Kids climbing setup

[Paulfreebury]

Does anyone have any good setups for young children? My 5 year old daughter is showing interest in tree climbing, she has her own full body harness and helmet, I've tried her with a blakes closed system and a foot loop but she struggles to push the blakes hitch up as she advances the rope! I was thinking if I put a pulley under her knot then attach a length of prussic cord to the pulley then my rope or hitch climber then as I climb it should advance her hitch? I can then use the same setup to bring us down in an arieal rescue setup

[WorcsWuss]

Absolutely right, a small prussic loop just a bit higher than the hitch on the working end of her own rope above where she's tied on, crab & micro pulley under the hitch, as she pulls the tail down it will auto advance the hitch. Piece of cake, it's how I learned...

[WorcsWuss]

Here, somewhere in this vid....

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1RSzKkBOWc]Ascending - Doubled Rope Technique - YouTube[/ame]

[Paulfreebury]

I get the self advancing on your own line but what if I wanted to advance her hitch as I climb?

[WorcsWuss]

Sorry, grandma & eggs! I guess the way you describe would work but only in that it will be auto-tending off your line rather than her own.... and only so long as the various elements are under the correct amount of tension and you're moving at the exact same pace as she is, it may end up making it more difficult for her...

[Paulfreebury]

Yes I see what you mean! But if I made her hitch just out of reach so that she can pull the tail of her rope but I advance the hitch, without the worry of her grabbing the knot and dropping! other thought was create a RADS system with my handled ascender and a revolver off of that, I can then advance the ascender as she gets to it.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Paulfreebury

[Czlowiek Drzewo]

Good thread,

 

Just picked my 5 year old nephew a harness and was wondering what will be the safest way to let him climb with me.

[WorcsWuss]

What would probably be a better fail safe would be to set them up independently auto tending, with or without the friction cord long enough so that she can reach it or not, but attach a thin dyneema sling into the crab on the tending pulley and attach that to your rig, that way if they do pull to go and release the hitch they'll only go as far as the sling will let them before it pulls their friction hitch back on and stops the descent....

[BenC]

I take my two boys climbing and have done for a while. I started them off on a prussic ( which they struggled with) then moved through the hitches until the knut on a HC which worked the best for them. How I do it is climb up with them to reach their final anchor then branck walk maybe drop through a fork then they have a swing before terra firma.

[Pedroski]

My 2 younger ones, I belay them from the ground after first setting a the rope through a cambium saver. That way they can concentrate on climbing the tree and I've got the rope for protection. I can direct them from the ground and also I can let them 'abseil' back down, or lower them when they want to come down, with me in control.