Mother Nature and Her Wild Child

I thought you guys might appreciate this inspiring article!

Mother Nature and Her Wild Child

I was just about to point out that second picture from the article. No belay device at all!?

Nicholas Thomsen wrote:

ok I guess SSS isn't so bad after all.

Not using a belay device is a no-no, of course.

Let's look at some numbers. The article says little girl is 3 yo. Using CDC growth charts for 3 yo females, gives upper limit for weight of 40 lb ( not realistic since toddler is not obese). Typical top rope setup should provide for ~60% reduction of force, giving upper range for force of 12lbf, roughly 1.5 gallon of water. 12lbf should be no challenge for someone who boulders what appears to be V2-3+.

As a matter of fact, when lowering small kids it is sometimes a must to actively feed rope through the belay device.

for a 3 yr old on TR, i'd go with a hip belay or terrain belay. not sure if i'd do whats in the photo, though. looks like an accident waiting to happen. for example, if the girl misses a dyno and the parent isn't being 100% attentive, i'm not sure whether the parent could hold the fall.

I noticed the lack of belay device, too. Then thought about it... with TR friction, and a small kid, she can probably catch any fall one-handed. She's got two hands on the rope, so she even has redundancy. :)