The ClimbingCompany

The Climbing Company traces to 1988, when Chris Peisker and three other climbers opened Australia's first dedicated rock climbing school at Dyurrite, the Mount Arapiles crag in western Victoria. Peisker ran it for thirty-five years before retiring in 2022. Aaron Lowndes, founder of the Melbourne Climbing School, bought the business and partnered with Hamid Shafaghi — one of fewer than five IFMGA-certified mountain and ski guides working in Australia — to run it today. Guides take clients to Dyurrite, Gariwerd/the Grampians' Summerday Valley, Mount Buffalo, Geboor/Camel's Hump at Mount Macedon, Falcon's Lookout at Werribee Gorge, the Cathedral Range and the You Yangs, with groups capped at six per guide. The company's stated philosophy is real terrain and clear systems over manufactured experience, and being run by people who climb for a living rather than a chain. Thirty-five years after Peisker started it, the school is still the country's oldest continuously operating rock climbing school, still run day to day by working climbers rather than a franchise.