Fear and Learning to Lead Climb – My Daughter’s Perspective

~:: CliffMama ::~

For a child who grew up rock climbing with her mother, my daughter was always very comfortable on a cliff with a rope above her for protection. She climbed difficult climbs without any fear or hesitation. But now that she is learning to lead climb and trail the rope below her as she places the protection in the rock by herself, she discovered the fear and physical challenges that had eluded her before and wrote about it in a school essay.

ABOUT JANNETTE: Since 1981, Jannette’s passion has been rock climbing. So after having children, she incorporated them into her climbing life as well. She formed a local family climbing group as a way for climbers with kids to find other families to climb with. With over 80 families in the group, she’s learned a lot about climbing with kids and created a blog about that subject on cliffmama.com which also features information for visitors to the Gunks in New York, where she climbs. Now awesome self-assured teenagers, she and her daughters share a special bond and they would rather be climbing with Mom than going to a shopping mall. When not climbing, Jannette is on the board of directors for the non-profit Gunks Climbers’ Coalition and works at a digital marketing agency.

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