UKC

No, not a request for area ideas!

I was on Tryfan Fach this Sunday, and was somewhat bemused to see a family of four - both kids really quite young - soloing on the face. This culminated in a full ascent of Chimney Crack, sans gear and under some Plas y Brenin people chucking ab ropes off the top.

Now I'm all for personal choice and have nothing against soloing...but to go about it with two young children seems a touch irresponsible at best?

It's all relative to the ability and experience of the team...

WHAT!!!!!! Plas Y Brenin instructors were lobbing ropes down the crag whilst people were soloing below, crikey.

It is indeed - but with kids who are still in the single-digit age range I can only imagine the fallout should one of them fall off the crag to guaranteed death. It's hardly a great lesson in risk management and judgement, especially soloing below and around roped teams on the same bits of rock.

Well no but several times I've had fishermen and other elderly folk tell me how they soloed my medium-graded climbs as kids, barefoot and no parents to catch them. At least their parents were there

Is chimney crack even climbing?

I moved to a bungalow so my children don't have to climb the stairs.

Isn't Tryfan Fach little Tryfan? Can you actually fall off there?

I'd imagine you could fall off almost anything if the roped team above you drops a set of nuts or a large hex on your head...

I think you're over reacting and clearly this isn't for you. 

However, it is for me (and lots of other people) and I've done it lots of (wonderful) times.

I meant the angle is such that if you just sit down on that slab you won't slide off. I've been climbing since the early 70's not had anyone drop a set of hex's on me yet, so it's not such an ever day occurrence.

Thankfully I don't have a family for it to be a problem!

If ever there was a case for bringing the death penalty back then this is it...

Darwinism in action. i'm all for it

Maybe you can and go and film a demonstration of what seems to me rather trick style advice. Falls are not so uncommon on TB given the inexpertise of many climbers there and consequencies are not always so great, given you can easily hit large positve holds. The angle is steeper than Etive Slabs where its just about possible for a skilled climber to sit precariously still on the slab in a few places, thanks to fabulous granite friction and very careful balance, but if knocked off balance you will just get the infamous Etive  Kiss.. its only easyish climbing on TB as the holds are so good.

We was coming down from Belle vue Bastion and saw the same event - in my opinion mental  - obviously wunderkind considering they were in trainers but even the most gifted can slip and dad would have needed a strong grip to catch em on the way down - no doubt they'll be soloing indian face in a few years time -- if they live that long that is

I was also there on Sunday, and saw some of the shenanigans. Little Tryfan was really busy - at least one team on most lines, lots of novices and people learning to lead...

The family initially soloed up to the large triangular niche about a third of the way up Crack 2, which was already occupied by a belayer. As we were leaving, Dad was 'helping' one of the children back down to the base of the crag by standing directly below the child (such that, if the child had slipped, they would have taken out Dad too). 

Thought they might have got the hint that soloing below and around loads of roped climbers wasn’t the greatest of ideas, but clearly not if they later set off up Chimney Crack…

Yes, same family. I did think at one point as they downclimbed from the niche that I was about to witness an accident, neither of the kids looked particularly confident on the way down.

To those who don't see any issue here, would you really be happy taking your child unroped up something with an actual grade, directly below a roped team, in walking boots? I'm all for people making their own choices and accepting the risks that come with them, but putting a young kid in the fall line of any gear that the nervous leader above drops, where falling would undoubtedly be fatal, seems stupid.

if that grade is mod then yes... its just a scramble, wouldnt think twice about it on a mountain ridge (where the consequences are far greater).

Fancy answering the question I asked rather than selectively quoting?

If it went wrong imagine explaining that to the non-climbing relatives and in-laws. Not to mention the judge at the trial. Also, good point about rope-chucking organised groups being the main objective danger on busy crags.

A few years ago I took two of my children and a cousin up something near the LH edge of Tryfan Bach. Children were about 10 at the time. We were roped up and did it in two pitches. The cousin was the first to the top and I untied him from the rope.

There is quite a big platform at the top and I told him to just sit down and on no account to try and scramble to the top. A couple of minutes later I heard scrabbling. He had fallen off the scrambly bit above the platform. Luckily he landed back on the platform and didn't roll off into the significant drop below!

Since then I have refused to take anyone else's children climbing.

That left-hand line is a really good choice on a quiet day but it's a classic listed scramble as well as a climb so usually the busiest on the slab.

I once helped rescue a woman from the route who had frozen in fear and when we got to the top her climbing partner was reading from an instructional book on how to belay!?

I'd say family soloing is OK providing a letter has been sent to all of the local mountain rescue teams advising of the visit and requiring them to "stand by" for the duration of the family's stay.