>>2325873Absolutely, trad just means traditional meaning natural protection. You can certainly do trad toprope by slinging trees or rocks or building gear anchors, technically speaking.
>>2324397You can climb in them, they're pretty sticky. I've used approach shoes, but found no real advantage.
>>2325318Climbing outside, start with toprope solo with atc guide & butterfly knot backups (tied with one hand). learn how to set an anchor anywhere (100+ feet of static rope is great for this because you can rappel down it to your master point where the edge is sketchy), learn rappelling, ascending, learn as much as you can about gear placement theory. Now you're ready to French free on toprope - this means you place gear and use it for aid. This will test your placements. Do a full mock lead with another rope if you can, and see what happens if you weight the system - if you aren't extending properly some pieces will pop out. Use a cam or a multidirectional nut for you first piece or your pieces will zipper. There's a lot of good info on mountain project, as much as there are dipshit assholes.
Multipitchclimbing.com has some good info, amga single pitch manual, leubben's climbing anchors has useful physics. Somewhere you can find translated versions of the DAV German alpine club books
My first lead climb was a trad solo with a "bulletproof" clove hitch. Second lead climb i tethered my mom to a tree and instructed her in the use of a grigri. She had never belayed, but it still felt safer than the trad solo.
