that.

Climbing Instructional Groups

• Total of 12 groups: three (3) Rock 1 groups, four (4) Rock 2 groups, two (2) Rock 3 groups and three (3) Rock 4 groups. There were two instructors assigned to each group with a maximum of 8 or 9 students per group (for Rock 2 only). This yielded a instructor student ratio of 1:4 maximum which is preferred if possible.
• For a detailed list of instructional topics to be covered for each level, please refer to this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wZEc-Xao8yOwigmOwNstdxLPVWOXKUw0-4elxiQd2dQ/edit?usp=sharing
• People learned how to climb from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday. Sunday is left for people to do their own thing and apply what they have learned from the previous day. We have held a Rock 5 course (intro to multipitch climbing) on the Sunday for those who were interested in the past (although it didn't end up happening this year).
• Instructors can be hard to come by so get the trip up on the agenda ASAP and try to reach out to potential instructors as early as possible. It is a good idea to contact past instructors from either Sun of Rock or Rock Party from the previous year.
• As mentioned earlier, use the voided trip payment for instructors as incentive.

Volunteering Activities on Sunday

• Send an email out to both the campground manager and to the Squamish Access Society offering up to 10 volunteers to help out with any work that they might need done on the Sunday
• Create a volunteer sign-up sheet ASAP to try to get help. You could potentially offer a discount for volunteering but then you may need to revoke that discount from the instructors. The goal is to have the sum of the $10 fees payed by trip attendees to pay the total cost of renting the campground as well as maybe the firewood too.
• Once you have people sign up, gather their phone numbers and email addresses and hold them to their promise to help. Last year was somewhat disorganized and people were unsure if help was needed or not.
• Make sure that they know the time and place to meet on Sunday morning ahead of time so that you are sure they will be there.