About Us
Our Story
Land Acknowledgement: Joshua Tree and Tahquitz Rock are Cahuilla, Serrano, Chemehuevi, Mojave and Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indian lands.
Tee and I founded California Climbing School in 2017. Our experience teaching at NOLS, Outward Bound, Yosemite Mountaineering School, and other outdoor schools helped us develop into dynamic, inclusive, and engaging teachers.
Our aim is to promote climber safety, care for the environment, and diversity in the outdoors.
We have an alpine and wilderness focus. We are interested in making long term connections and helping people progress as climbers. Students we have trained have gone on to climb Half Dome, El Capitan, Mt Whitney, and in Patagonia.
While raising our son in the village of Joshua Tree, we offered free climbing to families we knew. These outings evolved into our kids and teen climbing classes.
All of our guides are great teachers in addition to being skillful guides.
All our guides are at least a Certified Single Pitch Instructor with the AMGA or a Certified Single Pitch Guide with the PCGI. A Certified Multi Pitch guide is assigned to lead climbs up to 400 feet. A Certified Rock Instructor is assigned to lead climbs up to 800 feet such as Tahquitz Rock.
We help our community by offering scholarships and discounts to local families. We offer a discount to military families and veterans.
We are looking forward to helping you achieve your climbing dreams!
Erik Kramer-Webb (he/him)
co-owner co-founder
5/7/22
Erik Kramer-Webb
Erik started rock climbing in 1987 and has been a full-time climbing guide since 1997. He has over 2200 days of experience guiding in Joshua tree. Erik is an AMGA Certified Rock Instructor.
Erik taught mountaineering and climbing courses as an instructor with NOLS and Outward Bound. He is known for his clear and patient teaching style and furthermore has a solid background in natural history. He has a B.S. in natural resources.
Erik has climbed and guided all over the western states. He has climbed El Capitan 5 times and has summited many of the glaciated peaks in the Cascades. Erik is a Certified Wilderness First Responder with Wilderness Medical Associates.
Theresa Walsh
Theresa aka “Tee” started teaching rock climbing in 1993 and is an AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor. She is a former NOLS and Outward Bound instructor and has a B.A. in outdoor recreation. She has climbed in almost all of the western states and was a climbing guide for the Yosemite Mountaineering School.
Tee started a local kids and teen climbing program in 2017 which continues to provide affordable rock climbing opportunities for local kids.
Tee has safely guided many groups to remote, technical peaks despite less than ideal conditions, and her enthusiasm and positive outlook have always lifted the spirits of her companions. Her ability to figure out how people learn and tailor her style to theirs is remarkable.
Theresa is a certified Single Pitch Instructor with the AMGA.
Peter Chagnon
Peter is a Southern California local, born and raised in San Diego, and found his way to climbing when he was 19 at CSU Northridge. Since then he has been immersed in the climbing world with the goals of building community, spreading knowledge, and sharing his passion for moving through rocky landscapes. Peter is a Wilderness EMT, Apprentice Rock Guide, and has been guiding and teaching climbing for 12 years. He is passionate about education and hopes people leave their days with him feeling like they learned new skills and about themselves. Past participants have remarked on his patience, calm demeanor, and adaptive teaching style that caters to many ways of learning. He also loves the Joshua Tree ecosystem and dreams of seeing a desert tortoise in person one day.
Investing in Community
We offer discounts and scholarships to our local community. It began with Tee offering free climbing lessons to our son’s friends, which grew into a kids and teen climbing program with affordable rates for mostly local families. For some of these kids who have come back year after year, our climbing classes are a big deal. Some of them want to be climbing guides when they grow up!
We trained our guides to help adaptive athletes and ran adaptive climbing clinics in joshua tree. The first accessible campsite in JTNP was created for an adaptive clinic we held in Indian Cove. Thank you Joshua Tree National Park for your support!
Many people have to overcome obstacles to visit Joshua Tree National Park. This can include Morongo Basin residents, Black and Brown people, Native Americans, the LGBTQ community, US military families and veterans, and people with disabilities. We try to make our services as affordable to encourage a broad array of Americans to enjoy the treasure we have here in Joshua Tree.