Advice needed for parent wanting to introduce child to basic rock climbing

Hi,

Are there parents out there who climb and that have introduced their children to the sport? Advice? Recommendations? Gear? Of course, children need special harnesses. Their body shapes can cause them to fall out of a harness that does not have upper-body harnessing. Helmets and eye-protection are a must.

How young is too young?

The idea would be to do TRing only on 5.easy stuff. I feel confident in my ability to teach what I've been taught. I took classes at a local university and recieved some personal instruction from certified guides. It's been a long time since I've been on the rock, but I'm sure a lot of it would come back. I also have a lot of literature on the subject. I was never very good at rock climbing, but I could setup TRs on easy stuff.

I've thought that it may be a good idea to keep a tow-rope on the child that could be used to pull them off the rock if they refused to be lowered back down.

I'm also sensative to the fears my children may have. They may not be ready, or the sport may just not be for them; and that's okay. At the very least, I think they may have fun traversing across the bottom of a climb, staying low to the ground.

Thoughts?

I would suggest starting the kids off in a gym. It is a controlled environment and there will most likely be other kids there for them to climb with. Plus you can rent the equipment rather than spending the money on shoes and harness only to find out they do not like it.

Do not make the same mistake I made. I started my son off when he was 9 in the gym and top roping some easy stuff outdoors. The problem was I would take him climbing with me and my friends. I would let him climb some and we would climb some. Next thing you know we are projecting some hard route that he can not do and he gets bored and burned out. Now I cant even get him to go with us. I wish now I had spent more time with just him.

Lastly I would recommend getting guide to take you out as a family for the first day for a refresher course on anchors and safety. Plus the guide could take you to some appropriate climbs for the young ones. Good luck and mad props for starting the kids off young

How old are your children? How much interest have they shown? How long has it been since you were out on rock?

Many gyms have a minimum age before they let children use their facility. When I volunteered at the local rec center climbing all, I would get talked into belaying a 4 or 5 year old from time to time. They generally got about 1 or 2 moves off the deck before they decided that they were too high up and wanted to come down. As they got older, they became better able to cope with heights. I did watch one father playing with his small (2-3 year old) child by putting the kid in a harness and hoisting him a few feet off the ground. The kid loved hanging 2 or 3 feet off the deck, but go a few inches too high and the kid would get very unhappy very quickly.

I would suggest getting back out on the rock yourself and seeing how much interest the kids show in what you're doing, and taking it from there.

A bouldering gym is ideal. Kids don't like to hang around much, so bouldering is much better than top roping.

Same outside: in Europe we have Font with its kid's circuits and via ferrata. If you don't have access to these I've found soloing on bigger boulders and very small crags ideal. I climb the easy boulder with a rope around my waist. I body belay the child up and lower him/her down the other side of the boulder. Walk over to next bolder..... This ensures there is zero hanging around and the child really trusts the rope before they get anywhere near a real top rope.

My daughter is 3 and loves to go rock climbing with me and my friends. I've been bringing her along since she was 4 weeks old and is pretty used it now. She used to just scramble around on the rocks and watch us and I think this instilled the desire in her to do it herself. Now she fits in her harness and is exited to go up and down a little ways. The gym can be fun also especially if there are other kids around, but unfortunately the bouldering zone is all overhanging with tiny foot chips at the bottom. Not very kid friendly climbs but the little ones like jumping around on the pads.

Having an extra person or two, and other kids around can make it much more safe and entertaining for them. This may allow you to actually get some pitches in as well. I think is important to always have plenty of stuff (extra toys etc) to make them comfortable and also be willing to call it off when they are no longer enjoying themselves.

Juliet cranking at age 3. Neil K. photo

Kids make awesome climbing partners. Neil K. photo

We climb in the gym and outside with our two and a half year old. In the gym, if he climbs on the rope by himself, he will only climb up 8 feet or so. But if my wife gets on another rope beside him, he will climb to the top of the 50 foot wall and have a great time. I just belay them both on the same device, which is a bit tricky while lowering due to the weight difference, but you can make it work.

I started taking my boys out when they were a year old. They loved watching mom and dad climb and started running up to the wall and trying to climb. I bought a full body harness for my oldest when he was two. I put it on him at home to run around in and he thought it was the coolest thing. He then started asking to climb so we took him out. He was fearless for 10 feet then wanted down. We push our boys to climb but when they say they are done we let then go play. My oldest is 4 now and top roped his first 5.7 last week.

My youngest is one and we are already putting a smaller full body harness on him and letting him climb. It's all about patience and making it fun for them. Good luck!

My son started in the gym at 3. He's usually quite cautious but climbed straight to the top. He loves it. We use a chest harness as well as the waist harness. We haven't had him climbing outdoors yet.

My son is seven. He loves bouldering, and he's done it inside and outside. He has only top roped in the gym and it freaks him out. He still doesn't trust the rope. I don't want to build up negative associations for him about climbing, so I try not to push it.

As has been said before, bouldering is really approachable. I've gone out with friends and their kids a bunch, if you have 2 or 3 people so as to be able to keep a spotter and hang with the kids it's almost inevitable that the kids will get interested and want to try climbing some rocks. Even if they don't catch on the first go around, they almost always dig running around in the woods and looking at stuff and may catch on after a couple trips.

I disagree with the gym idea. I started my Daughter at 4 years old and she hated the gym. As soon as I got her outside she was a natural. I have since taken about 4 other friends kids. I found a very easy 5.0 70 foot climb and I set up a top road with a secondary line tied off. I send one adult up top to encourage the kids, and I belay from the bottom. If the kid gets stuck I use the secondary line to run up the hill on a traxon mini and help them up. With this method I have never had to lower a child. All between the ages of 4 and 6.

Started in the gym too. Full body harness is a must, IMHO. Climbing shoes and a fun chalk bag if they show some interest are important too. I took a good while before bringing them to real rock since the clifs around here have some strenuous approaches and poor cliff bottoms or other things that require a certain level of maturity. Helmet outside, of course. Keep it 5.easy unless the kid like to push hard.

Kid

Jonah Klein wrote:I disagree with the gym idea. I started my Daughter at 4 years old and she hated the gym. As soon as I got her outside she was a natural. I have since taken about 4 other friends kids. I found a very easy 5.0 70 foot climb and I set up a top road with a secondary line tied off. I send one adult up top to encourage the kids, and I belay from the bottom. If the kid gets stuck I use the secondary line to run up the hill on a traxon mini and help them up. With this method I have never had to lower a child. All between the ages of 4 and 6.

I think the gym adherents may be keying also on the fact that the OP seems to have pretty limited experience, and has not practiced recently with that experience. In addition to the obvious potential for some safety problems, the other dimension to consider is that many young kids learn in a different way from adults, often requiring a sort of "play-based" approach rather than just presenting the straight up facts to them. If the OP is focused mainly on worrying whether he tied his water knots correctly, there's not going to be a lot of energy left over for taking a relaxed and playful approach to introducing the little ones to the vertical world.

In theory, a guide with kid experience would be fine...but I'd rather spend $18 figuring out that junior isn't quite ready, rather than $275. In fact, several gyms I've been to offered to let my little girl (4yo) climb for a few minutes for free and then just pay them if she actually decided she wanted to climb.

Another route for the OP to take might be to take a refresher of his own, and then get out with a group of several adults with kids. The adults do the TR'ing, and the kids clamber around on boulders and have a good time, and in this way get gradually introduced to the idea of roped climbing. If they show a lot of interest, start to get them into the roped stuff. Obviously, give some thought to the location for the family circus, so that it's safe for the little ones and doesn't infuriate the surrounding locals.

Definitely the body harness is key.

The other benefit of some gyms are kids' walls with stars, snakes, ladders and stuff to climb up. Kids love it.
Helmet is essential. My son loves to jump off the wall and spin on the way back down ... the points on those wooden stars are a worry.

If they've never climbed before, let 'em just climb solo. Don't introduce the ropes, harnesses, etc. until they make it clear that they're having fun and want to get farther up.

Kids want to play, not treat climbing as a sacred undertaking.

If there's a fear of heights, it's really easy to manage in the gym.

Particularly for the first time out, when they've had enough, they've had enough. Pay attention and think carefully about whether and how hard to push them when they want to come down. There's a fine line between encouraging and souring the kid forever on climbing. When in doubt, back off.

When you take them outdoors, don't plan on getting much of your own climbing done. This trip is about them, not you. Sounds like you know this.

Pick a small, obscure cliff if you can. It'll let you circumvent a lot of those pesky-neighboring-climber situations. It also won't put the kids in an audience situation, which can add to their stress level.

Really like Optimistic's suggestions.

Do not make the same mistake I made. I started my son off when he was 9 in the gym and top roping some easy stuff outdoors. The problem was I would take him climbing with me and my friends. I would let him climb some and we would climb some. Next thing you know we are projecting some hard route that he can not do and he gets bored and burned out.

Yeah I made a similar mistake. In my case my son got bored because he would send the old farts project in his flip flops and then have nothing to do.

Nate_801 wrote: My oldest is 4 now and top roped his first 5.7 last week.

Is this typical of what the average 4 yr old can do?

5.10b would be a little less common for a 4 year old vimeo.com/29066466

Syd wrote: Is this typical of what the average 4 yr old can do?

A 4yr old leading a 10b is phenomenal. I think up to about 5.8 depends on how hight dependant the climb is. If there are positive holds, even small crimps shotgun'd everywhere a short, light child will have an easy time with it. If your 5.8 has more spaced out holds don't expect a send

The gym can be an excellent place to introduce small children to climbing. My wife instructed 3-6 year-olds in the gym, and at that age much of the time was spent "playing" on the walls and ropes, not actually climbing. Don't push them to do anything they don't want to do.

As far as climbing outdoors, I would highly recommend hiring a professional AMGA-trained guide to take you out for a refresher. You can tailor your day to review anchors and toprope set-up and site management, and get an answer to your question about "what do I do if my child can't go any higher and doesn't want to be lowered" (and no, using a "tow-rope" is not the way it's done).

Your investment will be paid back every time you take your loved ones climbing. The cost of hiring a guide is trivial compared to the potential consequences of making a mistake in the vertical environment.

I have two girls, aged 5 and 8, who regularly accompany me to the local crag. Sometimes they climb and sometimes they don't, and I have learned to leave the choice to them. With the 8-year old I was very intent in making a climber out of her and I think my interest outweighed hers. The end result was that she became somewhat turned off to the activity. With the younger one (who is naturally somewhat more of a risk taker/thrill nut) I didn't push as hard, and she nearly always asks for a ride on the rope. What is ultimately more important to me though is that they are outside playing in a natural environment and not stuck lifeless in front if the tube or computer. That said, they do seem to appreciate the gym as well, though they sometimes scare me a bit running underneath climbers working difficult boulder problems.

Many of you have probably already seen this video, but I thought I'd share it for those of you who haven't seen it yet.

Enjoy!

Pieter Neethling
SmartRockClimbing.com

youtube.com/watch?v=PWOzaq_…