I was introduced to the sport of rock climbing in high school, and quickly realized that, if done correctly, it's one of the safest outdoor sports around. Many years later, my young kids started becoming not so young any more and began yearning to take adventures with my wife, Christine, and I.
I had been climbing for 16 years by that time so I was plenty confident in my abilities and knew what my kids could handle. It was a typical early June day with temperatures in the 70s. Christine and I loaded up our three girls (3, 4, and 6 years old) and drove 30 minutes to an easy crag, high in the mountains of Colorado.
The first key to introducing any child to climbing is to use proper equipment. Regular tennis shoes are normally fine, so the only piece of gear you need is a full body harness for the young ones. It not only protects them in an upside down fall, it also gives them piece of mind; a feeling of being wrapped up and safe.
We choose a low angle slab to play on, this one rated around 5.2. Starting out on easy climbing quickly builds trust.
It's important not to push your kids too much. If, after a long drive to the crag, they decide they don't want to climb, tell them it's all right. My six year old and three year old enjoyed a full summer of climbing while my four year old with a different personality, mostly watched the entire time. Let your kids climb only as high as they like. If you have more than one child, or can bring friends with you, they'll push each other on. That's more friendlier than you pushing them and they'll enjoy it more.
Let your kids climb without ropes. Do this where and when it's safe. Harnesses aren't natural and can quickly kill your child's confidence. Give them a good spot but make sure they understand how high they can go. This is a great way to also teach them how to down climb, which is much harder than climbing up.
I used to manage a few indoor climbing gyms years ago. As long as they're willing, no kid is ever too young to climb. Encourage them.
Help build your child's trust in the harness by hanging and then slowly lowering. This is a big step and is often scarier than climbing.
Explain how all the gear works. They don't need to remember everything, but they are smart. My two oldest are pretty good about getting the figure eight right most of the time. Do double check. If you encourage and don't push, you'll end up with great climbers. After multiple outings to different places over four months my middle child, Amanda, asked me if she could do her first climb. It was a 5.5 and I've never been prouder.
Justin Lukasavige has loved the outdoors from as early as he can remember. As a former airline pilot, he's traveled and lived around the world. He now lives in the mountains of Colorado with his wife and three girls. Justin writes about the outdoors, trips, and gear reviews at BCTreks. Contact him @lukasavige.
Thank you for writing this! My husband and I are expecting our first child and we are really looking forward getting him into climbing. We are the first of all of our friends to have kids and so we don't know many people who have little climbers. It's great to hear how to go about it and that it can be done!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. We didn't know anyone doing it either, so we just jumped. Since then we've gotten a few other families involved with us.
DeleteI think some (perhaps most) parents are scared of adventure. Their kids might get hurt. I think God has intentionally padded kids a bit so they can learn. We set this zip line up in the backyard a few weekends ago and it freaked out more than a few neighbors, but it was totally lame.
http://www.mountainbelle.com/lukasavige-fun-house-zip-line-edition
Nice post - I totally agree with the main point about not forcing them to climb. They will if they want to, but they'll hate you and climbing if you tell them they have to. My only other suggestion would be for them to wear helmets. I almost always wear one when I climb, so apply that rule to my kids as well. The good thing I've noticed is that my adult helmets seem to fit them fine from about age 3 upwards even though I take the bigger size in Petzl helmets for example. My kids seem totally unbothered by wearing a modern reasonably light helmet.
DeleteHi Toby - YES on the helmets! Absolutely essential in my opinion!
DeleteThanks for stopping by, Toby. While I think helmets are important, I don't think they're necessary for every climb. If there's no rockfall potential and the rock is very low angle, the likelihood of them hitting their heads is about the same as if they're walking along a trail, and I don't make them wear a helmet for that.
DeleteSome sports have become more dangerous with the use of protective gear. It sounds silly, but wearing more gear sometimes makes you take more risks. Football was much safer before the use of helmets and pads, and driving cars the same before seatbelts entered the picture.
Again, they're a great idea, but I don't think they're always necessary.
Hmmm...good conversation here! I agree that when the risk is low, helmets aren't NECESSARY, but I personally believe that the habit of wearing the helmet is half the battle so our kids wear helmets biking EVERY time (and I think they would climbing too).
DeleteAnd totally agree about the protective gear leading to people make more risk too - such a paradox!