How I Made Kids' Crampons that Fit Small Feet and are Truly Climbing-Worth
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My kids have always been earnest about climbing. When I taught them to belay, they intuitively understood the severity of consequences a belaying mistake could cause. When I taught them to use ice axes (first, on very moderate snow slopes), they took the responsibility of managing their axes safely very seriously. They never swung them around, or pretended to have a sword fight, and they even made sure to carry them with pick behind them and facing down when walking over low-angle or dry sections where an axe wasn’t needed (kind of like there being a “right way” to carry scissors). And when my wife and I decided to let them have very sharpe, hard, metal spikes on their feet, they acknowledged the risks and acted with mature agency.
That’s not to say my kids are always like that. No way.
At home, they get into arguments about nothing and push each other when passing in the hallway, needlessly. Certainly, they don’t do that kind of stuff all the time, either, but there are more moments when they are antagonizing each other than there will be when they grow up (I’m hoping).
My point is a simple one: I’ve done a few videos, of late, specifically about giving my - still young - boys some tools that need to be handled with care. My wife and I wouldn’t have done that if we didn’t have evidence that they could handle the responsibility. So, while videos about “how” to get this gear ready for kids to use are necessary - we have to do the mechanical work of readying the equipment, the other major factor in this whole equation is the emotional maturity of our kids (or lack thereof).
For whatever reason, my kids have always been more consistent in their behavior in and around climbing than they have at home. So, I’ve had somewhere around five years of experience (yes, they’ve been climbing that long) working with them in vertical spaces, with ropes, and with at least some of the foundational tools of technical climbing. So, we weren’t guessing. My wife and I were very confident the kids could handle this stuff.
Just because a kid is physically ready to do something doesn’t mean that she or he is emotionally ready for it.
But if you’re kids are ready, I hope this video helps you load them out with the right equipment to make climbing accessible to them in even the harsh conditions of the ice and snow. And if you are needing links to the specific equipment I used to make these crampon setups, here they are:
Petzl Lynx/Dart Front Points (these would be extras; the Dart Fronts come with front points when you by them)
Have fun out there! Opening up the outdoors to all seasons has brought so much more bonding time with the kids. It’s been a joy.