New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #5

Maybe irrelevant, but I'm well over 50- Carl I like the sound of those wallabies in the grampians! I'm heading there for the first time, in about 3 weeks, and the wildlife is as big an attraction as the climbing.

We've been talking about fingers and stressed joints and tendons. I waited until I actually tried this... it's a homeopathic remedy called Traumeel--a salve you rub into whatever hurts.

I had some previous experience.  Three years ago I had a painful frozen 'trigger thumb'.  Various Orthopedic Hand Surgeons said I would have to have surgery.  Instead I got one of my clients, an Anesthesiologist, to give me an injection of Traumeel (and Zeel) right into my thumb.  It was sort of a challenge and joke... because it is homeopathic. (ie. nothing in it).  But within a few days, the trigger thumb completely healed... and I've never felt it since.  

So I tried the lotion variety on my two botched fingers.  It's been about two weeks... suddenly they feel FINE.  Swelling gone. I don't know if this will last.  I'm not willing to try the injection into finger joints.  But it's worth a try!  

Dallas R wrote: Kota, the not so crag dog. (aka Skrat)

One of the kindest things you all did for me here was to convince me not to get a dog, if I'm going to climb.  I just thought it would be cool to have a dog along on long trips, and a companion when I'm home.  Now I understand how hard that would be... not to mention, they are illegal at most of the places I go.  Glad we thought this through. (Kota is really cute!)

Dallas R wrote: Kota, the not so crag dog. (aka Skrat)

Adorable!!!   

Lori Milas wrote: Lucky kangaroos don't live here. They'd wind up in someone's stew.

I ate kangaroo when I visited Australia (it was on a menu in a regular restaurant - I had a sampler with ostrich, kanga, and crocodile, iirc). Tasted kind of like venison.

karl Smith wrote: Maybe irrelevant, but I'm well over 50- Carl I like the sound of those wallabies in the grampians! I'm heading there for the first time, in about 3 weeks, and the wildlife is as big an attraction as the climbing.

Three weeks? I'll be there from about the 8th of April, also Mount Arapiles.  You'll see lots of wallabies, maybe some kangaroos, emus, lots of bird life; especially crows and a lot of lizards. Oh, also scorpions!!  I'll be at the Northern Grampians around Hollow Mountain; I know that area like the back of my hand.  I can give you some good info about where to camp, where to climb (bouldering, sports and trad) and also info about mundane things like where to go to get a hot shower for five bucks for as long as you like!!

Some places to hit up in April near Los Angeles kinda off the map. Above are only a few of them

Carl Schneider wrote:

Three weeks? I'll be there from about the 8th of April, also Mount Arapiles.  You'll see lots of wallabies, maybe some kangaroos, emus, lots of bird life; especially crows and a lot of lizards. Oh, also scorpions!!  I'll be at the Northern Grampians around Hollow Mountain; I know that area like the back of my hand.  I can give you some good info about where to camp, where to climb (bouldering, sports and trad) and also info about mundane things like where to go to get a hot shower for five bucks for as long as you like!!

Haven't made it to Arapilies or Grampians yet, but the Blue Mountains might be what I consider the most amazing climbing venue I've been to.

Jeffrey Constine wrote:

Some places to hit up in April near Los Angeles kinda off the map. Above are only a few of them

My heart says yes, my body says good luck.  While I can share the spirit, I must deal with my limitations. I was looking at our trip out of Breckinridge back to Bishop and thinking about our climbs in San Rafael Swell.  I need to pay my dues and climb a bunch of single pitch climbs.  That is my climbing goal for this summer.  Lead, trad, sport.  I guess I am bitten by the bug, multi-pitch trad, I know I am not there yet, but at least I know what I must accomplish to get there. It's personal, such is the nature of climbing.

Dallas R wrote:

My heart says yes, my body says good luck.  While I can share the spirit, I must deal with my limitations. I was looking at our trip out of Breckinridge back to Bishop and thinking about our climbs in San Rafael Swell.  I need to pay my dues and climb a bunch of single pitch climbs.  That is my climbing goal for this summer.  Lead, trad, sport.  I guess I am bitten by the bug, multi-pitch trad, I know I am not there yet, but at least I know what I must accomplish to get there. It's personal, such is the nature of climbing.

Dallas what a joy you are!  You lead the way in stating your limits and goals with such ease...thank you for this!  

My fear lately is that I won’t be that clear, with embarrassing or disastrous results. Look how easy you made this: “a bunch of single pitch climbs”.  I’m heading out for 9 straight days of climbing next week and I HOPE I can move my limits a bit.  But for now it’s top rope a bunch of single pitch climbs...while learning everything I can about trad. 
Maybe next year we’ll meet in Yosemite or RR to trad climb everything that looks fun. Or even later this year. But NOW is now and this is where you are at. So I can say the same. Thank you!  

Lori Milas wrote:

Dallas what a joy you are!  You lead the way in stating your limits and goals with such ease...thank you for this!  

My fear lately is that I won’t be that clear, with embarrassing or disastrous results. Look how easy you made this: “a bunch of single pitch climbs”.  I’m heading out for 9 straight days of climbing next week and I HOPE I can move my limits a bit.  But for now it’s top rope a bunch of single pitch climbs...while learning everything I can about trad. 
Maybe next year we’ll meet in Yosemite or RR to trad climb everything that looks fun. Or even later this year. But NOW is now and this is where you are at. Thank you!  

All? NOW is now....

In more ways than one.

TL,DR? I am now a widow.

Friday, March 1, I went out with Russell, my boulderer. We went to an established area, did some fun stuff.

Then, we went to an established rock, with a split in it. The crack is an established problem, likely a liebacky sorta thing for those pad people, us real climbers would stuff body parts in. For my dinky self? A chicken wing, rip your pants, off width. That rip your pants part worried me, so I suggested we wait on this one.

But, Russell's eyes lit up. "Hey! I bet you could do this as a compression problem!" eyeballing the half rock to the left of the crack. 

So we did.

It isn't finished, but it should go eventually. We worked quite awhile on it, figuring out the moves, and what I will need to do next. It's definitely a challenge, but a super fun one! My first real knee bar!! We are both super stoked, and, he was filming (he is working to record more climbs in this area, some decade a new guidebook will be out), so, when his recording is done, I will share that.

One of my very best climbing days to date. STOKED!!!! And happy. Climbing does that.

.............

When I got home, around 5:30, my husband was glassy eyed. My heart sunk. Here we go again....I thought.

Around 9, I was calling 911, letting them know he was likely dead. He was already cooling off.

It was very fast, and....a very, very merciful death.

Whatever sudden event actually killed him in moments (that isn't official yet), the basic cause right now?

"Complications from acute alcoholism".

He had other health issues, and was slowing down considerably. His life had been imploding for years, and going forward, we were both headed into almost certain hell.

But not now.

This was not unexpected at all, just the particular moment. I thought we still had years of suffering to get through. It was so, so, merciful. He greatly feared being what he was becoming. And, the primary thing that kept me going was that discovery that I am a climber. It is not melodramatic exaggeration to say that climbing saved my life. Not the only thing, but it is the backbone and spine, the strong framework, that I have been building on for close to five years now.

Me? This is what promises mean. We are more than forty years in, living together. This April 15th (yes, we chose tax day, lol) will be our 25th wedding anniversary.

And I, will be honoring that. It's just started, but, our quite trashed lives are being reconstructed. The wreckage of these last years is being salvaged and sorted. The house we have shared since 1980 is being reclaimed as the home we started together so long ago.

Once again. The home where there were people over, often. Food shared. Music. Laughter. Flat out goofiness (we found raisins for years, from a huge three way grape fight with my brother, for example). Hugs, tears, all of it.  

And you.

My family.

..........

Russell is researching if I have a new route. I certainly claim no FA, these rocks have been climbed for decades, perhaps millennia. But, a great many routes remain, and the vast majority of boulders have not even been named, let alone routes named, especially on the low end of the scale.

But? If I have the honor of even a provisional name?

Be Kind. Always. ​

Because everyone you meet has a struggle you know nothing about.

Best, Helen

Old lady H wrote:

All? NOW is now....

In more ways than one.

TL,DR? I am now a widow.

Friday, March 1, I went out with Russell, my boulderer. We went to an established area, did some fun stuff.

Then, we went to an established rock, with a split in it. The crack is an established problem, likely a liebacky sorta thing for those pad people, us real climbers would stuff body parts in. For my dinky self? A chicken wing, rip your pants, off width. That rip your pants part worried me, so I suggested we wait on this one.

But, Russell's eyes lit up. "Hey! I bet you could do this as a compression problem!" eyeballing the half rock to the left of the crack. 

So we did.

It isn't finished, but it should go eventually. We worked quite awhile on it, figuring out the moves, and what I will need to do next. It's definitely a challenge, but a super fun one! My first real knee bar!! We are both super stoked, and, he was filming (he is working to record more climbs in this area, some decade a new guidebook will be out), so, when his recording is done, I will share that.

One of my very best climbing days to date. STOKED!!!! And happy. Climbing does that.

.............

When I got home, around 5:30, my husband was glassy eyed. My heart sunk. Here we go again....I thought.

Around 9, I was calling 911, letting them know he was likely dead. He was already cooling off.

It was very fast, and....a very, very merciful death.

Whatever sudden event actually killed him in moments (that isn't official yet), the basic cause right now?

"Complications from acute alcoholism".

He had other health issues, and was slowing down considerably. His life had been imploding for years, and going forward, we were both headed into almost certain hell.

But not now.

This was not unexpected at all, just the particular moment. I thought we still had years of suffering to get through. It was so, so, merciful. He greatly feared being what he was becoming. And, the primary thing that kept me going was that discovery that I am a climber. It is not melodramatic exaggeration to say that climbing saved my life. Not the only thing, but it is the backbone and spine, the strong framework, that I have been building on for close to five years now.

Me? This is what promises mean. We are more than forty years in, living together. This April 15th (yes, we chose tax day, lol) will be our 25th wedding anniversary.

And I, will be honoring that. It's just started, but, our quite trashed lives are being reconstructed. The wreckage of these last years is being salvaged and sorted. The house we have shared since 1980 is being reclaimed as the home we started together so long ago.

Once again. The home where there were people over, often. Food shared. Music. Laughter. Flat out goofiness (we found raisins for years, from a huge three way grape fight with my brother, for example). Hugs, tears, all of it.  

And you.

My family.

..........

Russell is researching if I have a new route. I certainly claim no FA, these rocks have been climbed for decades, perhaps millennia. But, a great many routes remain, and the vast majority of boulders have not even been named, let alone routes named, especially on the low end of the scale.

But? If I have the honor of even a provisional name?

Be Kind. Always. 

Because everyone you meet has a struggle you know nothing about.

Best, Helen

Oh god. Helen!  Tears...  

I read every word, and I understand every word.  God bless you.  If you want to write or call me, you know you can.

Helen - I've already shared some thoughts with you privately. Thank you for sharing this. Sending love and laughter - and I CANNOT WAIT to meet you and climb together in May!

Be well.

Erika

Helen, so sorry for your loss!

O`my!
Take a breath
breath taken away!
BLESSINGS and LIGHT (breathe in)

Sent To The Winds
May They
 Find You
and
Bring you Comfort

Strength to you Helen.

Dallas I disagree with this pay your dues thing, you can do multi-pitch anytime, with me or with any knowledgeable leader on easy routes. I have been doing this a long time, having mentored many. It will help advance your rigging skills too. So get with the program, jump on board. You don't have to do a zillion 7's to progress to 8's and so on.
PS Dallas the guy in the slab photo had only 3 days climbing prior to doing this multi-pitch.

Helen, my condolences.  

Deepest condolences, Helen. 

I'm so sorry, Helen.

I hope this transition brings a lot of positive change for you, too.

Let me know if there's any way I can help.

Helen - so sorry for your loss, but also I admire how you are looking at it and processing it.  I hope you continue to find such strength and perspective.