Crap, so now I'm 40!

Happy Birthday, Hank! By my 65-year-old standard, you aren't even newly old yet...

Here are two shots of Dick Williams, leading some routes in the Gunks at 70.

The two biners just below Dick's butt in the second shot are, by the way, connected to a pair of ball nuts in a tiny horizontal. These ain't no clip-up routes, Jack.

A good friend of mine is like 45 and he can still jug lines just as well as when he was 20. And, he free climbing is also just as solid as it was back in the day. He cruises 5.8 like there is no tomorrow. NO WORRIES- Only as old as you look...

#7 Not only listen to the voices: *Do As They Command*

I had my midlife crisis early when I turned 30, started climbing and also did my hardest climbing after 40.

My climbing has slowed down lately, but this season I've had the best damn ski year ever!

Never give up!

Didn't Ronnie do Magic Line at 40?

Forty: I can't even imagine being that old.

;)

Matt Pickren wrote: NO WORRIES- Only as old as you look...

beg to differ . . . age is invariant, old is a state of mind. With experience . . . everything just gets better and better.

40? Here’s some rear view mirror comments from 54
Stay on the Bender- aka alcohol induced arrested development. To me, at 40, this still seemed like a great idea. Now, I know, it’s appalling to consider, and you’ll think poorly of me for bringing it up, but this year I did the right thing in using a new year’s resolution to get off the (bottle-of-wine-a-day, more-or-less) routine. Destructive behaviors are a blast until you start feeling shitty all the time.
One of the main reasons I was able to cold turkey is I got madder and madder at myself as I suffered the self-humiliating erosion of my physical ability to climb the fun stuff (that is, a steady stream of new projects that are entertainingly difficult for me). I never thought it would happen, but self-loathing of my deepening sloth finally over-balanced my desire for alcohol, and I quit. I hated spending a half or more of the day hung over. I was locked into a decline, physically- and I was reluctant to admit to myself that this ruined many days at the crag. This decline was of a type that resulted from a loss of self control. Mainly I got into heavier drinking after age 40. Sorry to rain on the parade, and I mean it when I say have fun on the bender, but watch yourself and over time think moderation in this regard!
The other main reason I stopped was because I came to see the toll alcohol was taking on my family life and my deteriorating relations with my wife and daughters.
Through all that I climbed a lot (being the obsessive type in more than one way) and mainly relied more and more on technique and cagey cleverness. Now I’ve decided, in order to keep the climbing entertaining for another decade, that I need all that plus incrementally improving physical resources. I’ve set my sights on pretty specific cooler and harder shit than the stuff I’ve done in my first twenty one years. I used to drink my brains out. Now I’m gonna climb my brains out.

mid-life crisis?

patrick wild wrote:BD spankings

watch out C4's hurt.

Happy Birthday Hanker. I'm 40 as well. Don't worry about, cause all the shit's going to happen anyway. Be good to family and most important, YOUR SELF. Brian Rhodes, nice honest post. Gotta watch the booze, it can creep up and take over. I've had to cut back myself. Getting older and having a 7 month little girl. I want to have all the energy in the world, for my family, my work, and if i'm lucky for a little climbing. Actually, since I've focused more time to being a bit healthier, I climb more now than I have in a long, long time. With spring coming, watch out. Hank, stay cool. Happy 40th, and do something for yourself. And I don't mean spankin' it. Ooooops, I gravitaded back to my 30's, hell yeah.

Kevin

Hank Caylor wrote:I just turned 40 the other day. Thank goodness my Mom had the decency and good taste to deliver me 17 minutes prior to April Fools Day.

Don't try to kid us, we are not fools. We know you are not really 40.
People don't live to be that old...

Hank Caylor wrote: edit too add: did I mention "ear hair"......and the hotness.

And Nose-- the nose hair gets long. Tweesers are your friend. Yes, even if YOU think it blends in with a mustache... because it doesn't.

Regardless, it doesn't matter how old you are or feel- it's how easily you get injured. My warantee seemed to expire at 34, the evidence is strong that there was concurrent planned obsolescence. Despite the fact that I ended up with a domestic model, all the replacement parts are expensive, not to mention the labor. To top it all off, I spend more time in the body shop getting chassis and suspension work done than I do on the road. I realized yesterday in a discussion about fitness that I'd been severly injured or recovering on average for 1/2 of all the time between 2004 and now. Broken leg, broken ankle, dislocated ankle, broken wrist, broken hand, dislocated knee, torn up knee componenets, surgeries to fix them... It sucks. None of it from climbing... NONE of it. I tried to trade in for a newer model and they tell me I am upside down on the bills and can't.

Anyway, continue the bender until Tuesday night at the Boulder Beers get-together at the Dark Horse, then lay off for a while. The engine and exaust work is more troublesome than the body work- don't kill your liver and kidneys. See you there.

Hank, the first 40 years are mearly training for the adventures that lay ahead of you. Up till now it's been trial by fire and you some how made the cut and will be aloud to pass on to the next dimension where you will find another whole level of intensity. Welcome to the realm of the "elder" where you have the choice of drumming the beat on the sideline or dancing in the fire with the warriors!

Go Hank! You're the man, f*&k 40 and embrace it, too. At least you don't act your age. (Takes one to know one, I guess -- I turned last fall, and have never been accused of acting my age, either.) Shit, man, you're pretty much in your alpine climbing prime. As Wayne said, "everything just gets better and better." Keep going.

Turning 52 on 4/20 this year and climbing harder than I have ever climbed in my life. Sport of course ;)

You have a short approach and a hot wife, quit your whining......

Knock back a few more beers and enjoy each day....

Just don't turn into a full time sport climber........