What is a good age to take your kids to the climbing wall?

Hi there, live in Glasgow and thinking about getting my 3 year old daughter into indoor climbing. Just wondering what experiences you’ve had introducing young kids to the sport?

At 3? Not sure she could do much on the wall. Bit of bouldering maybe?

Started our daughter at two roped up outdoors on gentle slabs. Took her a little while longer before she really got to grips with climbing walls, as they are generally quite steep for little uns. The plus side of walls is the holds are obvious which helps with the concept at such young age. Give it a go especially if your locals wall has some nice easy routes. You may have to provide some assistance with the rope but it all good to get them into it and develop their confidence at height.

Why? My eldest found herself half way up my indoor wall at 9mths old….
Scared the buggery out of the wife 😯
Both now climb competitively – properly at a “commercial” wall the youngest was 3 1/2 as the eldest was on outdoor rock at that age as we weren’t living in the uk.
Full body harness and just let them get on with it – don’t try and force technique – just let them learn naturally and gain strength

Bloke at work took his 2 kids (5-6) to the bouldering wall in York. Seen a few kids there as well. Maybe bit older. Usually showing the adults up haha.

They sound like very positive experiences. Our eldest is nearly 3 1/2 and is already showing significant signs of wanting to climb. I wont hang around then and will head down to ibrox with another keen dad/3yrold combo. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

My daughter was 4 and had a great time – still enjoys it. Full body harness and let them go at their own pace.

I think our local wall says no kids under 7. You may mind this sort of rule decides for you.

The climbing works in Sheffield is a pure bouldering set up and I’ve seen tots who can barely walk on the kids bit. Take her to a bouldering place first as the ropes can be intimidating at first.

Hmm local bouldering wall here is five and over 🙁
http://www.northcountryleisure.org.uk/northumberland/prudhoe-waterworld/bouldering-wall-at-waterworld/

Annoying as it is by the cafe at the swimming pool and my 2.5 year old keeps asking to go on it.

My son has been climbing since he was 7. Learning to belay him got me in to it . Great fun climbing together

You should really be over 18 to take kids to a wall. Age of responsibility and all that… 🙂

GrahamS – Member
Hmm local bouldering wall here is five and over
http://www.northcountryleisure.org.uk/northumberland/prudhoe-waterworld/bouldering-wall-at-waterworld/

Annoying as it is by the cafe at the swimming pool and my 2.5 year old keeps asking to go on it.

If you take a trip into Newcastle check http://www.nusportcentral.com/facility/sport-central/climbing-wall

The instructors can only belay kids 8 and up (insurance), but iirc you can belay your own kids once you’ve passed the (very quick) competency check.

My daughter’s entirely capable of climbing at 3.5 ish.

However I’m not sure she’s capable of focusing on not running about screaming getting in everyone’s way when daddy wants to climb…

Echo Molgrips – that was my biggest problem at first.

8 is the recommended age at my local wall – there’s kids clubs on Saturdays.

Any younger than that and they tend to lose interest quite quickly.

But I think 5+ are allowed as long as they are closely supervised.

You can also try The Climbing Academy for a bit of bouldering… less faffing about with ropes, cheap for really young children (free at certain times of day I do believe) and they all seem to love the idea of the whole floor being made up of big crash mats.

Cheers CaptJon.

Boulders in Cardiff has a kids soft play bit 🙂

Cheers fellas, again, glad to hear it isn’t such a crazy/ inappropriate idea. I think the key point has been made by molgrips though and not sure what the solution for penning them in whilst you head of for a cheeky climb! Quite liked the set-up at IceFactor KLL with the soft play overlooking the wall.

Btw if anyone’s heading for the climbing academy in Bristol with toddler(s) on a Saturday morning, my mate goes with his 3yo and I was planning on joining him with mine on the basis that one could climb whilst the other marshalls two kids.

More parents would make it a bit easier still I reckon.

GrahamS – Member
Cheers CaptJon.

I’ll be there tomorrow evening so i’ll double check the exact rules/ages.

flyingmm – Member
Cheers fellas, again, glad to hear it isn’t such a crazy/ inappropriate idea. I think the key point has been made by molgrips though and not sure what the solution for penning them in whilst you head of for a cheeky climb! Quite liked the set-up at IceFactor KLL with the soft play overlooking the wall.

Send them up the wall and tie off the rope to an anchor?

My local scout group will take Beavers who start at 6 climbing and abseiling, my daughter was 4 when I got her on the local wall for the first time.
Full body harness and suitable helmet with encouragement and patience and your away.

Btw if anyone’s heading for the climbing academy in Bristol with toddler(s) on a Saturday morning, my mate goes with his 3yo and I was planning on joining him with mine on the basis that one could climb whilst the other marshalls two kids.

More parents would make it a bit easier still I reckon.

I haven’t been to TCA for years. Have only taken daughter to Undercover. Is there plenty that kids/toddlers can do at TCA?Will give TCA a shot one saturday after christmas. Hopefully my wrist should be up to climbing soon, still gaining strength from a break.

I dunno, I haven’t been there yet.

I took mine on and off from about 6 or 7, without forcing the pace. Eldest is 13 and much more self-motivated now. Adam Ondra on the other hand was onsighting 7b+ at age 8. Get!

Both now climb competitively – properly at a “commercial” wall

Strange, competitive climbing seems all wrong to me. Not sure why, but it doesn’t really seem like the kind of thing which should be competitive.

@GrahamS

Climb Newcastle is a dedicated bouldering wall and does kids lessons from 3. I’m taking my 2 1/2 year old there next summer.

http://www.climbnewcastle.com/kids-climbing.html

There’s a kid climbs at our nearest wall (Leeds) who can’t be more than four or five and he’s putting most of the grownups to shame, the ropes seem to not phase him at all.

My youngest started going regularly at six but I reckon could have started a fair bit earlier without a problem.

Aged 5…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1qCdi7lYMw

The guy running it wasn’t going to let her have a go as he said she was too small. At which point she burst into tears, so he relented but didn’t appear to expect her to get up there.

7 here, my youngest struggles to stay interested at 6.

Just started to take mine to the works. It does have a boulder thats shaped like a castle, and a slide which probably helps.

boy 5, now starting to have a go at ‘one colour only’.
Girl 3, happily climbing the slab easy route by herself, scary when i got distracted, turned back round to see her about 7 foot up. (Proud/irresponsible dad!)

Mine would have been 3 and 6 the first time we went, about 3 years ago now – I’m not a climber but a mate is.

Eldest isn’t sporty at all but seemed to enjoy it and liked the challenge, although it must be a year since we last went.

The little one is an absolute monkey, but hated wearing a harness, so she tended to just clamber on the bouldering and traversing walls.

It’s their ability to reach holds that seems to limit them on big walls when they are very young.

Just take em outside to start some of the Glens have nice easy angled slabs, Etive springs to mind.

funny, reading this there may be a reason we have so many good climbers in Sheffield if a lot of the rest of the country doesn’t let the under fives on the walls!

Start ’em young, but to be honest my eldest really got much more in to it from 7+ as she was tall enough to reach stuff. When routes are set for adults it can be a bit limiting for little ones, if you can find somewhere like The Works in Sheff they have kids stuff set up

I took my daughter from about a month old. She used to sleep in the car seat whilst I boulders. As she got older she started running round playing on the mats (only normally us there in the bouldering bit) now she is 2 and starting to want get higher when bouldering we got her a harness and she is doing a bit of top roping/being pulled up/swinging on the ropes. We don’t push her to do it and if she just wants to play on the matts instead I’m happy. The wall we go to has a few families with young kids so there are a few routes with loads of suitable holds just for them.
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=1273BA841A39DFF5!550&authkey=!ANijnLk1BXqxJ7c
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=1273BA841A39DFF5!544&authkey=!ABnqdZ7R6yhdVhg

GrahamS – spoke to James tonight and he’s going to check with his boss. His first thought was you’d need your own harness. He’s going to email once he’s checked.

Aslo, almost sent my first F6a in the gym tonight. I was one move from the top when i got all twisted (move was on a corner with holds in very odd places) and pulled a muscle. 🙁

Climbing walls never float my (or my lads) boat: We’ve done Via Ferratas in the Alps since he was five; The Inn Pin on Skye when he was nine and a 500m long grade 5 in the Bregallia when he was ten.
He has no particular ability at climbing (can barely do 6a+ at the wall now he’s 14); he just likes an adventure!

took my girl tom the indoor wall when she was five, it was climb newcastle who have great little beginners room and run a ‘rock stars’ class, they then gradually teach the basics and eventually the instructor will promote your little monkey to their junior academy. Age wise it varies cos kids both grow at varying rates but also some want to climb and others dont. The more you push the less interested is how it usually goes for me. My girl made friends and shes now 8 and climbs regularly… so much so that I’ve begun investigating making her some climbing clothes as a sideline, I have the prototypes made and going out to test this week, production in the new year.

If anybody wants to get involved, the more the merrier, complete part two of these questionaires and at the end theres a section to add you email address for the mailing list:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_EditorFull.aspx?sm=6lWauEtiUPckjm2zEg%2fnj%2fESIryWzjRsMHDGyrvoDts%3d

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ta mucho and good luck with the climbing. Climbing with my girl is fab, love it lots.

Slightly biased here as I own a climbing wall, but generally kids aren’t mature enough to learn until they are around 7, which is why we generally don’t admit them to classes until then. Having said that I have taken mine semi regularly since he was 3, he generally climbs for half an hour or so and then wants to run around on the bouncy matting …….

So take them along, but you will have to supervise them (do you climb ?, if not you will have to go on an induction before you can take them)

Bouldering is easy for kids to do, but roped climbing does keep them in one place and you can always “assist” them over the harder bits.

The Academy is an excellent bouldering facility and a great bunch of guys. ( I live down south , so I have nothing to do with it !)