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Teaching Children to Climb Trees

bj139

bj139

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
5,377
Location
SE PA
On Saturday, I saw my nieces for the first time since before the plandemic. I asked my 10 year old niece if she still wanted to climb trees and she got all excited. Their father said we can get together when it gets warmer to climb. They are about 10, 8 and 5 years old. I am going to put an SRT rope over a crotch and show them how to climb. I was also going to set a second rope so I can belay them from the ground. I suppose the worst that could happen is I will have to climb up to get them if they can't rappel down. I figure the 10 year old may go up 15 feet, the next maybe 10 feet and the little one 5 feet. I have to set a free swinging line for fun. Any concerns I may have overlooked?
 
What are you using at the top for the belay?? I was toying with this for my kids. But was concerned about the rope just going through a carabineer. Does it need a pulley? I had my son climb the other day. I went up first and attached the belay to the tether there. Can you run it through just a carbiner and back down?
 
bj139 said:
I figure the 10 year old may go up 15 feet, the next maybe 10 feet and the little one 5 feet. I have to set a free swinging line for fun. Any concerns I may have overlooked?
Click to expand...

While I have no knowledge to SRT/rappel, I will say that my 3 year old would go higher than my 6 year old without any coaching or encouragement so make sure you've considered their personalities and not just ages. They should have a blast though.
 
3355f19f6e8001b59f4fbd98937b9f8d.jpg

My daughter SRT climbing when she was 11.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
MattMan81 said:
What are you using at the top for the belay?? I was toying with this for my kids. But was concerned about the rope just going through a carabineer. Does it need a pulley? I had my son climb the other day. I went up first and attached the belay to the tether there. Can you run it through just a carbiner and back down?
Click to expand...
A carabiner is better than a pulley--when belaying you want some friction.
 
MattMan81 said:
What are you using at the top for the belay?? I was toying with this for my kids. But was concerned about the rope just going through a carabineer. Does it need a pulley? I had my son climb the other day. I went up first and attached the belay to the tether there. Can you run it through just a carbiner and back down?
Click to expand...
I was going to pass another rope over the same crotch tied to the kids rock climbing harness with a figure eight and pass the line through a Gri Gri or Safeguard attached to my rock climbing harness or saddle with me on the ground. A typical belay in rock climbing as I have seen in videos. I want to do the belay since I like backups as others have chided me here for using too many backups.
 
On high ropes courses and climbing walls with human belayers, one end of the rope is tied to the climber, it runs up to an anchored shear reduction pulley (envision a pulley that doesn't rotate), then down to an ATC attached to the belayer's harness and then finally through the belayer's brake hand. The shear reduction pulley provides some braking friction while allowing slack rope to be fed to the climber while descending.

Note the upper bolt which passes through the shear pulley, preventing it from rotating: https://www.ropesgear.com/collections/pulleys/products/cmi-4-shear-reduction-pulley
 
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bj139 said:
On Saturday, I saw my nieces for the first time since before the plandemic. I asked my 10 year old niece if she still wanted to climb trees and she got all excited. Their father said we can get together when it gets warmer to climb. They are about 10, 8 and 5 years old. I am going to put an SRT rope over a crotch and show them how to climb. I was also going to set a second rope so I can belay them from the ground. I suppose the worst that could happen is I will have to climb up to get them if they can't rappel down. I figure the 10 year old may go up 15 feet, the next maybe 10 feet and the little one 5 feet. I have to set a free swinging line for fun. Any concerns I may have overlooked?
Click to expand...
I say teach them the right way with a focus on safety. The rappelling part is the true danger. Hopefully they have a grigri with panic brake assist. I taught my son to DRT at 8 years old. He’s pretty good at it but I only allow him to do it if I’m at the tree with him. When he rappels I talk him through only putting a little tension on the Blake’s and to come down a little and then let go. That way he learns to come down slowly. I make him keep his feet to the tree and “walk himself” down. He hasn’t been higher than 15’ because the branch in our yard is only 18’ high. He loves it
 
Fl Canopy Stalker said:
I say teach them the right way with a focus on safety. The rappelling part is the true danger. Hopefully they have a grigri with panic brake assist. I taught my son to DRT at 8 years old. He’s pretty good at it but I only allow him to do it if I’m at the tree with him. When he rappels I talk him through only putting a little tension on the Blake’s and to come down a little and then let go. That way he learns to come down slowly. I make him keep his feet to the tree and “walk himself” down. He hasn’t been higher than 15’ because the branch in our yard is only 18’ high. He loves it
Click to expand...
I plan to be safe as I mentioned in my previous posts. Backups are my forte.
 
7c18e1ccfdaf2c156fc7a753fd06ca40.jpg

8edfd9f929c5c964926ef9f9cd378e5d.jpg

My kids love to climb anything they can get on. We took them to a climbing gym a few weeks ago and the had a blast. I think it helped to have someone besides me telling them what to do.


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Fl Canopy Stalker said:
I say teach them the right way with a focus on safety. The rappelling part is the true danger. Hopefully they have a grigri with panic brake assist. I taught my son to DRT at 8 years old. He’s pretty good at it but I only allow him to do it if I’m at the tree with him. When he rappels I talk him through only putting a little tension on the Blake’s and to come down a little and then let go. That way he learns to come down slowly. I make him keep his feet to the tree and “walk himself” down. He hasn’t been higher than 15’ because the branch in our yard is only 18’ high. He loves it
Click to expand...
With the proper setup, you can belay them while they rappel.
 
CZMark said:
With the proper setup, you can belay them while they rappel.
Click to expand...
Yes you can. In an attempt to get my son ready for his hunting future as well as life as a whole, I try to teach him to do it all on his own. I’ll put the rope up for him and tie the knot but all ascent and descent is done 100% by him. And I told him by 12 he needs to be tying his own knots too because when he is hunting age, I won’t have time to set him, my wife and myself all up at the same time lol
 
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