As the summer comes to an end, I’m jamming my last week with my little one full of outdoor adventures and trips to all our local climbing gyms.
Clementine has seemed to become more and more attached to her climbing gear over the summer. I decided I would try, yet again to get her on the wall and actually up it haha. She is a big seven year old now and apparently the year difference from six has given her loads of….ego? No, really she radiates confidence. She comes in the gym walking the walk and talking the talk. Even trying her hand at a 5.11 route which I had no problem letting her learn her limits on.
At the beginning of this week I took my niece along with us to a local Houston gym and she went right to the bouldering area and flew up the wall. This is when I saw Clementine hungry for more. She had never bouldered before but decided on her own to ask my niece how she put her foot on a hold and how to move to another. Young dihedrals in the making!!!
For me it’s so mind blowing to watch the little ones just jump on the wall and kill it. Not knowing what beta is but taking your word for it and committing to it. Matching feet without even knowing it and moving from one hold to the other like butter.
Oh to be young again.
Maybe it is because as an older climber I have fears of moves or lack the confidence to try and commit to a move. Could it be I’m more afraid of failure at twenty five than I was at seven? Watching them makes me want to be the climbers they are. Climbing for fun and no other reason.
As always thank you for reading!!
thedihedral.com 
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I’m often impressed with what little kids can do. My four year old got some new shoes, so he wanted to go running. I let him lead me down to the end of the street, but then he kept going around the block, and we ended up going almost a mile.
My dad was a geologist, so I grew up hiking. If we weren’t hiking, then we weren’t really on vacation! He took us to the top of Mount Timpanogos when I was eight years old, and my little brother was seven. Naturally I wanted to help my kids summit the mountain too, and so far four of them have.
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Kids are fearless. And the best part about them? They keep it simplified always. To you, that wall may have some perils, sense of defeat etc. To a kid? “Oh that’s just a wall, I can get up there”. Simple. Every time I look at my 12 yr & 5 yr old, their passions and drives keep my mind in check. Big problem? Tough assignment? Just simplify it. Great article btw
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We had a climbing wall at church camp this summer and it was shocking how quickly and nimbly the youngest ones could scale that thing. Fun is a great motivator — at any age! 🙂
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Nothing wrong with walking away from a move. That being said, there’s one piece by Chris ‘Blane’ Rowat I always come back to when reading about age-related hesitation, or the lack thereof. The article’s from 2013, and was originally written from the perspective of parkour practitioners. However, I’ve found that this particular post (https://bit.ly/2OlA4wn ), and a lot of the other content that Blane used to put up, translates rather well to other disciplines, as well. It never fails to remind me that there is value in the experience and focused deliberation of age, just as there is such in the rashness and boldness of youth.
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As summer comes to an end I am looking forward to daily high temperatures staying consistently below 100.
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When they are that age it is great to get them to climbing, they don’t overthink everything like we do as adults because we know all the things that really can go wrong (and imaginary can go wrong)!
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I love when little kids practically run up a wall like spider monkeys. This really made me miss climbing.
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