I was watching the kids while Angie was away, so we went out to play at the Swan Mountain Traverse Wall between Dillon and Frisco Colorado. First we hiked and scrambled around some. This is important for kids to get their sense of adventure stoked. They had a lot of fun doing that, and this is a pretty safe place for it.
After that I set up a decent trad toprope anchor over our favorite corner and set them to climbing. Dallin and Brennan took turns belaying each other, and Dallin belayed Tan while I took pics. She was a little nervous, since she’d never been belayed by anyone but me or Mom before, but she was a trooper and got it worked out.
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- Boys play on the cliff
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- Descending into the gulley
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- Dallin and Tan roped up
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- Brennan nears top
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- Dallin belays Brennan
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- Tan climbs the route
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- Dallin rappelling
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- Brennan rappelling
I then spent some time teaching the boys to rappel, which is an important skill, and I think 10 is a good age to learn it. I don’t think Brennan will remember yet, but it’s a start.
I had Dallin set up his own rappel system, and unclip from the top anchor for training. He was scared but I was able to talk him through it okay. I also had him help clean the anchor, so he could learn how to pull cams and tricams and rack them.
Tons of fun and great skills training all around.
