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Is this child neglect?

Sam Adventure Baker, age 8, is a climbing wunderkind.

It came naturally, as his parents are climbers, so he’s been climbing since he could walk.

He’s done some impressive climbs, sort of, meaning he was attached to ropes and either hauled himself up or was hauled up.

Now he’s doing El Capitan in Yosemite, a 2,900-foot vertical rock face, with his daddy and two other climbers. From the story (here) it appears he’ll be climbing up fixed ropes with mechanical ascenders, which also is how a lot of tourist-climbing in the Himalayas (including on Everest) is done these days.

Somebody else leads the hard stuff, fixes a rope, and you use rope-gripping devices to ascend it. It’s physically strenuous, but doesn’t require much skill beyond a toleration for heights (and, in the Himalayas, the fortitude to withstand wind, cold, thin air, and avalanche risks).

Update: Sam completed the ascent, but some Yosemite climbers said it’s not real climbing, and criticized it as a “publicity hoax.” (See story here.)

Yosemite is a national park, and I’m surprised the park rangers — who are responsible for rescues — would issue a permit for an 8-year-old to climb El Cap. It’s a serious (and usually multi-day) climb with significant risks, not just falling off but weather, exhaustion, and potential equipment misuse or failure. Frankly, I don’t like the idea of a kid up there.

Is this child neglect? In other words, should parents be allowed to do this? Adults can understand and appreciate climbing risks in a way children can’t. Our society gives adults freedom to take risks, but expects adults to protect children from dangers they’re too young to understand or appreciate.

What’s obviously happening here is the father is supplying judgment and decision-making (such as knowing when to back off); but climbing El Cap isn’t the same thing as crossing a busy street or swimming in a lake. Nor is it something kids ordinarily do, supervised or not; it’s something only a tiny handful of highly experienced adults have ever done.

I’m not saying there should be a minimum age for rock climbing, or that kids shouldn’t be taught climbing skills. But you wouldn’t put an 8-year-old behind the wheel of a race car. People get killed doing this; 31 climbers are known to have died on El Capitan, including 5 since 2013, most recently 2 very experienced climbers in 2018 (see that story here).

Photo below: El Capitan’s “Nose” route, marked in red, is more than 3 times the height of Seattle’s tallest building, the downtown Columbia Center (photo above)

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