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General Climbing Discussion

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Your intro to climbing. 15-Oct-2012 At 3:40:05 PM pmonks

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The approach I'm taking with my kids is "fun first". My thinking being that if they're having fun outdoors, they'll eventually catch the bug for some kind of outdoor activity (not necessarily climbing) and at that point they'll be self-motivated to do it as much as they can. My biggest worry isn't how to get them into climbing, it's that they won't discover something they're passionate about (it took me over 20 years...).

Ah crap - I think I've just realised I'm turning into a seppo...

[edit] And to answer your question a bit more directly... I hit the gym fairly regularly with my kids - the gyms here also run summer camps and I put them in those too (so that they're not just learning my bad habits). Outdoors I've found that my kids tend to prefer bouldering to the roped stuff - I think it's a combination of height and also the boring (to them) sitting around waiting for the ropes to be setup etc. - bouldering is instant gratification.

We've also had plenty of trips where very little climbing was done - they want to swing on the ropes instead of climb, or fly a kite instead of boulder, or go splash in a creek or a million other fun things to do - when that happens there's usually no point fighting it.

I took my 5yo up to Yosemite last weekend, for example, and in 3 days we "only" did 3 climbs and squeezed in an hour's bouldering. I went a bit stir crazy mind you, but in looking back it was an awesome weekend - we splashed in the river, sat in El Cap meadow and played "spot the climbers", kicked a soccer ball around the campsite, chased squirrels, watched deer feeding at sunset, saw 2 humungous coyotes and stirred up a huge wasps nest (that last one didn't go so well - I don't think she'd classify her first wasp bite as "fun").