Children in Trees

[Heath]

Howdy all!

What is the most appropriate way to get a kid in a tree?
Discussion started in thread "TCC 2003 pic"

Do I need to teach her to climb herself in from the beginning? Or, is there some acceptable way by which to attach her to me?

The Ouistiti seems to be the best harness, but does anyone have an idea or 3 on how to secure her to me in a way that won't have my ex-wife trying to change the custody arrangement?

 

[treeslayer]

Good thread, my son (Taylor, 8) is always wanting to climb with me, I'll have to get him one of those saddles. I'm looking forward to the feedback.

Get your daughter a saw like taylors, ( I bought it at Home Depot, and theres one in the baileys catolog, too, I believe.) but stock up on batteries, she'll wear 'em out!

 

[Crispin Hoar]

How old is your daughter? My children started at age four. They have always had thier own saddles. It is so cool climbing with your kids.

 

[treemd]

Sid is three in this one, took him to MEC.
Now it is one of his favorite stores.
If they would only bring in Th*mas the Train
First attempt at a photo... hope it works.
Codie

 

[Ghivelder]

Finally a thread for a proud father to post a picture of his daughter.
Talita usually goes up with a blake’s plus a loop for her foot, but in this pic she’s body-thrusting (the anchor point must be positioned in a way to give them a good grip on the tree). Once, on a very long ascent, I had her SRT up. I never attach her to my saddle except for very long descents, but in any case she controls the blake’s on her own.

Sergio

 

[Dan F]

During SpringFest at Purdue (which may be next weekend) the Forestry department usually has kids climbing in a tree. I'm not sure how they do it though. I'm thinking that if they are big enough, they use ascenders, if they are not, students might just pull them up. Email me direct and I can put you in contact with someone there and you can ask them.


Dan

 

[Treeman14]

You could try this. Its about the fastest ascent method currently available: http://www.trebuchet.com/articles/ron/trebuchet.html

 

[Heath]

Thanks everyone.
I think there are days that all of us may have used the trebuchet Brett has reccomended.

How old is Talita? She really looks like she's going after it!

Is it safe to say that noone really advises or has any experience with taking her up attached to me?

Madeline is 3, and I can't get her to poop on the toilet yet, so I'm afraid she won't climb by herself, but we may try.

Heath

 

[lync]

Kids and trees

My daughter Allison is 5 now but i,ve had her up since 3 yrs old.

I first just halled her up with a climbing line draped over a crotch,
the falling end of the line thru a friction hitch on my belt. I back up to make her ascend, then walk foward while pulling the slack thru my hitch. this way its a hands free system and if Ishould fall while belaying her my body acts like an anchor, and she can't fall.
I use a petzl ouistiti with the working end of the rope tied to loops of her saddle with a figure of 8 loop.
Once she was accustom to the height, I clipped in face to face, she sits on my thighs while I place the soles of my feet aginst the tree and body trust. (What a work out)

 

[BigJohn]

I get all my kids up in the trees on the weekends. They really love it just as I did when I used to put my dads gear as a kid. Here is teh youngest one.

 

[BigJohn]

Here is picture of the oldest one. He is 8 now and weighs in around 120#.

 

[BigJohn]

Here is the youngest one on a speed line. Looks kinda bad with wires and transformer in the back round.

 

[BigJohn]

Another of the youngest.

 

[murphy4trees]

I meant to post this a while ago...
Here's my 3 year, Jeremaih, with his first made up knot...
I did dress it but he tied it...
he would never let me show him any good knots...
instead he'd say "I can do it myself"... turns out he was right

 

[OutOnaLimb]

Cool thread!!!! I posted one a few weeks ago. I am expectin my first little arborist in November. We have already gone over the tree names for him and I think we have both agreed on Linden. But since he is gonna be a tree climbing muldoon like his Pop, Grandma has already ordered the "Daddy Pack" which is like a back pack for kids that you wear on your chest. For those of you who have seen Austin Powers, Goldmember you will know what I am talking about. I just hope Social Services doesnt freak out when I take Linden up into a tree when he is about 6 months old.

Kenn

:Monkey:

 

[NickfromWI]

Make sure you don't send kids up trees when they don't want to!!! You don't want them to hate it.

love
nick

 

[Tom Dunlap]

When my nieces were smaller we would put them in full body harnesses for climbing. Then my bro and I would wear shoulder harnesses so that we could biner them to our chests. It is so fun to be face to face with an ear to ear smile

Their favorite thing to do would be to get up in the air and have the rope swung side to side or in a circle. The kids would lean back and so would we to do airplane spins.

Th girls really like to go climbing. They were disappointed that we didn't get our the last time I was down there.

Tom

 

[Dobber]

Warms my heart to think of sharing a climb with my future children. I read throught this and cant help but smile, thx for the pics.

 

[treeslayer]

Look at the smile on this kid. I bought him the following, A new tribe saddle, 120' safety vee. lanyard with gibbs ascender. stihl hand saw. starting out, He learned the tautline slide. (I did the knot.) he went up 35+' and rapelled down.
I helped pull him up, and belayed him down. Now he wants to go everyday.

I've got an old pair of klein spikes, he wants me to cut em to fit.