Do mountain athletes have jobs/normal jobs?

[Boggy B]

How do you folks with children do it? Did you have to give up the passion for a period of time and then get back into it? A lot of people we know that adventure that have kids either have older kids or one partner is OK watching the kids while the other goes out. (That arrangement wouldn't work for us as we adventure together.)

What did you experience in terms of mountaineering and pregnancy?

Do you have regrets about what you did in terms of mountaineering and having children or mountaineering and not having children?

Post-pregnancy, the key to doing technical things together is parents. Yours, his, ideally both sets--get them to relocate if they don't already live nearby. Kylie and I have done plenty of hiking and climbing together since pregnancy. If we wanted to go on longer climbing trips, because of her parents we could, though we'd rather take the kiddo and do things he will enjoy. You may find yourself caring about different things when Mother/Father becomes part of your identity. Yeah, there are times I fantasize about not having a kid; being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, is great. But it's also weak. I wouldn't go back.

[Matt]

How do you folks with children do it? Did you have to give up the passion for a period of time and then get back into it? A lot of people we know that adventure that have kids either have older kids or one partner is OK watching the kids while the other goes out. (That arrangement wouldn't work for us as we adventure together.)

What did you experience in terms of mountaineering and pregnancy?

Do you have regrets about what you did in terms of mountaineering and having children or mountaineering and not having children?

Post-pregnancy, the key to doing technical things together is parents. Yours, his, ideally both sets--get them to relocate if they don't already live nearby. Kylie and I have done plenty of hiking and climbing together since pregnancy. If we wanted to go on longer climbing trips, because of her parents we could, though we'd rather take the kiddo and do things he will enjoy. You may find yourself caring about different things when Mother/Father becomes part of your identity. Yeah, there are times I fantasize about not having a kid; being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, is great. But it's also weak. I wouldn't go back.

Did you ever meet these two? I don't know when you started paying attention to Summitpost or this site. Great people and hiking partners. Good story.
I followed her up Summit Peak when she was seven months pregnant. She was moving fast even if correcting for my average pace.
Their first child spent plenty of time above treeline before she was born.
https://www.summitpost.org/chronicles-o ... ior/533836

[kyrawhitworth]

Great link, thank you for sharing this story!

[ekalina]

Disclaimer: I don't have kids. Sorry in advance for my unsolicited advice.

My personal observation of folks who have had active lifestyles (or, really, any hobby demanding of time) and then had kids is that most people end up stepping away from it. If you dig through the trip report archives of this website, you can find some examples of folks who were really active prior to having kids, and then pretty much vanished after that. Now, perhaps that was a conscious choice and they prefer to do kid activities rather than mountain activities - if so, that's a win win. But the pattern is there (with exceptions, of course).

A good piece of advice I heard once about whether to have kids was: Do you think you'll enjoy doing a lot of the kid stuff? For example, dropping off/picking up kids from daycare/school, doing arts and crafts with them, hosting backyard birthday parties for them and their friends, taking family-oriented vacations so that relatives can see them, preparing meals for a larger family, etc. Sure, kids grow up and that stuff won't last forever. But it's safe to assume that it will last a good 10-12 years, at least, before gradually shifting/changing. Does spending your time doing those activities (often in substitution of other activities) excite you? If not, consider your future...as Roach would say.

[pvnisher]

There's people who make it work with kids, but they do it at the expense of other things. And most do not make it work.

Note: insert whatever activity you enjoyed prior to kids into that phrase.

[rijaca]

How do you folks with children do it?

the key to doing technical things together is parents.

Yep. Get your parents to take the grandkids hiking,,,

Na Pali coast.small.jpg

[Scott P]

Adding to this discussion with a related question: kids--how?....

How do you folks with children do it? Did you have to give up the passion for a period of time and then get back into it? A lot of people we know that adventure that have kids either have older kids or one partner is OK watching the kids while the other goes out. (That arrangement wouldn't work for us as we adventure together.)

What did you experience in terms of mountaineering and pregnancy?

Do you have regrets about what you did in terms of mountaineering and having children or mountaineering and not having children?

We just took the kids with us. We may have changed our passion a little, but we certainly never gave it up.

I have never been pregnant, but my wife hiked in the Himalayas , 216 miles on foot, in winter, while 5 months pregnant. She climbed the highest peak in Costa Rica at six months pregnant (which involved 7200 feet elevation gain in a day). I can't say that this is typical or for everyone though.

By age 2 my son was getting 5 miles a day on foot. At age 3 he was getting 12 miles a day on foot. At age 4 he was getting 15 miles a day. My daughter wasn't quite as fast, but was getting 11 miles a day by age 5.

By age 4 the kids were doing some of the harder 14ers. Here's a photo of my son, who had turned 4 a few weeks ago on the summit of Windom Peak with his sippy cup (and he wasn't carried):



By age 5 my son did his fist technical climbs and did his first climbs in the Andes. By age 6 our daughter crossed the jungles of Sumatra on foot to look for wild orangutans.

https://www.summitpost.org/mountains-ju ... oes/691015

Both kids could outclimb me by age 8 and I taught my son how to lead.



By age 9 my daughter was attempting 6000 meter peaks in the Andes (we had to turn back just before the summit due to weather)

https://www.summitpost.org/adventures-i ... uel/894764

By age 10 my son was doing winter ascents in the Himalayas, albeit "small" ones by Himalayan standards (i.e. lower than 19,000 feet).

https://www.summitpost.org/a-return-to- ... aya/838418

Our kids had fun on the trips so there was no reason to go without them.

[kyrawhitworth]

I appreciate all of these different insights--thank you for sharing! Absolutely a lot to really evaluate with my husband and all of these different pieces, stories, and tidbits help create different what if scenarios to think about. I'll keep referring back and re-reading these replies as we someday get close to a decision point.

[Paula]

Adding to this discussion with a related question: kids--how?

We currently have a 2 year old, and she'll definitely be a hiker when she's a bit bigger. She's been mentioned in one of those "We haven't been around much lately" trip reports.

I had a pretty mellow pregnancy for 7 months. Hiked 14 13ers during that time, including Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. When the relaxin kicked in towards the end, my body just broke and it still hasn't healed. My pregnancy ended up aggravating old injuries in my foot and I haven't been able to get back to hiking or running at anywhere near the level I used to. I've only hiked 3 13ers since she was born, one of which was a repeat, one that we had to backpack because I couldn't do the mileage and gain in a single push. Went from running a 2:00-2:15 half marathon once a month to now just trying to get back to being able to run a mile without a walk break. I struggle to write this because I know my husband will end up reading it, but it's really hard to stay home while he goes on the type of hikes we used to do together because I physically can't do them.

I know I'll get back to hiking eventually, hopefully this summer will be a good one after spending the winter at various doctors patching my body back together. We have all the advantages of a strong partnership and a set of very enthusiastic grandparents in town. I had hoped I'd only be down for one summer, but I was prepared for longer. I truly think you have to be ready to take an extended break (while absolutely hoping not to!) if you don't want to end up resenting your kid.

This is already more personal info than I should be airing on a site where I have no anonymity, so if you want to chat, my pms are open and I'd be happy to give you my contact info!

[DiamondCutter]

This forum has some golden nuggets! Glad to see a lot of good advice coming from differnt life experiences. I think the main thing I've caught onto is that everyone's scenario is unique and each has to work within the boundaries determined by their current situations.

I can give some background on how it is being a weekend warrior with a kid, although a lot of my circle is convinced that I'm "always" in the mountains. I have a 2 yo now and I have definely hit the brakes some. I relate a lot to what others say about finding a good spot to get out to your local trail/hill regularly and use your passion to fuel longer adventure when possible. I'm now aiming for longevity and I'm becoming more ok with quality over quantity. I get out at least weekly if not daily in at least some capacity, and I'm sure to get at least a few overnighters in each year. To help supplement my full time job and make it cheaper wherever possible, I volunteer 6x each season for Santa Fes Adaptive Sports program as well as in the summer for their rock climbing, this gets me out multiple times a year, builds the network, and provides vouchers to use on my own. I'm also enrolled in community college classes so I'm eligible for student pricing at a lot of resorts/businesses so that helps too. Lastly, I have access to pro deals and although I'm a gear whore, I typically aim to pay less than 60% retail or 10-25% used, unless it's something I really like/need. So far this has worked well while I balance "city-life", but that doesn't mean I'm not also daydreaming about those same situations/profiles the OP references. I know a few of those types of people, and at the elite level, they're all usually single and living on low wages and/or sponsors, or they have a partner that either fully supports (like, "yeah sure, I'll live in a van with you for months at a time while we travel for you to compete, and I'll prep your meals and be waiting at aid station" type support) or the partner mirrors their lifestyle and they combine forces, or they have some other uncommon bank roll

....I also feel like our daydream lifestyle might be more commonly achieved in Europe than in USA but that's just speculation on my part. Seems like there's more market for sponsorships/etc and more sports to detour too to help find your niche. If anyone can attest to that, I would like to know your thoughts, as my daydream usually has me in chamonix or the alps lol

[Boggy B]

I'm not sure what AI stands to gain from the 2 posts made by the above account, but here we are.
[EDIT: account/post was removed]

[ekalina]

Pretty soon online forums will just consist of AI bots talking past each other. Kind of depressing.