We got into climbing shortly after moving to Palm Springs, California. Given the great climbing opportunities within a short distance, such as Joshua Tree and Tahquitz, it is certainly an awesome way to enjoy the great outdoors, meet nice folk, and stay in shape. Then we had a baby! So, what to do, especially with two little ones? We managed to keep up with climbing, intermediate level that we are, by climbing when babysitting could be had. We've brought our kids to climbing spots but of course,  don't feel comfortable with the idea of climbing, with one of us on belay, and our small kids traipsing unsupervised about. Thank you grandparents, to the rescue! While our kids are small and it's just us two climbing, our solution is to leave the kids behind. We are about 1/2 hour from the nearest climbing area, as we live just below the Aerial Tram in Palm Springs, and, after a 10 minute tram ride from the desert floor, we  go to  a "secret", flat spot for short climbs  at a hidden wall, we've named after our first one, called "Sasha's Playground". But, babysitting opps occur  few and far between. So, we built a wall along the side of our house in the backyard for bouldering/training. It's grown now to three sides, and we've added better holds when we can afford them. Now, we boulder whenever we can. My eldest still needs to be coaxed into her new climbing harness purchased at Christmas. (Sasha hasn't taken to climbing like Shreya apparently has. ) So, we still offer to put her on belay, but don't push too much. Occasionally, Sasha will ask to be held up to the holds on our wall, but she won't do it without us actually carrying  her to the wall. Maybe that's a blessing and better for my insurance. :) My youngest, Maarit at 1.5 years, pictured here in front of our "wall", however, seems more adventurous, but the jury's still out whether she'd actually go for it. Whatever she's got going, it's clear she's enjoying watching the wall grow. Now, if only we can find local/fellow climbers with young kids, willing to get out there more often ....that's the crux!

I also asked the same questions Heather did before I got pregnant.  My favorite sports are all the independent ones: kayaking, mountain biking, trad climbing, peak skiing or backcountry skiing and ice climbing.  My baby now is only 4 months.  I want to be honest to say that these sports are not possible with my baby.  I have to curb my expectations on getting out now.  I wish I would have realized it more.  I still grieve my easy, pre-baby life!  Life is indeed different however Much More purposeful.

Basically you can indeed 1) get babysitters ($$$$) or 2) take turns with your husband on days to climb or 3) find a friend who is willing to take turns sport climbing on easy approach climbs.

The super great news about your post is that your other sports: hiking, backpacking, and skiing (assuming downhill/lift skiing) are much more baby friendly! 

You can still continue to rock climb, but yes - you will have to search high & low for someone besides husband to climb with.  You  will have to climb and he watches baby and vice versa.  And if you decide to breastfeed, it adds a bit more challenge.  I bought a mini travel electric pump which I have used on the trail or route.  You can definately bring a baby/toddler/kid sport climbing and bring a third to take turns.  We brought our baby climbing with us while he slept in his car seat on the ground for one route sport pitches (using a GriGri). Now he sleeps less and prefers to be more interactive so at 4 months we can't do that anymore (not that it is summer). We do climb with a friend who has two 18 month twins. A pack and play will not contain them. Basically we choose easy approach sport routes and take turns chasing kids.

On a postive note, when I do go out to do the things I love - without the baby - I appreciate my time so much more and love my son even more when I get back. Too bad you don't live in colorado - we could take turns climbing.

 Hello Heather,

I don’t live in Seattle, so it is hard for me to give you specific advice. I have written to a few friends in the area and they may write advice for you here in the near future. I know that one person already wrote to you.

I did some research and I found these links about children friendly hikes in the Seattle area.  I hope they inspire you to pursue all of your dreams.  I feel like this website is ideal for you.  All the stories can give you a clear picture of how it is to share your love for the outdoors with children.

Hikes in Seattle – REI

Hikes in Seattle -  NW Source

Any outdoor store has a bulletin board.  I recommend that you look at them for mommy groups or maybe you should start your own.  Connect before you have children.  This helps a lot.  Here is a link to a group in Colorado,  Colorado Mountain Mamas, maybe they have information for you. I know that MEC in Canada has an on-line message board ( looking for partners, etc) , with family oriented postings, or at least gear for families.

As for Sport Climbing: I do boulder and encourage my two year old to indoor climb.   I have contacted an avid climber that will also reply to you soon and shed some light on your question. There are a few climbing posts on this website that you should read ( Shreya and Thank You).   A friend of mine is five months pregnant and still climbing strong. Anything is possible.

Here is a link to an article about climbing and children in the news:  Rock and Ice.

Also, Hiking Lite has has featured a few articles on backpacking light with children: Article 1 and Article 2.

Keep your eye out at nation publications that promote outdoor sports, maybe they have old articles or will publish some in the near future.

Good luck and don't forget to browse the site.  As you get closer to making a decision about adding another member to your family, you may find that gear reviews and advice on www.outdoorbaby.net will help you make wise choices.

Heidi

Most people who view this blog probably already have a family, but I came here to find out if the life I love -lots of hiking, backpacking, climbing, and skiing- is possible with children.  I know that I want children.  I know that I want to continue to do the activities that I love, that connect me to nature and simplicity.  Here's the difficulty...I don't have anyone around me who has children and also does the activities that I do.  I live in a community of soccer moms and football dads, where the TV and video games take up a lot of many families' time.  I often find myself having trouble relating to their lives, and then I begin to panic that I cannot continue the life that I love with children.

So, I have read your stories and tips...and they have given me much inspiration and courage.  Thank you for showing me the life that I knew was possible.  I look forward to many great adventures with children in the near future...we're hoping to get pregnant soon!

I have a couple questions though:

1) Is there anyone out there who can talk about continuing to sport climb when you have a baby or toddler?  I imagine that leaving baby behind with a babysitter is the best option.  And I have heard some people say that if you climb with another couple, then two can always be on the ground playing with baby(ies)...like in a Pack & Play or something?  I just would love to hear the basic logistics of sport climbing with baby/toddler.  Is it an idiot idea?!  I really don't know...

2) Does anyone know of an outdoor community in the Seattle area for families or women with children?  This seems like a critical point -hooking up with other outdoor families- from reading other peoples' posts.  Given that my husband and I have not managed to make this happen as a couple (in 8 years time), I am predicting it will be even more difficult with children.  Most people we know look at us like we're crazy when we talk about our weekend adventures, and I'm sure they will even further question our sanity if we say we had children in tow.  It seems like major outdoor hub cities have an outdoor community, a way of connecting with other like-minded folks.  I'm just not finding it here in Seattle...the Mountaineers appears to be our only offering, and it is 90% single males.

Thanks again for the inspiration and courage...even if we don't find other peeps around here, it helps just to be connected to all of you via the internet, hearing your tales and tips about an outdoor life with kids!

I tested out the 12 cm container which holds 3 cups of food.  The bowl was completely airtight.  I stored the soup I did not finish that I cooked on a backpacking stove inside my pack and I never got a messy leak.  I was on a whitewater canoe trip and this bowl came very handy.  I like to try to keep my gear to a minimum and this bowl does the trick.  Also, for thirteen bucks it really is economical as outdoor gear gets.  I was easy to wash and did not get too dirty when cooking on our little stove. 

I love gear that I can use outdoors and also at home ( spend less $ on consumer goods).  This container is great to store snacks for little trips around town.  It can easily carry yogurt.   My daughter likes to store her snack in the container and close the three little clasps.  When she is done I can through it in my bag with no mess even if it flips upside down  or I am riding my bike.

 They are available in four convenient sizes: 14 cm, 12 cm, 10 cm and 8 cm diameter. They are made of high grade stainless steel #304. Easy to clean, the bottom part can be washed in the dishwasher.

Another great reason to buy this container is that you will be purchasing less plastic and storing your food in a more healthy environment.   Outdoor travel is surrounded by plastic and I am making it a point to feature products that reduce our use of this toxic material.

To purchase this great product click on this link:  Life without plastic

Life without Plastic is a web-based company based out of Canada and run by a family.  They offer many other products that I would love to get my hands on.

Maybe these little bowls will become the Sigg version of food containers, can you imagine them in different colors and designs. Hey, maybe I should get royalty on that.  For now, you can take a marker and write on the container to identify the content or the user.  Useful, if you are traveling with a few little ones and you are digging through your pack for your picky toddlers bowl of snack and not your leftovers.

www.lifewithoutplastic.com

Heidi

Many would describe me as an outdoorswoman.  I suppose I cannot dispute that claim.  For the last 10 or 15 years, I have cultivated a career in what we now call Adventure Education – using the wilderness or other challenging environments for the education and personal growth of participants.  This work has had me sleeping under the stars up to 200 nights a year.

Oddly, on my days off, I may be found under the stars as well.  While friends vacationed in Hawaii or New York, I was bundled up under layers of down with spiky metal crampons on my feet trudging up some big mountain or filling my ears with sand as I made home in Joshua Tree (the climbers paradise) or on the San Juan river (where there is always a sand storm to be had).

So what happens when a wilderness woman finds herself pregnant?  Life changes in wild and wonderful ways. 

First Month –Seeing the stick that reads “pregnant” completely erased my former need to analyze my life.  I am not sure if it is my Scandanavian heritage or my pragmatic family.  But I am fully capable of taking “over-analyze” to an extreme.  Here in one minute and a tablespoon of urine, it had all been decided.  Is it relief, shock, or denial?  Either way it was a lot easier than what I had been enduring for the previous years.  Maybe I should have tried this earlier.  After I caught my breath, it was clear.  This was my new path.  I was to be a mother. 

Second Month –  Secrets. We decided not to tell people until I was safely into the third month.  Nevertheless, life still had to go on.  We were to go on a three week Grand Canyon raft trip in my third month.  I had to decide if that was safe and smart.  I had to discuss with certain people my possible need to back out of the Grand Canyon, traveling first aid courses, the rock climbing course in the fall, and my month long field course in September.  I didn’t look or even really feel pregnant but I already had to make some big changes.

Third Month – In like a lion out like a lamb, they say.  This month started out with being bloated, burpy, and full of heartburn. I am up at 10,000 feet of elevation in Leadville, Colorado, teaching a class on wilderness medicine. As I see the students taking runs or skiing on the mountain backdrop, I want to keep up my exercise routine.  But all I have energy for is a nap. Imagine the energy it takes to build a kidney or to create a whole vascular system.  I have climbed mountains.  I’ve been up to 18,000 ft.  Never have I experienced the profound exhaustion without the payoff of a stunning view.  I guess my payoff comes in six months.

Out like a lamb though.  I am ending the Leadville stint with a reprieve from the bloat and heartburn.  Baby Pea and I took a hike into a cirque in the nearby mountains to enjoy the melting snow, the budding alpine flowers, and the fresh, fresh air.  Pea seems to like this high mountain wildness.  No problem with elevation for this future climber.

Fourth Month – The midwife says I can’t ride my bike anymore.  I am not fully in control of my equilibrium, she says.  I might crash, she says.  But I feel great.  I am in full control of my body.  I have always been, and will always be, athletic and physically aware.  Hmmm, where did that bruise come from?

Fifth Month –I haven’t been climbing for months.  I am not sure why I have waited until I am 5 months pregnant.  I guess it’s now or never.  I can still get into a harness and after getting out of the first trimester’s lethargy, I finally feel a good amount of energy.

I have missed Granite Mountain.  However, a place that has been a part of me, an extension of my strong body, is suddenly intimidating.  Can I make it?  What’s worse, if I can’t, will I feel okay about that?  I am still a fit and capable woman, particularly when compared to mainstream American women in their late thirties.  Nevertheless, I am comparing myself to myself – only that self was 10 pounds lighter and not forming small body parts inside me everyday.

When Jason yells down from the top of the first pitch that I am on belay, the lump in my throat grows.  The inner dialogue begins.  ‘Here I go.  I have climbed this pitch so many times in my life.  I know every move.  Why does it not feel the same?  I am testing and re-testing every foothold.  I rationally know that I am climbing well.  I still have it.  But there is an underlying feeling that something could go wrong.  What if my body gives out? What if I harm the baby?  I complete every move.  I am not straining.  Why am I still questioning?’

Leading the second pitch was a foreign experience. ‘Whose body am I climbing in?  Can I trust it?  Why does this 5.4 pitch feel like 5.9?’

At some point during the third pitch I decided that there was no real reason why I needed to be climbing.  I am not sure if I could have come to that realization without actually doing it.  But at this point, I wanted to be down.  On the ground.  No more gear hanging on my belly.  No more chance of slipping.  No regrets, just no more technical climbing.

Sixth Month – I decided that my September field course was one that I could still teach.  The course is Women’s Topics in Wilderness Leadership.  So what did I learn that month?  Mummy bags are not mommy bags.  I understand the concept that the smaller the bag, the easier it is to warm up.  Camping at 10,000 feet of elevation in the Sierra Nevada in California necessitated warmth.  But I was feeling like a hotdog cooked to the point that it stressed its own skin.  I had no room to move, to wiggle, and rolling was certainly not an option – not with my new protuberance.  I wonder if the outdoor companies would consider a bag the shape of a snake who just consumed a coyote?

Seventh Month - Risk management is much easier in the wilderness than in pregnancy. Reducing the human-caused risk factors is what my job is about, and with an open, intuitive eye, I can do a lot to change a situation. Not so in pregnancy. At this point, it seems like my daughter is in charge. I can’t tell her to stop doing risky things.  Every month there has been a new risk, a new thing to worry about.  In the first few months, I checked to see if I was spotting every time I went to the bathroom.  At the sixth month, I felt kicks but only intermittently – what was she doing when I couldn’t feel her?  At the seventh month, she has started to descend and get ready to come out – two months early!  That is her decision, not mine.  How can I manage that risk?

Eighth Month –Not only is it uncomfortable to sleep outside, it is now uncomfortable to sleep inside.  I don’t feel like exercising.  A neighborhood dog walk suffices for wilderness these days.  Will I ever want to again be the outdoorswoman I was?  Instead I am knitting, collecting little clothes, and reading up on how to be a mom.  Nesting is common to many wild animals right?   Why not me?  Nesting, nesting, nesting.

Ninth Month – Violet arrives!  She is early, three and a half weeks.  Welcome little girl.

Newborn Violet – Mom is healed, Violet is growing.  So far she has been four-wheeling to get to a remote and intriguing canyon in Western Arizona, she has hiked in snow and sun, she has joined her parents as they rock climbed, our backpack with baby carrier is on order, and she is about to grow into her hand-me-down PFD (previously known as a lifejacket) in time for our launch date on the San Juan River.

Yes, life is different.  I have spent more time indoors in the last year than I ever have.  Stairways, not to mention mountains, slow me down.  I am less inclined to lead climbs that I am not familiar with.

But, we are committed to make wilderness part of Violet’s home.  She needs the clean air, clean water, and undeveloped areas.  She needs to eat dirt, make sand castles, and climb trees. 

Kai loves the outside. We go on hiking and camping trips as often as we can. We are fortunate enough to live in Prescott Arizona where we are surrounded by open space. We get out for family hikes at least once a week. This is the two of us camping and hiking at Joshua Tree. Kai and I would hike while papa climbed. Fun for all!!

Tips for climbing/rappeling for kids:

right size harness (kids)

Let them watch how you do it first, involve them in some easy and basic tasks.

include them and explain them what you're trying to do and why

make sure you're with people who knows or certified in how to set up top rope anchors, belay techniques and rope work

chose easier route for kids 'appropriate reach for hands and legs with friendly holds.

start going to a climbing gym with your child before you venture out with natural rocks.

make it hand on, carry extra slings or other devices for your child to  practice with.

explain basic safety and discuss with your child i.e hydration, regular breaks, warm ups before you climb, first aid kit, history of place, kids like the attention and responsibility they get and they will be very happy to help you and remind as well.

make sure to take permission from local authorities before you do anything whether their policies allows for kids at that age to climb.

make sure you've got appropriate clothing (decide based on seasons and duration of your day)

have other alternate activities for kids ( board games, writing and drawing materials)

educate and be familiar with poison ivy and lime ticks

set boundaries ( make sure she/he is running around while you're belaying your partner)

be respectful to other climbers

what not to do...

don't force kids

don't plan for long days with one activity

don't take your children to when you go for setting up anchors.

Shreya was introduced to artificial wall climbing at the age of 4yrs. Initially she was watching and imitating us. She was excited and picked up words like 'you can do it' 'don't give up' 'look up' 'can I help you', etc. This was truly inspiring because, we never taught her how to do all of this, she just picked up these traits by observing us and being part of it.