Overcoming the Fear of Rappelling in New Climbers: Lessons from My Kids

I've instructed a lot of new climbers, but teaching your kids to climb puts what works and what doesn't into stark relief. Here's why and how I approached teaching rappelling to my kids, helping them overcome the natural fear that comes from easing yourself over a cliff.

A video can introduce concepts and even provide tutorials, but it cannot cover all of the variable situations and context of outdoor environments. Learn about something here, but then seek qualified instruction to master it.

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Here are some links to the other videos I referenced:

0:00 Intro
0:14 Bumper
0:23 Building Rappelling Comfort is a Multi-Pitch Climbing Skill
1:16 Understanding Systems to Foster Comfort
3:16 Progressive Exposure to Rappelling
4:58 Body Awareness
6:07 Outro

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[DeShark]

Given most accidents happen while rappelling/abseiling, a good dose of fear is healthy. I'm always a little bit trepedatious when leaning back, it's all too easy to make a mistake!