In reply to SethChili:
Starting out, 1 pad and a suitable venue is all you need. Go and play on the rocks.
A guidebook can be useful for many venues, even better is someone who's been there before.
Only thing I would say is that because of the horrible amount of rain, many of our nations boulders now have moats. Burbage South is a great venue for starting out, but at the moment I guess it's Somme-like territory.