[pct-l] The parental aspect of hiking

[Joël Fisler]

(I try to send this mail again since my first one did not get through??)

Hi Sasha,
I think thats a great idea. I did my first trips in nature with  
friends (without parents) when I was maybe 15 or 16. Actually we did  
Mountain Bike tours and no hiking but that doesn't really matter. At  
that time I did not have a lot of money so we got a cheap tent, put  
all our stuff in bags and put it somehow on our bikes. We had a great  
time, a once-in-a-lifetime experience as we did the tour around the  
Mont-Blanc (high mountain in Europe) by bike. After that most my  
holidays had to do with camping, outdoors and nature so those first  
holidays were kind of "formative" (I dont know if this is the right  
English word...). Also now with my son I still like to go out hiking  
or biking and camp in the Alps. I plan to do the PCT next year and  
would like to have my son come with me but he's not really convinced  
yet. We'll see. He'll be 12 years old next year so coming back to your  
question I would not let him go alone yet :-) But of course if he's 16  
or so (I would have to decide then how mature and autonomous he is) he  
could definitely go camping with his friends. As someone already  
mentioned, that age is ideal because you dont have a lot of  
obligations after you finish school, your fit and strong, hopefully no  
problem with your health and in my opinion this is a much better  
option than spending your holidays getting drunk in Cancun (I guess  
you can also get drunk on the PCT if thats an issue :-) or staying at  
home gaming or watching TV... And it's a lot safer than e.g. driving  
around by car in a city or taking the subway to go to clubs or  
whatever. I dont see any rational argument for a parent to deny his or  
her child such an experience if he or she is mature enough to see what  
are the risks (sun, water, snow, cold, bears etc.) and how you can  
cope with those risks. It helps if your parents teach you that when  
you're younger (like I do with my son now) but my parents didn't so I  
had to learn everything by doing which is also OK.

Good luck :-)
Greetings from cold Switzerland
Joël


> Though this may be a bit of a tangent from normal conversation on  
> this email
> list, I was wondering what ages did you start going off and doing  
> multiple
> week hiking trips? Would you let your high school child go on one  
> without
> adult supervision? Has the social standards for hiking ages become  
> more
> liberal or conservative since the time you've started? I'm seventeen  
> and I'm
> hoping to section hike the pct sobo this summer. I've asked an  
> number of my
> friends from all across California if they'd like to join me. While  
> they're
> all avid hikers and are usually thrilled at the idea, I have not  
> been able
> to get parental consent from any of them. What are your opinions?  
> Has this
> impacted you in the past? Thanks.


___________________________________________
Joël Fisler - joel at fisler.ch - http://blog.fisler.ch

HOME:	Hegibachstrasse 20, CH-8032 Zürich
PHONE:	+41 43 4998365 or "joelfisler" (Skype)
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