Climbing with your kids.

[pincherookie27]

What age did you start them? What system did you use to teach them?


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[Howie65]

I don't have kids but can remember posts about this topic. The "Super System" seems to be suitable:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/naturejournal/sets/72157600185248919/

It offers a hitch, 3:1 MA and is lowerable.

"moss" should have more details about (because he is the owner of one of the mentioned posts in another forum).

[edited to correct sense]

 

[macswan]

Started both my kids at two or three, in a full body rock climbing harness. Now my older one has a new tribe. I just set them up DdRT, and help them on the ascent. My boy is eight now and the last few times we went he was ascending by himself.
The last time we climbed I set him up srwp with the bulldog bone, a foot ascender, the haas, and my swing chest harness. And he knocked it out of the fucking park. Ascended like twenty or so feet, then did a limbwalk out to the tips of a branch and came back. Absolutely killed it. One of my proudest moments as a father. He also started foot locking last year. It's a lot of fun. I will usually set up a foot locking line and hang them from it, then give em some pretty big swing action. That tends to be the big draw with the kids.

 

[NorthBranch]

I have 4 girls. The oldest three have been climbing for the past 2 yrs. they are now 7, 9, and 10 yrs old. The youngest is 2 1/2 and I will put her in a Petzel simba harness and swing her around a bit.

They all climb in New Tribe kids soft D harnesses.

All climb DdRT system using Blake's hitch. Sometimes will set their lines using a split tail, but most often just use the working end of the rope to create the hitch. We use a prussic below the hitch to create a foot loop.
With time and practice they have all gotten pretty efficient. Biggest hurdle is the tend to push out with the foot loop and not get their full weight on the running part of the rope and then have a hard time advancing the Blake's hitch.

For fun we like to hang hammocks in the tree.

Best of luck in your tree climbing adventures.

 

[macswan]

I have the kids ddrt systems set up with cordage and a slack tending pulley. Makes it easier for me to haul there little asses up the tree. I usually have them in a tree I can free climb along side. (Anyone who was at the TCC in burlington, the kids tree there is the one my kids climb all the time.)

They get the descent bit pretty quick.

I've found the most important thing to be not pushing them to go higher, or talk them into climbing longer. Just expose them. If they say they're done, let me be done. Swing em around a bit and call it a day.