How old did you start your child climbing?

My little guy is a little over 2 years old and is very bold so I'm looking to get him into climbing, but obviously not until he is ready. The harnesses I have found all mention that they are for 5year olds and up? Can you recommend a great child harness? How old did you start your child climbing?

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Chris- I started Chloe at 4, with the kiddie harness adjusted waaay up. You are not too far away, plus I still have that harness.
I would probably wait until at least 5 before you get him going on the Monsters and Red Bulls tho....
Edit to add: Hey- why don't you join the Lifetime Fitness at Dry Creek and Colorado, they have a halfway decent wall and have a kids club. That's where I'm spending the winter so far.

I purchased a harness for my son when he was 3. I believe it is a petzl (full body with colorful shoulder straps) not sure of the model name. I have always encouraged him to climb, at playgrounds and on boulders etc. He is now 4 and starting to get pretty good at it. The first handful of times i took him he had a difficult time. Just take it slow and keep it fun.

There is kind of a trade off I found. The lower angle climbs are easier for him but more difficult to lower him off becuase he has a hard time understanding to push off the rock with his feet, so the lowering process is often time very slow.

I may show myself to be old and stodgy by my comments, but here goes.

Let's start with the photo of the 11-day old on Daddy's back while traversing. Let's ask this question: What is in the best interests of the child? My answer: the 11-day old is getting nothing out of this exercise; however, Daddy is exposing child to grave risk from even the slightest bump to the head which might result from even a minor slip up by Dad. So who is benefiting in this exercise? Answer: Dad's ego, nothing more.

Do the calculus: this activity is not in the best interests of the child; Dad is showboating. Balance the risk versus benefit: Dad is being short sighted and will have massive regrets if he proceeds to make his parenting decisions using this same calculus here on out.

Background: I raised a child (now 29 years old and well launched in this world) and made selfish choices for activity sets while raising said child. I took my daughter rock climbing for the first time in the third grade. In reality, she had no interest and never became a climber. She was a girly-girly with great fear of heights; always was; always will be. In the end, the kid does what it wants to do, parental best intentions be damned. On the other hand, daughter took to backpacking and llama trekking and we enjoy the outdoors together doing those sort of things, e.g. in 2005 we hiked the length of the Wind River range from Green River to Big Sandy using llamas; this year she wants me to go on safari with her in South Africa and see the game parks. My point: go slow, keep your ego in check and the parenting thing can work out great. Push too hard and you will create agony for all concerned.

To be fair to guy in the photo, he later stated he was really just staging the shot.

Good advice Terry! I would strongly advocate for a connection model of parenting which does away with punishments and rewards, thereby allowing the child to become whomever he/she is meant to/wants to. OP, you're in luck; sounds like your boy wants to climb!

sorry it didn't work out for you and your 'activity sets' Terry.

i propose that i wouldn't have wanted to climb with you as a child either.

As far as the point of the thread goes, just start taking the little critter out with you wherever your climbing, regardless of whether their old enough to climb yet.

The effect of seeing mom or dad engaging in something that they really dig has a huge life-impact on kids. Then when they're big enough to fit in a harness they're pretty much chomping at the bit.

unless of course dad's old and stodgy and wearing his ego on his 30 year old gortexed sleeve.

I started my older kids climbing indoors when they were 4 and 6. They both enjoy climbing outdoors now on top-rope. I can't wait for the day that my son is ready to start leading! My 5 year old, who weighs 35 lbs, fits great in her Trango full-body harness that I just got for her. I say start them out as soon as they have an interest. I agree that you shouldn't force kids to do anything they don't want to do. It isn't fun to try to climb, fish, hike, etc. with a kid that doesn't want to be there.

chris, are you a counselor or something? you frighten me.

Chris, my daughter isn't too much older than you son she is just over 2.5. When we go sport climbing she will come along and at this point she likes to swing around on the rope which I think is probably good gaining some trust in the line in the sky.

I have not found a harness yet that really fits her she needs another year I think. They do have climbing classes for kids at the BRC once they turn 3yo. We'll probably take her there this summer and see if she likes it.

Cpt. E--I'm not. My father is though. And I've done a lot of research and read a few books to find what parenting model has the greatest success with helping children to become healthy/joyful people. Why do I scare you?

My daughter is 6 and she's been with us a few times. She started when she was 4 when I bought her a Petzl harness and ended up carrying her through REI by the harness because she didn't want to take it off. I even held her up while the lady scanned the tag while checking out. The first time I simply tied off pothole at the top of a low angle slab (I could walk up it) and let her play. Like others have said, it's typically a lot of fun for her when climbing up but more challenging when lowering her. That really seems to happen for a couple of reasons. One is that she doesn't weigh a lot and so the physics are not helping a whole lot and the second is that it is simply not natural to sit back and lean on the rope so she wants to downclimb.
Earlier this summer we spent an evening letting her lower down off of the deck so she could get used to trusting the rope. It was great fun to pick her up over the deck rail, lower her down, my wife would untie her and she would run back up as fast as she could. I try not to push her and let her climb what she wants and is comfortable with.
Of course it was great fun to watch her climb at Garden of the Gods with scores of tourists walking by. She was probably 20m up on a 5.6 having fun and then suddenly screamed because there was a bug on the rock.

For what's it's worth..way back when my daughter was a child we were climbing a great deal. However, we had her stay home on climbing days until she was 5yo. I felt being younger and scrambling on rocks was too much exposure for her let alone actually roped climbing (which is proably safer for someone that size. read: short legs and little coordination running around on boulders twice her size = scarry falls).

Once she was 5yo we took her with us everytime. We made swami belts for her until she was about 6. We even made her climb in her hiking boots or espidrells until 6. Her coordination and judgement on when and how to move just didn't come together until she was (mentally) older. Then shoes and BD WizKid HARNESS.

Be prepared for them to go through a "I hate climbing stage" once they figure out that sleeping in, spending time with firends and chasing after the opposite sex is more fun.

Boys are probably a little different than girls though.

I tried to get my son out several times before the age of 8, he never liked it. Then last summer after he turned 8 he asked if he could go climbing with me and my brother. Blew me away. He's not totally in to it, but really enjoyed it. My 2 year old daughter on the hand may be ready now!! LOL!! we'll see when the weather warms up and my achilles is healed.

Good luck and remember not to push to hard. Just because it's our thing doesn't mean it will be theirs.

Thanks everyone! Great information!

Chris,

There are a number of full body Petzel makes a pretty nice one. I bought my son one, which he used for general safety while caving - I would clip him into a rope whenever we were close to some sort of drop, but we did purely horizontal caves.

However, there is a big difference between my son at 5-6 or even 8-9 and where he is today, about to turn 12. He started climbing at the local gym on a "team", with young climbers as coaches and I have pretty much left him alone with it - he thinks my climbing buddies are dorks and he pretty much would rather hang with his friends at the gym anyway.

We climb outside together a couple of times a month and that is fun; but he always has a choice about if he wants to go, and when we get there what he wants to do. Usually climbing with dad is plan "B", if he doesn't have anything more fun to do, like ski with friends.

Chris Cavallaro wrote:My little guy is a little over 2 years old and is very bold so I'm looking to get him into climbing, but obviously not until he is ready. The harnesses I have found all mention that they are for 5year olds and up? Can you recommend a great child harness? How old did you start your child climbing? Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I've never seen a kid who was old enough to walk that wasn't interested in climbing anything they could. My advice? Take him to a boulder and play with him. Put him on the end of a rope when he's old enough to understand how to be safe with you (and a partner).

Each of my kids had been several pitches up by the time they were six. And my oldest was a semi-capable second by the time he was ten (limited belay duty for him and only under controlled circumstances).

As for harnesses: I really liked the Petzl Ouistiti
petzl.com/us/outdoor/vertic…

Niece Jessica at 22 months in a full body harness. She's now 30 and getting married in August this year!

Bouldering, esp in the gym, is the best bet for the pre-school set. Fiddling with ropes and gear means lots of fuss and down-time for everyone. Keep it simple and fun as much as possible. If they learn how to climb well first, the roped stuff will be a breeze.

My boys started at 2 and 4, and the full-body Trango worked fine. Somebody mentioned low angle slabs being easy-up and hard to get down. We solved this by climbing next to them, or waiting at the anchors, and then teaching them to "bounce" down. Bouncing kept their body position better, and also helped counter the rope drag.

They're now 8 and 10, and have climbed everywhere we've climbed, but they have gone through cycles...one year they'd be terrified, and the next year they're back to loving it. They've both led 5.7 sport (stick-clipped the 1st), and are pretty decent belaying each other, on TR, with a gri-gri, and close supervision. It's been pretty amazing to see them grow with it, climb some "stout" lines, and to still see them get psyched for it.

Maybe I got lucky.