Girls on tour

[Jarlaxle]

Old but interesting...so, Gob, you up for a motorcycle ride?



(That's Carmen and Laura from the Redline Extreme motorcycle stunt group, in Florida. At the end of the video-which I can't find anymore-Carmen's hands touch the ground.)

[Gob]

[Gob]

The consequence of nude climbing?

Fancy climbing up a sheer cliff face? Hard work just pulling yourself up - how much harder would it be with a toddler strapped to your back?

That's a question 26-year-old Menna Pritchard is well-placed to answer. The mother-of-one has scaled routes including Gower's Three Cliffs bay with her daughter Ffion, now two, snuggled tightly behind her.



It's a large step up from organised pram-pushing fitness sessions in the local park, and one which has brought her some moments of concern from a few fellow mums, particularly after seeing the picture (above) on her Facebook page with Ffion not wearing a helmet.

Pritchard, who lives just outside Carmarthen, is quick to stress that she never does anything which would put Ffion at risk. "The route I was climbing with Ffion [at Three Cliffs], there was no risk of any rock fall. I knew 100% it was safe.

"The person below me was very competent, I had a mountain climbing instructor there too and I'm pretty confident of my own competence.

"I was top-roping, which is very safe."

She says while she has done a number of climbs with Ffion on board, the majority of her activity with her daughter is hill-walking in a sling. Both are things she is keen to promote to other mothers, especially those like herself who are lone parents.

Pritchard's early life in Kent did include mountain walking courtesy of her parents, who moved there from the south Wales valleys just before she was born.

However like "a typical teenager" she chose going into town with friends over the outdoor life as she hit puberty.

Following school, she studied fine art for a while and then paediatric nursing but did not complete either course, commenting that she was "almost was too over-emotional to be a nurse", and worked for a few years doing PR in Brighton.



It was only with the birth of her daughter and a move just 12 weeks later to be near her parents, now back in Wales at Llanwdra, Carmarthenshire, that a love of being outdoors developed.

A fan of babywearing, also known more prosaically as using a sling to carry a child, Pritchard explained: "It was very much having Ffion and being a full-time mum that I started getting outdoors with her. I was keen to explore the surrounding area as I didn't know it."

Ffion had her first trip up a Welsh mountain, Pen-y-Fan in the Brecon Beacons, aged four months, which she slept through in her sling.

She continued: "I've only climbed with her on my back a couple of times but I started climbing in earnest just over a year ago.

"There's certain locations that I wouldn't think twice about taking her to such as Three Cliffs which is a beach location and very safe.

"The majority of it is hill walking with her. We've done various of the mountains around with her.

Pritchard has written online about her experiences with Ffion and climbing and says the reaction is usually positive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-sout ... s-16812023

[Lord Jim]

The consequence of nude climbing?

More like the consequences of landing too many time on her head.

The woman is a reckless moron; (the kid doesn't even have a helmet) who's apparently more interested in showing off than she is about her own child's safety.

"The route I was climbing with Ffion [at Three Cliffs], there was no risk of any rock fall. I knew 100% it was safe."

What utter BS; there's "100% safe" way to climb up the side of cliff without anything that firmly connects you to the surface; let alone with a toddler strapped to your back....

I'm pretty confident of my own competence.

That's a shame, because you're certainly not entitled to be; the facts indicate otherwise.

This idiot should receive a visit from the authorities warning her that if she engages in this sort of reckless child endangerment again she will face arrest and the loss of her child.

Hell, a very good case could be made tossing her in the clink and raking her child right now based on what she's been photographed doing and what she's admitted to, but I guess I'm just an old softie.

she never does anything which would put Ffion at risk

[Sean]

Never does anything that would put Ffion at risk?

The first picture would suggest otherwise. Social services should intervene. Not about the climbing but surely naming your daughter Ffion is child abuse...

[Lord Jim]

I thought of that one too, Sean...

When the kid starts school and she's asked to stand up tell all the other kids her name, they're all going to think she has a speech impediment...

[Sean]

Bloody Taffs and their consonants!

[Lord Jim]

Aside fro the obviously dangerous situation that this nimrod is putting her child in, there are apparently some factors that she has completely failed to take into consideration, no matter how "free of falling rocks" she may believe the cliff face she is scaling is, or how skilled or "competent" she may think that she or her companions are:

Toddlers squirm. Toddlers fuss. Toddlers throw tantrums when they're unhappy, and toddlers are also quite ingenious when it comes to figuring out how to unlatch things....

[Gob]

Peter Cornall, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accident's head of leisure safety, backed Menna, saying that experiencing these types of activities could benefit her daughter in the long run.

He told MailOnline: 'Although we cannot comment on the precise conditions on the day, the route photographed appears to a simple straight forward short climb and so if the mother and child got into difficulties they could be lowered off easily by the belayer.

'Outdoor and adventurous activities are a great way of learning about safety and getting children involved at an early age will improve their understanding of hazard and risk later in life.'

He added that despite the child not wearing a helmet, it would be unlikely to prevent serious injury in any case.

He said: 'We would ideally recommend wearing a helmet, but it is not going to stop you having an accident and it is not going to give a great deal of protection if you are struck by a large rock fall, fall a significant height, or swing into a rock face.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1l4iy8vpx

[Lord Jim]

getting children involved at an early age will improve their understanding of hazard and risk later in life.'

Yes, TWO YEAR OLDS are notoriously good at learning lessons like that...

There's nothing quite like a forty foot fall to give them a proper understanding of "hazard and risk later in life" (assuming of course, they live long enough to experience a "later in life")

From reading that, I can only conclude that Mr. Cornall, (not a doctor, surely) is very nearly as stupid as the child's mother, and also shares her blissful ignorance of the nature of toddler behavior.

[Gob]

No danger of a fall here Jim, she was on a top rope.

[Scooter]

And what if she pivots around it and crushes her kid into the rock face with her body weight? Or leans back horizontal enough so that the kid slips out of that glorified knapsack?

[Gob]

She's on a slab, little chance of her swivelling. If the knapsack is that unsafe, maybe they should be banned for baby carrying?

[dales]

The woman is a twit, case closed!

[Scooter]

She's on a slab, little chance of her swivelling. If the knapsack is that unsafe, maybe they should be banned for baby carrying?

Look at how far back the guy behind her is leaning. If she did that, topheavy as she is with the kid in tow, she could flip upside down.

And somehow I doubt the baby carrier was approved for use while doing acrobatics, so...

[Gob]

The guy behind her is "sitting on the rope", this keeps the rope taught ensuring she cannot fall down, and that her movement in any direction other than up is minimised. The chances of her "turning upside-down" or "doing acrobatics" are nil.

[Scooter]

And the chances of him slipping out of that position, loosening the tension on the rope and sending her flailing on the rope and smashing her kid into the rock face are, of course, nil.

If this sport is so idiotproof safe, then why does any site you can find that talks about it emphasize its dangers?

[Gob]

And the chances of him slipping out of that position, loosening the tension on the rope and sending her flailing on the rope and smashing her kid into the rock face are, of course, nil.

Yep, Nil. You don't know much about belaying I take it?

If this sport is so idiotproof safe, then why does any site you can find that talks about it emphasize its dangers?

Don't know, never seen that, care to substantiate?


Here's the crag description from the UK climbing guide.

Three Cliffs Bay
Swansea, WALES

Climbs 38 – Rocktype Limestone – Altitude ? – Faces S

Crag features
Very popular with beginners and clubs. Easy-angled slabs up to 25m high

[Lord Jim]

Strop, it sure looks to me like the fact that you enjoy this particular activity yourself is making it difficult for you to see a laundry list of dangers involved in hauling a two year old your back while engaging in it that seem fairly self-evident.

[Gob]

Jim, it seems to me that my many years of involvement in this sport, knowing that cliff intimately, knowing that system of climbing and belaying, and being to make a more objective appraisal of the situation is also being overlooked.

She is putting the child in a little bit more danger than she would be walking down the pavement with the kid on her back, but probably not as much as if she were crossing a busy road with the kid there.