Advice from parents: Climbing trip with a toddler

So I have  a 1.5 year old, and we are looking at taking our first climbing trip to the NRG for a week this spring.

Looking for any and all advice from parents who have played this game. What kind of hard won wisdom yall got for me?

We plan to have an odd number of adults so there’s always one free adult to watch him, make sure his layering is dialed in, bring a bunch of snacks and toys and diaper supplies, try and go crags with more kid friendly bases. One adult is gonna carry him in a backpack carrier and split the gear among the other 2. He’s generally pretty psyched to be outside and find sticks, look at birds and try to eat acorns and such so I’m optimistic we are gonna have a good time but I’m sure there are levels to this climbing with kids game, so what am I missing here?

It’s about an 8 hour drive so any tips for long drives with a little one would be helpful too. 

Any specific crag recs or good kid friendly rest day activities for the new?

I’m figuring summersville or the meadows crags will generally have friendlier bases than gorge proper stuff, but i haven’t actually spent much time at the gorge proper crags besides kaymoor which come to think of it seems like it would be ok actually. Our party will be climbing sport in the 10a-13- range. 

We’ve never really made rope climbing work so take my advice with a grain of salt.  Bouldering works better.  

 Have them wear a helmet the whole time.  Stuff falls, kids fall and usually they’re climbing over rocks and fall prone areas.  Kind of nice knowing they’re less at risk for a head injury.

Be flexible.  They might last for 10 minutes or they might happily play all day and take a nap under a tree.  There’s no predicting this stuff.  

The goal is for the experience to be super positive so they end up actually liking it. If you’re just trying to stretch their patience, you won’t have a little climbing partner when they’re older.

Sometimes you get to climb, sometimes you collect sticks.  Either way they’ll want to go do that stuff if you prioritize them and climbing is just  a bonus.  

We like to split up long car rides with camping overnight.  Leave at 5pm, drive till 9, wake up and finish the drive.  Every kid is different, even siblings.  

How much does your kid like all 3 adults? If it's two parents and a third, the other adult may end up on belay duty. If it's you and two others, you may find yourself tending to your kid a lot more than you thought you would. 

As someone who brings a toddler and a baby to the crag, I don't personally agree with the sentiment above but you should be aware that the majority of people feel this way. Most people don't want the distraction of kids and dogs at the crag and that's ok. Plan accordingly and visit low traffic crags and don't expect to get on the classics. The less you have to manage your child, the more fun everyone will have. 

We generally try to minimize the number of toys and usually bring ones that allow our kid to interact with nature (ex. binoculars). A picnic blanket is always helpful. Does your kid nap? You'll need a plan for that too. When we bring our kids, we're climbing with another family with a kid and they play well together - you might be able to meet up with a local family who can show you good spots and bring along a playmate. 

For the drive, plan on lots of stops at playgrounds to get some energy out.

Set low expectations and just appreciate any climbing you can do. If you can just appreciate being outside for the day, anything else is a bonus.

I used to take my 1-ish yo daughter to the crag.  Needs three people, but is totally doable.  I would bring for her, food water, and one sort of toy.  Stacky cups (you know the colored cups that fit into each other but stack into a cone upside-down? Genius), or her favorite board book.  

You just need to make sure someone is watching the child every moment, and if they can be engaging with it somehow, so much the better.

Never had a helmet. Only useful in perpetual rockfall zones, and who wants to be there anyway? There's plenty other places to climb.

Have a 6 and 3 year old who has had plenty of trips from local crags and crowded Rumney over the last 6 years. Obviously you're going to be the parent who brings all the stuff for the kiddo but what’s helped me is…

- don’t set too many expectations, some days I get in a full day and can really focus on climbing, other times it’s 1 TR lap on the warmup. But at least you’re out and the more you drag kids out the easier it gets

-are you near the cliff? helmets, just cause you never know. But 1.5 year old is a tough sell in a helmet and we mostly just stayed away while they are really young Or even better I always like to set up back from the crag if you can. 100 plus feet from the base, back away from the chaos. I’d bring a hammock and pack-n-play and set up far back as is reasonable…. keeps everything separate cause no one climbing wants to add looking out for kiddos around them.

-1000% need an adult who only job is daycare while you swap turns climbing/belaying. We’d even break up big days where 2/3 would head out early/or stay later so the kiddo isn’t there for the whole adventure.

-as far as the drive, I’ve driven through the night b/c the rest of the car sleeps, but the next day is sometimes miserable 

enjoy, my boys have gotten to the point where they’re climbing with us too - which can be a whole new set of complications 

It can be a lot and it won’t always go well
BUT - it’s worth it! 

No useful advice but I have to tell this story.

Met a bud to do some climbing. he brought his kid, not a toddler, but like 4 or maybe 5, I don't remember. The kid could talk and walk though. The base of the climbing area is nothing but accumulated blocks that fell from the overhanging cliff above. There is no level ground there, and virtually no ground at all! Perfect place for a kid, right?

It was just the 3 of us, no one else there. My buddy is leading a hard variation to a route, a very thin crack with tricky pro. He's a ways up the crack when his kid takes a tiny tumble while hunting for slugs, hurts himself and proceeds to start crying, right next to me. Wailing is more like it. So I'm belaying and my parenting instincts kick in (I have two grown daughters), and I try to comfort the kid. He tries to show me his owie.

Meanwhile my bud is slightly sketch. 

Perfect climbing situation, wouldn't you say? So what happened?

My buddy looks down at me, then angrily and loudly says

Pay the fuck attention!!

He didn't offer one word of comfort to his kid!   

All's well that ends well as they say. That kid is a hardman, now, just like his pop.

Good on you for wanting to get your kid outdoors and for being thoughtful about it. And assuming you're not paying the third adult handsomely, my hat is off to that person.

It bears repeating ad nauseum: PLEASE keep your kid out of the fall zone, no matter what, and please be realistic about how big that zone is. If a person, rock, or piece of gear lands on your kid, there's a good chance that multiple lives will be irreversibly altered. I too have had the experience of a toddler wandering underneath me while I'm unprotected, and wanted to slap the hell out of the oblivious parents. I've accidentally pulled choss off of established routes while folks were clustered directly below. I've dropped cams and draws. Last year, a friend observed an unsheathed, 12" bowie knife fall off of a random climber on a single pitch sport route.

Please also be aware that it's fashionable to bring unleashed, traumatized, food-insecure dogs to the crag. Big cute dog wanders over to the play area and decides your kid's snack is his, kid reaches for the snack and ends up disfigured and traumatized. Dog parent will inevitably say in all sincerity: "He's never acted like that before."

I don’t have kids but have recently been the 3rd to my parenting couple friends several times.

x1000 on setting up a zone away from the climbing. Pack-n-play may still work for short periods at 1-1/2. You gotta have all your usual snacks, blankets, diapers etc.  One of the parents is typically required with young kids for anything over 10 minutes, so I belay a lot.  Having more than 3 people is actually better because it creates an easier changeover and also keeps the primary care-giver company.  Extra people to hang routes and swap belays makes everything more casual.  

Yes, there are grumpy parties amd badly behaved dogs to contend with.  Plan conservatively.  

My friends often totally split their climbing days to avoid constantly bringing their kids to the crag.  They resisted that at first but now say they get more climbing in that way and are less stressed.  This is especially important for hard sends.

Unless you have a really good car kid, split up the drive. You will find that easier for everybody.  

I have really enjoyed climbing with the little folk.  It slows the whole scene down and makes me appreciate being in nature more.  I even find climbing more fun.  Approach it with determination, a problem solving mindset and a good attitude.  They won’t be that age long.  Live it!

We have a 3 year old and a six month old, and we’ve had them both at the crag many times, particularly the older one when we only had one kid. We’ve done numerous road trips with them to different climbing areas around NZ, Aus, and the US, and I can share some general observations from our experiences.

You’re on the right track already by bringing a third adult along and by looking for crags with kid friendly bases. As others have mentioned, your toddler should wear a helmet at all times at the crag and be placed well away from any rockfall or other hazards. We generally try to look for places like caves or at least overhanging walls where any rock fall is less likely to hit where the kid would be set up. As others have mentioned, think of this more as a family holiday than a proper climbing trip. You never know exactly how much time you’ll be able to get at the crag or how many goes you’ll be able to have on a route that you’re working. If you keep your expectations in check, you’re more likely to have a good time.

A few things that others have not really mentioned are to  consider the impact of travel in general on your kid. Have you done many trips overall aside from climbing holidays? Does your kid adjust well to new environments and experiences? In our experience, having relatively easy kids, the first day on a trip is usually the hardest. Often sleep is disrupted and the kid might act out because they aren’t around their usual environments. You can help to mitigate these issues by bringing a comfort item like a favourite toy or a blanket something else that reminds the kid of home.

What is your napping and feeding schedule like? At 1 1/2 years old you’re probably down to one midday nap but how does your kid sleep? If they’re an easy sleeper and you have a portacot or some other way for the kid to sleep at the crag this will vastly maximise your climbing if you can time the nap appropriately. In other words if your kid can nap at the crag in the middle of the day, then with luck you’ll be able to stay out all day. On the other hand, if your kid needs a particular sleeping environment and needs to nap at home, then that means you’ll be limited to a morning and/or afternoon session before and after naps. Also, if your kid is still breastfeeding then obviously it’s harder on mum as she’ll need to sacrifice more climbing time for feeds, particularly before naps.

Good luck! After dozens of experiences being at the crag with kids, I still haven’t decided if it’s really worth it, but I’d still rather climb on a family holiday than the alternative!

Our times as climbing parents of a young child are many years ago, but the 'fundamentals' haven't changed. We found that on an extended trip (such as you are doing, in contrast to a day-trip) it works best for one of the parents to stay with the child while the other climbs with the 3rd party ( or more). While you can surely divide up individual days by, say 1/2 day each, and alternate between the parents climbing, it seems to work best if the parents alternate parenting/climbing days. This gives more options to do fun things with the child. Probably for a week the best option is mix up the two. Of course, the big 'catch' is that the parents don't get to climb with each other ( though if the third is willing to do some baby-sitting that, too, can be fit in a few times).
As for kid-friendly crags at the New, one of the problems is access to the base, which would seem to rule out Endless. The Bridge area is very accessible but very busy and I'd worry about tourists on top dropping things. Junkyard should be good, Kaymoor, too. Summersville, if I remember correctly, has a bit of an approach, and, especially around Long Wall/Orange Oswald gets worryingly close to the water for a toddler. I haven't climbed at the Meadow, so can't opine on that area.

As others have said, look at this more as a family adventure than as a climbing trip. Have fun.

back in the 60s I am pretty sure our parents gave us a healthy slug of rum laced hot cider when they wanted us to pass the fck out and stop being a nuisance... 

I always like Beauty Mountain at the New.  Way less crowded. The base of the cliff should be fine for a wee one, but the scramble down and back up could be a challenge.  Maybe a fixed line?

You just one of these and a harness.  

Most of the most important stuff has been mentioned. Flat base area. Stay out of the fall zone. You've got supplies.

I'd add: have someplace for them to sleep, either a hammock or blanket/sleeping pad. Watch out for poison ivy/wasps. A great toy is the 1:64 Scale Hot Wheels Monster Trucks. They are small enough to pack easily. But fun for the kids to roll around on the ground or rocks.

I think you have all the basics, and you’ll be just fine, as long as you are flexible.

One bit of advice that hadn’t been mentioned specifically: rather than having the kid hanging out in the same spot all day, the 3rd adult should take him for a walk. If each adult does just one walk-about in the course of a day, it’s plenty to relieve boredom, and burn off some steam.

It will also dramatically help the climber/belayer in your group, ESPECIALLY the primary caregiver parent. Bored kids tend to demand attention from mommy, even if there is someone else is watching them (just assuming mom = primary caregiver here), and, from personal experience, I can tell you that a kid whining meant that I might as well come down immediately, bc I’m mentally distracted, and can’t try hard, and the whining is a self-escalating feedback loop.

But out-of-sight => out-of-mind is very true for kids this age. Take them for a walk, and point out sticks, even if it is just around the corner from the wall, and whining for mommy is no longer a problem.

Another one here for helmets. One of my daughter’s crag buddies (4 when it happened) got hit in the head by rockfall. He’s lucky to be alive, and will be special needs for the rest of his life. It wasn’t a chossy perpetual rockfall area either. Better safe than sorry.

Other than that, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. We used to bring a little pop up tent (3’x4’ish)for them to chill in and kinda have their little fort, it was a good place to make a little play pen and they could take naps if we got lucky.

The main thing is to be flexible, and someone might get stuck wearing them for a while to get them to nap.

Solo TR is a great option when you only have two adults in the party.

Thanks for all the input yall. Wanted to pop back in and debrief our experience.

Overall we had a blast, nailed most of our logistics, everyone had fun. We tried to go in with attitude many of yall espoused of having low expectations for how much actual climbing we’d get to do, and that was very helpful. In the end I got to do a good amount of climbing and my partner a bit less than she would have liked, but we tried to look at it as a big learning experience as to how/if it was going to work, which I think really helped.

My big takeaways in no particular order:

be really proactive with the little ones layering- make sure they are wearing the right clothing for whatever little microclimate you wander into/they decide they want to hang out in. We were slow to layer up a couple times when moving into the shade, and he got cranky unnecessarily.

Be proactive with your nap plan  we had a couple days where he fell asleep on mom’s lap and then she was kind of stuck where she happened to be. Figure out who’s gonna take the nap ahead of time and be ready with your hammock/comfy blanket zone/carrier set up.

Odd number of adults. 1 to watch the kid(s) and pairs that can climb. We had 4 adults and one kid and while that was great for sharing the childcare load it meant less climbing for everyone.

As several people said upthread, keep the kid out of the drop zone. Obviously you may have to walk through it to get where you are going, but set up shop in a safe area. We were only out for a week but saw stuff fall, consequences could be dire.

Communication and planning is key- make sure you all understand what each other are trying to get out of the day and figure out a crag that’s gonna have something for everybody the night before.

My partner is breastfeeding and she found that when we were out climbing and he started nursing her psych/desire to try anything hard really evaporated, and she would kind of cede her share of climbing time to focus on him. We were communicating a lot throughout the days and thought were were doing a good job getting everybody what they wanted out of the days, but towards the end of the trip she realized this pattern and was kind of bummed that she hadn’t gotten to do as much climbing as she would have liked even though in the moment she felt good about her decisions to focus on the kid instead of climbing. Going forward we plan to front load her portion of the days climbing or have me stay back with the kid some days to try and mitigate.

All in all it was a great time and well worth the extra effort. He loved being outside all day and scrambling around on rocks, looking at ants, putting pine needles in his mouth etc etc.

Some enterprising local should start a "baby kennel" in a trailer near Beauty Mtn. with lots of toy trucks, cupcake frosting lessons and maybe a few goats.

Karl Kvashay wrote:

Solo TR is a great option when you only have two adults in the party.

..and straight up free soloing if only one /s

Glad you had a good first trip, and learned useful things for the future!

Re: breastfeeding, yes, it totally saps you! Fortunately, this is something that will resolve itself with time rather quickly. The kid will be nursing less, pretty soon it would be just at bedtime, and not an issue.

But a kid-free day would definitely get your partner more (and more focused) climbing, so planning for some child-free climbing days is definitely a good idea on a longer trip, if you have other people. You could have a short climbing day, and still get more climbing in, without a kid, than you would during a long day at the cliff with a kid.

Failing that, what I was trying to say earlier upthread, just taking a toddler for a short walk where they aren’t in direct sight/hearing of the cliff, while your partner is climbing, goes a long way for short periods of try-hard.

At the end of the day, this would be continuously changing in the next few years, and, as soon as you think that you have your systems down pat, the kid will change things up on you, to keep it novel and interesting.

I used to say, I would have been such an expert on child-rearing, if I only had one kid! Then I had my second, and all the things I thought I knew went out of the window. 

Both of our girls were almost always with us at the crags, particularly when very young.

Someone above discounted the need for a helmet. This SO wrong. Even at an area of solid rock, rockfall happens. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. A helmet should always be worn by any child at a crag.