How old before you get crusty?

Crusty is most certainly a state of mind. I just turned 36 with 20 years in the sport. It just keeps getting better, and I don't see myself slowing down until I am well into my 50's. I also have many, many friends who are already in their 50's and still getting out and kicking ass. Cool to see so many others.

I hope this is an encouragement to you. I'm 52 and have been climbing for 37 years (many years as a professional guide), so I have a lot of miles on my knees and tendons. I was never a great rock climber (5.12 has always just barely eluded me), but I can still climb within a grade of my best days ever, and if I can stay injury-free (getting a bit harder to do) I can still climb within a letter grade or two of my best efforts. For me the keys are maintaining a high level of overall fitness, and always working on footwork (which just gets better wtih age). You're decades away from crusty! Good luck!

One of my climbing buddies turned 50 this year and he is still crushing it. I don't know any of my younger climbing friends that are in nearly as good of shape as he is. Another woman I climb with is almost 50 and she can burn off any of you! She boulders v-double digit and regularly redpoints 5.13 and 5.14 (and that's with relatively little time to climb outside). There's no reason not to be climbing hard well into your 60's.

Dean Allison wrote:If you go to John Gill's website ( www128.pair.com/r3d4k7/Seni… ), you will see interviews with several active climbers in the 70 year old range. To quote Gill: "Climbers in their 50s and early 60s are veteran, not senior athletes - mere youths!"

Gill & my husband Charlie (interviewed on his site) are now turning 75 and still climbing. We're heading to Mt. Lemon soon for a week of rock (Charlie will be peak-bagging the prior week, and possibly for another week following), and back to our favorite stomping grounds at JTree in April.

Age is just a number. Enthusiasm and attitude in general trumps age every time.

Jim Smith wrote: "not starting until I was 64 is my secret."
Jim, if you'd waited a year, your health insurance would have been free.

Becoming older has only one real option, with many real consequences that nothing will truly allay or necessarily delay. That is why we can usually see that someone is old, and why everyone should have a bone density exam by the age of fifty. And I am always shocked and depressed to see especially a climber smoke a cigarette.

So far as I know, no one seventy is climbing 5.14's, and I am convinced that it never would have been me anyway. If pushing grades is the key to one's climbing, yeah, there will probably come a time. But there is mountain biking, etc., to start again at a beginning -- as Jim did with climbing.
.

Wow, what a great surprise for me to come in to work today and see so many people stoked on climbing and pushing hard into the 50's, 60's and 70's! Part of me wonders what my body could do if I had started when I was younger but the other part of me thinks there is no way I could have appreciated it the way I do now. I just wasn't capable of having the respect and love for the rock (and just being outdoors) back then. And now that all you crusty old timers have let me know I got a decade plus to get to my goals I don't even care that I'm stuck in this stupid cubicle today.

good attitude, healthy diet, and exercise willkeep you going strong. I know a lot of climbers much older than me, who climb much better than me.

Are we speaking of "crusty" or "rusty" here? The conventional meaning of crusty has to do with being grouchy or crochety, something that has been known to happen to people as they age but which is also characteristic of a vast cohort of younger people with chips on their shoulders---just consult your favorite internet thread for examples.

I suppose the real issue has to do with age-related decline. Since the age of responders has been requested, I'm 68, with 54 years of climbing under my belt. I have a family, a career (not retired yet) professional interests, and personal interests that include climbing but not exclusively. Here's my take.

How hard you can climb, and for how long, is dependent on a host of factors that can vary enormously from person to person. The examples held up for all to aspire to typically have had a very large number of variables turn out in their favor. There is no harm in aspiring to their accomplishments, but life, genetics, interest, motivation, distractions, and health cannot all be controlled, and the message of aging is to learn how to adjust to what life throws at you, the good and the bad.

Not everyone can be Fred Beckey, even if they want to. Not everyone will be able to climb 5.13 at 50 and 5.12 at sixty, even if they want to. By all means aspire, and count your blessings if you reach those lofty goals, but understand from the beginning that you may have to walk a humbler path.

Personally, I didn't start losing much physically until my fifties. In my sixties, decline in all kinds of physical prowess, in spite of good general health, minimal weight gain, and consistent training became unavoidably obvious.

These changes ran the gamut from longer distance running times to decreased peak strength to decreased hand endurance on strenuous pitches. Mind you, in many ways my physical condition is comparable to someone half my age, but there are things that I used to be able to do with ease that are no longer possible. Training, by and large, is less an activity aimed less at improvement and is more a rearguard action aimed at slowing down the inevitable. Appropriate amounts of rest are essential, and attention must be paid to minor aches and pains, less they become chronic and debilitating.

As I hone in on 70, my leading ability seems to be about two full grades below my best. I'm speaking of trad leading in the Gunks primarily, which requires technique of course but also requires a pretty high level of hand endurance for both the moves and hanging on to protect them. (Perhaps I should also say, as a crusty oldster, that I consider hangdogging up a route to constitute a failure to do the climb, which means that when I say I can't do something, it may not be the same as what other people understand by the term.)

In addition to the physical changes, there are psychological ones. My tolerance for risk is below what it used to be; I have a host of R- and X-rated routes in my resume, but I find now that I have less interest in playing the high-stakes aspect of trad climbing. No doubt this contributes to lower performance levels as well.

All these things notwithstanding, a day on the rocks is as much fun for me as it ever was. If you aren't fixated on numbers, then you lose almost nothing as you age. I still love the challenges, whatever they may be for me today, and my climbing has always been part of an abiding affinity for nature, which has only deepened over time.

I haven't gotten rusty, and any crustiness is self-consciously put on in order to make points, which are primarily about preserving what I was privileged to experience for future generations.

So my advice is to celebrate, without regret, what you had, and enjoy fully what is given to you now, and you too can live long and prosper as a climber.

A friend of mine just sent his first 5.13 trad climb at the age of 50. He's been climbing for 30+ years.

Sam Lightner, Jr. wrote:Its a function of accumulated injuries, in my opinion. I peaked at sport climbing when I was 30. Other stuff later.

Yup, fingers and shoulders ruin it for oldies, if the knees haven't given out earlier. I got crusty at about 57 but am working at un-crustifying myself at age 61 now. See how I turn out in a couple months.

My brother and I are 59 and 61 respectively and still climb just exactly the same 5.11/12 as we did 40 years ago. We don´t train, don´t get injured, don´t take it seriously and drink beer.

Jim Titt wrote:My brother and I are 59 and 61 respectively and still climb just exactly the same 5.11/12 as we did 40 years ago. We don´t train, don´t get injured, don´t take it seriously and drink beer.

+1,,,I'm on your team for sure.

rgold wrote:Are we speaking of "crusty" or "rusty" here? The conventional meaning of crusty has to do with being grouchy or crochety, something that has been known to happen to people as they age but which is also characteristic of a vast cohort of younger people with chips on their shoulders---just consult your favorite internet thread for examples. I suppose the real issue has to do with age-related decline. Since the age of responders has been requested, I'm 68, with 54 years of climbing under my belt. I have a family, a career (not retired yet) professional interests, and personal interests that include climbing but not exclusively. Here's my take. How hard you can climb, and for how long, is dependent on a host of factors that can vary enormously from person to person. The examples held up for all to aspire to typically have had a very large number of variables turn out in their favor. There is no harm in aspiring to their accomplishments, but life, genetics, interest, motivation, distractions, and health cannot all be controlled, and the message of aging is to learn how to adjust to what life throws at you, the good and the bad. Not everyone can be Fred Beckey, even if they want to. Not everyone will be able to climb 5.13 at 50 and 5.12 at sixty, even if they want to. By all means aspire, and count your blessings if you reach those lofty goals, but understand from the beginning that you may have to walk a humbler path. Personally, I didn't start losing much physically until my fifties. In my sixties, decline in all kinds of physical prowess, in spite of good general health, minimal weight gain, and consistent training became unavoidably obvious. These changes ran the gamut from longer distance running times to decreased peak strength to decreased hand endurance on strenuous pitches. Mind you, in many ways my physical condition is comparable to someone half my age, but there are things that I used to be able to do with ease that are no longer possible. Training, by and large, is less an activity aimed less at improvement and is more a rearguard action aimed at slowing down the inevitable. Appropriate amounts of rest are essential, and attention must be paid to minor aches and pains, less they become chronic and debilitating. As I hone in on 70, my leading ability seems to be about two full grades below my best. I'm speaking of trad leading in the Gunks primarily, which requires technique of course but also requires a pretty high level of hand endurance for both the moves and hanging on to protect them. (Perhaps I should also say, as a crusty oldster, that I consider hangdogging up a route to constitute a failure to do the climb, which means that when I say I can't do something, it may not be the same as what other people understand by the term.) In addition to the physical changes, there are psychological ones. My tolerance for risk is below what it used to be; I have a host of R- and X-rated routes in my resume, but I find now that I have less interest in playing the high-stakes aspect of trad climbing. No doubt this contributes to lower performance levels as well. All these things notwithstanding, a day on the rocks is as much fun for me as it ever was. If you aren't fixated on numbers, then you lose almost nothing as you age. I still love the challenges, whatever they may be for me today, and my climbing has always been part of an abiding affinity for nature, which has only deepened over time. I haven't gotten rusty, and any crustiness is self-consciously put on in order to make points, which are primarily about preserving what I was privileged to experience for future generations. So my advice is to celebrate, without regret, what you had, and enjoy fully what is given to you now, and you too can live long and prosper as a climber.

Thanks for letting me in on your experience RGold. Appreciate it.

I have met quite a few "crusty" guys younger than 20........

are you saying that you know a thing or two about penicillin and it's use.

I'm 54 and have been climbing for 42 years. I don't think we really know yet how long you can climb hard (cf Stevie Haston 14d at 52 and Jackie Godoffe Vharddoubledigit at 55). Also these four decades have kind of been a golden age for older climbers as standards have risen steadily creating a rising general peer expectation of base line performance. Hard 5.10 at the Gunks in the early 70s was pretty close to the top of the heap. Now it is an entry level grade indoors. Also, training techniques have become more popularized, accessible and sport-specific so it's just easier to keep getting stronger.

I've become more risk-averse (no more ice-climbing or hard scary trad) and I need more rest (between goes, after injuries and between sessions) but my sport grade has increased. I did my first 12b in 2008, first 13a in 2009 and first 13b last November (Thin Man/Rumney if anyone's interested). The psych is getting a little harder to maintain but you just climb with people who have it to spare!

Ellenor Stone wrote:Nah I know more about phenregan, dilaudid and dexamethazone actually....

Are those anything like phenergan and dexamethasone?

Seesh scary, I would hope my nurse could at least spell the drugs they are giving me!

I usually hear "crusty" being used as a compliment.

Ellenor Stone wrote:Sweet Thanx for checking I see the labels so often I actually don't know how to spell it must be the drug compares mixing capital and lower case letters and the computerized scanning system. I also go by milligrams, bottle colors and pill colors and shapes lol. A yey for MD order entry and computerized scanning system. And a word to all patients : ask questions about your meds and know your meds. For real!

ah. a semi literate socially dysfunctional nurse who dispenses pills by shape - that certainly confirms the quality of our current health system.

Maybe lost in space me time should not occur while sorting pills you don't know how to spell.