When are you too old to be a competitive climber?
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I love climbing, and when I started in ‘89, it was just about adventure, getting up to the Adirondacks and Gunks; basically pullin’ hard and just having fun. I am 46 now, and I still love ‘just climbing,’ but I also have a competitive streak. |
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I've never gotten into competitive climbing, but I've always been curious if it is broken up into age groups like road races (21-24, 25-29, 30-34, et-cetera). |
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Dude ive been climbing for 3 years im 30 and I do comps. They're a blast. You just have to be able to deal with getting smoked by younger kids. |
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Masters category for USA Climbing used to be >40yo (most sports use 40 as the start of masters). Sometime around 2011-2012, USA Climbing changed the category to >45yo. |
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Yank-N-Yard National Cup Series at the Stone Age Climbing Gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 15-16th? Masters is 40+. It looks like a lot of fun, I am considering making the drive? |
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I'm 59, for a few more days, and have enjoyed a few comps. However, if you really wanted them to be a thing, our sport should figure out a handicapping system like golf. That way, you are competing against your own personal best. For reference, that's what makes golf work. I can play against guys who are a lot better than me, and occasionally take a few bucks from them. |
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Daniel, |
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SKA wrote:What do you think?I like the idea of brackets. I've chimed in on a few posts regarding climbing in the olypmics, climbing grades in general, and the possibility of standardizing the sport....but I'm usually met with resistance or abstract points of view which result in the forum branching on a tangent. This is just my opinion, but due to the subjective nature of climbing, it lends itself more to art than sport. With the sport point of view, I want to dial in the boundaries, but they are left wide open, example: someone with an ape index greater than one is going to be able to climb the same grade climb easier than someone whose ape index is less than one. Basically, we don't isolate the climbers from each other into similar classes (like lightweight/heavyweight), its just one general class: climber. Something to remember, this is all just thoughts and ideas, nothing I say is concrete, so please don't take any offense. |
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To answer the question in the title: never. |
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There should also be weight divisions, not everyone is anorexic vegan dave graham style. |
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Victor, Sanllan, & Daniel, |
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Jon Nelson wrote:some competitions don't have enough of the over 40s to warrant extra brackets, at least now.That would be my sense as well. I'm 52 (though started climbing in the late 70s). I hit the gym a max of once a week when I pick up my daughter at her climbing team practice. I see guys close to my age, but rarely my age or older. I know from friends that other gyms do have more participants in our age range, but they're aren't that many. It's mostly a young person thing. I get the sense most of the older climbers like climbing outside instead. For example, I've had a grim couple of weeks at work, so the wife is being nice to me and giving me an afternoon off this weekend. I could hit the gym, but I'm going to Stoney Point instead. Way more fun and interesting. Having said that, if they had comps with brackets (and I could climb enough to actually get in shape), it might be fun to do. |
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LOL |
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I climb at Adventure Rock in Milwaukee and each fall they do the Battle of the Ages. Basically you climb your decade. 20-21, ect. I think lower than that is a more broad category. It's usually pretty fun. Granted it's more of a fun member comp than a cash prize kind of comp... But First-Third and Last get refrigerator magnets. |
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Keep fit, keep working it! |
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ARonchetti wrote:Battle of the Ages.Very Cool Idea! That is what we need here in Colorado . . . A "Boulderer of the Ages" competition. Better yet, we need to convince some gym like The Spot to host a "Bolder Boulderer" |
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ARonchetti wrote:... Granted it's more of a fun member comp than a cash prize kind of comp... But First-Third and Last get refrigerator magnets.Neat idea about giving the guy in last place a prize. I wonder if some people actually try to be last? |
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I don't think anyone ever tries to be last but it can depend on the division. One year the guy in the 70-79 division got first and last. |
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Nice! Would you do it again? I plan on competing next year. |
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Yes it's my second year. Timing, a morning and an afternoon wave. |