In reply to Wire:
There's lots of sensible advice in the thread. The right gear is essential, but only part of the equation: skills and judgement are needed too, it's a very different skill set from climbing indoors or on bolts.
It's worth re-emphasising that grade 3 scrambles are essentially mountaineering, great fun but potentially pretty serious stuff even if every individual move is a lot easier than you'll be used to in the wall.
To do that safely and competently requires a decent grounding in rope/trad climbing skills, plus hill skills, plus some alpine-esque judgement calls (when is it best to pitch, which bits might you safely solo, does that rock look/feel loose etc).
While some folk come to harder scrambling via hillwalking with little or no climbing background, and others might start out trad climbing on smaller crags before progressing (or regressing) to big mountain scrambles, the ideal route would arguably be to do a combination of both walking and trad:
- Brush up the leading/rope work/gear placing/belay building skills on easy trad routes.
- Go for long days out on the hills, to get a feel for mountain terrain, navigation, what effect the weather can have etc. Also, don't underestimate the importance of stamina and hill fitness: it's not a climbing wall, and the physical demands are quite different.
- Build in some easier (but no less enjoyable) grade 1 hillwalker's scrambles. Stuff that's routinely done with no ropes. This will give you a better feel for mountain crag route finding, crappy terrain, exposure etc than climbing at the wall or on a sport crag. You'll have a lot of fun too.
- Only then think about bringing it all together on some harder scrambles.
Here's a load of relevant content from UKHillwalking and UKClimbing :
A beginner's guide to scrambling: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/skills/series/scrambling/a_beginners...
25 tips for safer scrambling without ropes: https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/scrambling/25_tips_for_sa...
Britain's Best Grade 1 scrambles: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/destinations/britains_best_grade_1_s...
Britain's Best grade 2 scrambles: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/features/britains_best_grade_2_scram...
Scrambling and climbing safely and efficiently: https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/montane_alpine_preparatio...
Racking up for an Alpine scramble (the same goes for a Welsh or Cumbrian one) https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/montane_alpine_preparatio...
Scrambling with a partner https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/arc'teryx_alpine_academy/...
Our ongoing Classic Scramble series: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/destinations/classic_scramble_-_cam_...