Tailored Quickdraws for Rock Climbing Kids: Considerations to Make Secure Clipping Easier

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So, I built some “custom” quickdraws for my kids. That’s not to say that I got out my forge and sewing machine and made stuff from scratch. Rather more like what we did with the kids’ crampons, I looked for readily available climbing equipment and then tried to be thoughtful about how I could make something that would maximize the specific needs of climbers with less body mass and smaller hands.

What we ended up making were 11cm length quickdraws that had a dyneema sling, the CAMP USA Dyon as the hangar carabiner, and the CAMP USA Nano 22 as the rope carabiner.

The video goes into all of the considerations that went into the carabiner selection.

You could look at this desire I have to fiddle with gear until it works exactly like I want it to as either a strong obsessive-compulsive reflex or a more rational desire for optimization. It probably is a bit of both. I will admit that I am a gear junkie. I like seeing the improvements in safety and functionality that make my climbing pursuits just a bit more efficient. But I also rationalize some of that away with the very real thought that “this gear keeps me alive.” Why would I not want gear that performs the way I want it to for the types of climbing in which I personally engage.

No multiple that impulse by the power of my love for my kids. What if the gear isn’t keeping me alive but rather is keeping them alive?

Of course, I need to keep that in perspective. I don’t go out and customize everything. I use bungie cords to cinch down the bottom of sleeping bags so that they aren’t too big for the kids (a bag that is too big for a body that is creating the heat will stay colder). I never bought kids trekking poles, they just used old version of the telescoping adult ones I already had. But clipping quickdraws on lead is different. Besides transitioning from climbing to lowering, each clip might be the most dangerous part of the climb. You are down to three points of contact; you are focused on something other than just staying on the wall; and you are often pulling out extra rope so that if you fall with that rope out, you fall further. Unracking a draw, getting it on the hangar, and then clipping the rope through in something approaching perfect efficiency is actually pretty important.

Like crampons being your first (and sometimes your last) defense from falling on hard snow, if I could fashion some gear that would reduce this very real rock climbing risk, then it seems worth it.