I was climbing at Red Rock Canyon Open Space, a Colorado Springs city park with lots of sandstone climbing, a couple evenings ago and it seemed that half the climbers out there were indulging in one or another or most of my climbing pet peeves--those things that climbers do that are not only darn annoying but are also unsafe, rude, and bad crag etiquette.
Over the next week I'm going to detail some of my climbing pet peeves. Are my climbing peeves the same ones that bother you too? Or are you one of the offenders? What exactly do other climbers do at the crags that bother you the most? Give me your comments--peeves and solutions.
Here's my first climbing pet peeve:
Kids and Babies. I don't have any problem with kids and babies at the cliff, as long as someone is looking after them. But how often are you out climbing and see a couple narcissistic parents down the crag ignoring their kids while trying to get in their weekly quota of pitches?
At Red Rock Canyon I see that happening every week. You would think the climbing parents would drop the bored kids at grandma's house or find a babysitter for a couple hours instead of dragging the kiddies to the cliff, but no, they bring them so the three- and five-year-olds can argue with each other, dig holes in the soil, kill ants, break tree branches, and pry off any loose flakes within reach. Do those parents really believe that the little ones like hanging out while the supposed adults go rock climbing? Cheap parents.
Last week I was hiking up the access trail to the Ripple Wall when I had to stop and tell a 14-year-old kid at the base of the Westbay Wall to stop scratching his name in the rock with a pocket knife. Meanwhile his father stood 20 feet away belaying. The kid didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with his behavior. He told me he wasn't "hurting anything." The father simply barked at him to "Stop it." Clueless parent.
And then last month there were the parents who gave their two young boys a few sticks of colored chalk and told them to create an art gallery--on the rock. The kids covered the base of a half-dozen routes as well as the access slab to The Whale with dozens of chalk drawings and scrawled words, creating not a gallery but an eyesore. It was three weeks before rain finally fell, washing the chalk away. I never did find out who those bad parents were but if I had found them, I would have given them an earful. What their kids did was not only unsightly but bordered on vandalism. Bad parents.
The incident that really took the cake though was a couple years ago at Rifle Mountain Park in western Colorado. At the base of The Wasteland, an overhanging limestone wall, a baby sat in a playpen at the base of the cliff while the parents climbed. The dad was working on Ruckus, a short 5.12a, while mom did belay duty. The baby lay looking up at the cliff. I told the parents, "Hey, rocks do fall off this cliff. I'd hate to see one hit the baby." They politely nodded and went back to climbing. Their only concession to infant safety was half an hour later when they moved the playpen 20 feet out from the cliff base. Dumb parents.
Photograph above: If you're going to take the kids climbing, be a good parent like Lisa Horst and take them climbing, show them the knots, let them have fun. Don't let your kids be brats at the crags! Photograph © Stewart M. Green
Comments
Hi Stewart, agreed that many of these issues are not just annoyances, but are dangerous. When my girls were little, I always gave them a lecture about behavior and safety before we got there. If they got loud, I told them climbers and belayers need to hear each other, and it wasn’t just me scolding them, but a matter of safety. If they couldn’t behave and be safe, they could stay home with a babysitter. They wanted to be there with us, so they listened. I think it’s important for parents to drill it into kids so they realize their actions can effect the environment which effects climbing access, and can effect other’s safety. Kids need to understand, not just hear scolding without reason.
One of the reasons I started the family climbing group here at the Gunks was so that parents who want to climb could have other adults around to help watch the kids while they all climbed together. Crags are not a safe environment for unattended little ones, and it really helps to have at least one other responsible adult around to keep an eye on the kids. Plus kids enjoy having other kids around to play with so they don’t get bored and destructive.
As with anyone climbing, kids or no kids, I feel it is important to be sensitive to the needs of the other climbers in the vicinity, and to the environment.
Here’s what I wrote about family climbing and safety:
http://cliffmama.com/climbing/FamilyClimb.html
Let me guess – you don’t have children?
What bugs me is that parents seem to ignore the dangers. A little girl was recently struck by a huge rock somewhere overseas – I got a donation request for that. Keep ‘em safe!
I do have kids. Two boys…although they’re grown up now…30 and 29. But they started climbing when they were little, three years old, but just for fun and when I went climbing with them, we climbed. I didn’t take my kids though when I went climbing with my buds. We were there to climb, not babysit. As Jannette points out, cliffs and climbing are dangerous for little kids. She does it right. And she has organized a group which promotes responsible climbing with kids. Thanks Jannette. You rock…but you know that!
I agree that this person likely does not have kids, and if he does, his wife doesn’t climb and is willing to stay home with the kids while he goes climbing. What do you do in the case in which both parents climb on a regular basis and there are no grandparents nearby to drop the kids off with. Have you paid for a babysitter yet? Not cheap! Also, what do you do on a trip when you’re not at home or near anyone you know? This guy needs to get over himself and take a dose of “what would I do in their shoes?”. I agree that being destructive at the cliff is a problem in some cases, but don’t generalize, because it is unfair to parents like myself who don’t let their child do any of the things you have described. I also disagree that the crag environment is “boring” or no place for kids to hang out. I believe that I am teaching my child to appreciate spending time in the outdoors and that being at the crag with her parents is ten times better for my daughter than hanging out indoors with a stranger.
Good article.This is not about do you have kids or not,I do,and so does the author.This is about safety and preventing a tragedy.Next,how will we as climbers preserve our future if we don’t teach our children.
I agree great article and its not about if you have kids or not, its about good climber courtesy. People do the same thing with dogs at the crags as well. Some people dont have any ethics or continuous. Something we will probably never understand, but with articles like this (thanks Stew) maybe we can reach a few.
I agree Stewart, some parents can ruin it for all by being disrespectful and unsafe, but perhaps rather than writing an article addressing “pet peeves” it may be more useful to get the word out by writing an article about how to climb safely with the kiddos. As you know, I am one of those parents and have found safe responsible ways to expose my daughter and other youngins in our group to the love of the outdoors, and the love and respect for the rock.