Saturday 26 March 2011

A family day out...Sandy's first climb


Sandy did his first rock climb today- the ever popular Gutter in Glen Nevis. We did it in 3 pitches up to the tree. He climbed just in front of his mum and then I abseiled down with him. He's 2 years and 8 months old and seemed to love it... 'more climbing!' was all we heard all the way back to the van. We went via a small cave that was thoroughly inspected for resident bears and the he had a wee shot on my bike before I rode it home.
Friends out on Ben Nevis climbed Tower Scoop with a number of other parties around and said the snow was soft and knee deep coming down No.4 Gully. Water running behind and over ice but parties on Point 5, Hadrians, Smiths and Indicator Wall. Sounds of rock fall and plenty of ice on the move too.

4 comments:

theflyingpaddy said...

Sandy's face is priceless. There is no stopping him now!

Alan said...

Aye, he'll be burning me off next month! Al

simon geering said...

Hi Alan,

What outdoor activities had you and Sandy done prior to this if anything?

My niece is about Sandy’s age and I have been starting to think about discussing options with my brother and what would be a good age to start.

The approach you took is a great idea, giving him both the reassurance of climbing to a familiar face as well as having support and guidance right there with him.

Thanks,
Simon G

Alan said...

Hi Simon, he's always been quite gung ho and for the last year has been throwing himself around on a pedal-less 'scoot' bike. On a family sport climbing holiday he would boulder up to head height but said no to the opportunity to put a harness on- he has also shown interest in bouldering when he's seen adults doing it. He is aware that i 'climb mountains' and I asked him if he wanted to go climbing with daddy and he said yes, shyly. We kept the pitches short and getting the length of the bight right so that he could move but Jane was close enough to help was important. I had no idea quite how it would go until we did it and was prepared to lower them off if need be.
Jane is very good at having him outdoors a lot. He is used to 'looking for bears' in the woods near the house and has picked blaeberrys there since he could crawl there. He has been used to paddling in streams since a young age too and watched his mum sailing whilst paddling in the sea the other day (before I could get his clothes of- but what they hey).
Al
Al