The eldest of my 2 sons (Alfie – aged 12) has been showing an increasing interest in climbing over recent months. He’s done quite a bit of bottom rope climbing, both indoors and out, during the last few years but has started to show an interest in leading.

For those that are not familiar with ‘leading’, this is where the rope is not secured to anything above the climber before they leave the ground. The climber then clips the rope into ‘runners’ as he/she progresses upwards. This is viewed by many as a purer version of the sport but certainly carries significantly greater risks. As with any type of climbing, if you fancy giving it a go, make sure that you are with someone who knows what they are doing – it’s not worth the risk!

To start him off with this new approach to climbing, we headed to a local indoor climbing wall. After a bit of bouldering and a couple of straight forward bottom rope climbs to warm up, we spent a bit of time running through the rope work before Alfie had a go at leading one of the climbs he was already comfortable on. As is often the way with kids, I was more nervous than him as he made it look easy and composed. Not having a

rope secured above you tends to make a huge psychological difference which impairs your ability to move efficiently and confidently on the rock or wall. Alfie, on the other hand, hardly batted an eyelid.

Once he got in the swing of it, Alfie just wanted to keep climbing. He must have done a total of around 8-10 lead climbs which, as those climbers amongst you will know, is quite some going.

Note: This was a personal family outing and not done in a professional capacity. For those that are interested in lead climbing, I’m afraid that I am unable to offer this professionally as (at the time of writing at least) my qualifications do not cover this aspect of climbing.