New and experienced climbers over 50 #4

Hah thats wonderful! I'll ask the artist in residence if I can post one of hers,  Mark, I statred when I was still in "short pants" my parents were Austrian & took us skiing & climbing from very young.. As for gym climbing,   I miss the fitness it afforded but when I did climb indoors I was always straining something.
I'm the spring chicken around here and all but "fully cooked" I don't plan on stopping climbing, but the numbers are are all small now, (except for my weight & circumference).

Jeff Yes, nearly every day and still getting paid to do so!  The one and only I can think of whose life is as good or better than the pictures that you share, I know this from having once known some of the same people. Those folks! they have never tolerated fools . Without any as-kissing, I'm not blowing smoke, you are the nearest thing to a teenage mutant around, it really is amazing. Have you climbed in Vietnam, did you see that trip report? & you get that posts need pictures.

Wow!

Mark, nice painting!

Jeffrey Constine wrote:

I climb every day at work

Not everyone has a giant panda at their workplace.

Those Peacock warmers are neat. I just use the chemical throw-away kind in my chalk bag or jacket pockets when I need that. Trick I learned with them is that they need oxygen to react. So you can slow them down or stop them by sealing them back in a ziploc bag as needed. 

Mark Webster wrote: 42 pages and counting...Wow. I'm 64, been climbing my whole life. Just returned from 3 weeks in Joshua Tree. I noticed a few people talking about how to stay warm climbing in winter.

Just browsing through all this great conversation and with such respect to good climbers who share. But I’m just having “a moment”—some uncertainty. I’m recognizing how much I love climbing outdoors. Real rock, and sun and sand and critters, and the moon. I have never felt that rock could hurt me—unlike the heavy pull of indoor climbing. Rock has been a friend—even though like a scorpion it can turn and sting. A fall could be bad. But I’ve never been afraid. 
And so there’s the fantasy of just being permanently close to nature, climbing, hiking—learning ropes and knots and cracks and chimneys in daily play. 
I’m just leaving PW and taping up my fingers and wondering about a hamstring that has been sore for a month.  Ryan a little concerned that I’m still needing to tape. I’m not complaining. Just aware of how much I love pure rock...kind of a bittersweet love affair right now.   
And let me remember gratitude. There are so many people right now who have no options. It’s not about indoor or outdoor climbing—it’s about food on the table. 

Lori Milas wrote: ...
Just getting it all out there in one post: how are everyone's hands?  It's a bummer to be climbing like crazy, and have energy to go on, but my palms and fingers are raising welts and blisters.  I have some callouses, but apparently not enough.  Ryan says he sandpapers his every so often.  As a woman, who is more used to manicures, I have never considered sandpapering the insides of my already painful hands.  Do you just climb on top of blisters, and does this get better eventually?  My solution so far has been to climb until my hands are really painful, then I put my splitter gloves on backwards.  The rubber/leather that would normally protect the back of the hands, goes on the inside.  It allows me another two or three climbs.  (but looks kind of funky)...  

I've only been climbing for about 6 years but have good callouses on my finger tips.  I sand my hands with a sanding pad meant for timber every now and again just to take off the rough bits.  I need to tape up after maybe five days bouldering in the Grampians as it's pretty rough on some of the rock.  However, I don't actually understand why you have blisters. What sort of rock are you climbing on?  I've never had a blister but have had 'flappers', that is a thick callous that rips off.  It's important to sand those down so they don't tear off in a big chunk.

Conan’s world 

Carl Schneider wrote:

I've only been climbing for about 6 years but have good callouses on my finger tips.  I sand my hands with a sanding pad meant for timber every now and again just to take off the rough bits.  I need to tape up after maybe five days bouldering in the Grampians as it's pretty rough on some of the rock.  However, I don't actually understand why you have blisters. What sort of rock are you climbing on?  I've never had a blister but have had 'flappers', that is a thick callous that rips off.  It's important to sand those down so they don't tear off in a big chunk.

Yea, Carl... thinking about this, when I climb outdoors it is my fingertips that tear.  Indoors it's callouses and blisters at the base of my fingers and first knuckles. We probably use our hands differently inside and out.  Plus... now I'm wondering if it's a chic thing.  Maybe you guys have tougher paws. 

Picture of my house in Death Valley

My house at City of Rocks SPHQ.


My house in Moab, a bit windy.


My house in Banff, BC, Canada after spending a month at Squamish


My house in Whistler, BC


My house near Mammoth Cave, KY



My house at Eleven Mile State Park in CO


Where my house went last year.

I am not a strong enough climber to pass the lead climb and lead belay test at the local gym.  So I decided to take the rope and draws to the gym to "mock" lead in preparation for next summers adventures. Barb has been doing 10a and 10b's, I have been clean climbing 5.7 to 5.9's, depending on how hard they are and the style of climbing, ok, mostly how overhung they are....

So I gear up, double rope up, and away I go on a 5.7 that I had clean climbed a number of times.  I ran out of juice about 3/4 of the way up.  I had forgotten how much more time it takes to set draws and clip, let alone place trad gear and clip.  Chagrined I went to a beginners 5.5, clean climbed it on mock lead.  Then a 5.6. Then a different 5.7 that was not as hard as the first one, then I got froggy and clean climbed mock lead a new 5.8.  Maybe we should climb with the trad rack also, I know it will look silly, all that gear hanging off of you while you are on TR, but it's training....

Plus I won't have quite as inflated ego come this summer when we are out and about climbing outside with no color coding to show us the way.

That thing leave the large carbon footprint LOL gas guzzler but still pretty cool

Jeffrey Constine wrote: That thing leave the large carbon footprint LOL gas guzzler but still pretty cool

Diesel, but I get your point. Gas vs diesel footprint study.  I am really looking forward to the new electric trucks, Electric Pickup.  They just need to bump up the payload another 15,000 pounds and I wll be good to go.

Dallas R wrote: I am not a strong enough climber to pass the lead climb and lead belay test at the local gym.  So I decided to take the rope and draws to the gym to "mock" lead in preparation for next summers adventures. Barb has been doing 10a and 10b's, I have been clean climbing 5.7 to 5.9's, depending on how hard they are and the style of climbing, ok, mostly how overhung they are....

So I gear up, double rope up, and away I go on a 5.7 that I had clean climbed a number of times.  I ran out of juice about 3/4 of the way up.  I had forgotten how much more time it takes to set draws and clip, let alone place trad gear and clip.  Chagrined I went to a beginners 5.5, clean climbed it on mock lead.  Then a 5.6. Then a different 5.7 that was not as hard as the first one, then I got froggy and clean climbed mock lead a new 5.8.  Maybe we should climb with the trad rack also, I know it will look silly, all that gear hanging off of you while you are on TR, but it's training....

Plus I won't have quite as inflated ego come this summer when we are out and about climbing outside with no color coding to show us the way.

I could be wrong about this if it works for you, but personally I think gym climbing is gym climbing and outdoor climbing---especially trad---is something else.  So personally I wouldn't---and don't---bother with any kind of simulation of trad leading in the gym.  I think you get the most from the gym when you treat it like the plastic training area it is meant to be, and then hone your trad leading skills outside when the time comes!

Dallas R wrote:

Diesel, but I get your point. Gas vs diesel footprint study.  I am really looking forward to the new electric trucks, Electric Pickup.  They just need to bump up the payload another 15,000 pounds and I wll be good to go.

And a REALLY long charging cord.

Dallas R wrote:Maybe we should climb with the trad rack also, I know it will look silly, all that gear hanging off of you while you are on TR, but it's training....

Absolutely 100 % DO NOT do this.  Nobody in the gym will ever speak to you again and you will be forever remembered as "the dorky guy with the trad gear" long after you pass. ;)

Seriously though, just use the weighted vest that every gym has behind the counter if you want to simulate the extra weight of a trad rack.

Dallas, those photos made my night.

After too many days in a row climbing on Yorkshire gritstone. I’ve gotten somewhat smarter since then.

rgold wrote:

Yup, do it all the time (grew up in NYC and still a fan, plus my daughter lives in Brooklyn).  Train station is 10 min from my house.  Trip takes a bit under 2 hrs.  The tracks run along the Hudson so can be quite scenic.

I've taken the ride down from Westchester. I concur, it is a beautiful train ride!

Dallas R wrote:

Diesel, but I get your point. Gas vs diesel footprint study.  I am really looking forward to the new electric trucks, Electric Pickup.  They just need to bump up the payload another 15,000 pounds and I wll be good to go.

Don't sweat it too much - I drive a gas guzzler but spend over 40 hours of my week at NASA helping build an instrument which, when launched will measure the Earth's water system levels and flows - so I figure they cancel each other out. If anyone gives me a hard time I ask them what they do for a living.