Meet the toddler who’s been climbing since she was 11 months old and can now scale 52-foot- (approx 15.8-meter-) high walls.
Four-year-old Isla Murr, from Sydney, Australia, started to walk at 9 months old, and just two months later, she was up climbing things. Isla’s mom, Lucy Murr, 29, noticed her unusual climbing ability and started taking her to playgrounds for older children.
“I'd say she’s climbed all of the highest playgrounds they have in Sydney,” Lucy said. “I took her to playgrounds that have really high things to climb.”
It didn’t take long for Isla to become bored with playground climbing frames, so her mom decided to introduce her to rock climbing.
“I showed her rock climbing videos on my phone and she just wanted to do that,” Lucy said. “She‘d see videos of rock climbing and say, ’I wanna do that mum; can I do that?‘ One time there was a proper rock wall at some indoor playground we were at and she said, ’Mum can I go up there? I wanna go up there.'”
However, no rock climbing centers would allow young Isla to attend for safety reasons, so Lucy had to wait three years to finally let Isla explore her passion.
“They wouldn’t let her in because she was too young, which I understand, but I knew she could do it,” Lucy said. “I‘d always tell her we have to wait until she’s 4. ... She’d be disappointed and sad when I‘d tell her she’d have to wait.”
As soon as Isla turned 4, Lucy took Isla to a climbing center and the little girl climbed everything she could. She climbed all the kid’s walls first and quickly graduated to the adult walls, including a 52-foot- (approx 15.8-meter-) high wall.
“I had people around me saying ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ There were kids that were about 12 saying that they wouldn’t be able to go that high,” Lucy said.
“We told her that she didn’t have to go that high, but she just kept climbing.”
Isla’s performance didn’t just amaze the other onlookers, her dad, Brendon Murr, 34, a hydraulic engineer, was also surprised and squeamish at Isla climbing so high.
“My husband was shocked, he didn’t think she would get that high. I had to tell him to let her just go for it,” Lucy said. “I believe that a child will get more confident and better at things if you just let them do it.”
Lucy is sure that climbing will be a lasting passion for Isla and thinks that her daughter will go on to greater things.
“She wants to go back again. I will definitely take her back wherever she wants to go with it; we'll nurture it,” the proud mom said. "The second we left, she asked to go back to the rock climbing center, and she’s been asking a few times since.
“We'll probably take her about once or twice a month. We’re thinking of putting her in Ninja Warrior training, but you need to be 5.”
