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New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #15
Sam Cieplywrote: My 6' tall son converted a V something boulder problem to a V nothing, with a running start, and a single foot shoving halfway up to keep that propulsion, lol! I have a standing jump as my first move on a route at City, now. Jay made me stand beside him to prove I can't reach it. I really should have bet him something from his rack, oops. He said I was the shortest adult climber he knew. Weird compliment, but hey, take it where ya get it! Best, Helen |
Old lady Hwrote: I don’t usually spend much time on the dynamic run and jump type boulders since that kind of movement rarely comes into play on the roped climbs which I prefer, Mission Impossible being a rare exception. My friend and I hiked out there a few months back to give it a go, we tried everything to climb the blank face at the start and ended up aiding through the start by pulling on a draw. We both thought it was either the biggest sandbag in the park or something crucial had broken. Wasn’t until I got home and read the route description and Bob’s comments on MP that I realized you were supposed to run and jump to a (relatively) good hold 15’ up to start the route. Still seems a little stiff for the grade... guess I’m gonna have to put in some more work on Saturday Night Live before getting back on that “slab” climb. |
Sam Cieplywrote: I did the first ascent of Mission Impossible on the King Dome with the late great Charles Cole III, in 1980, in the old ground-up, stance drilling style. Charles was the guy that founded the 5.10 company and invented stealth and C4 rubber, soloed new routes on El Cap, and was one of the key players in first ascents of many Jtree classic face climbs (like Run For Your Life). He was one of the best I've ever seen at hand-drilling bolts from stances. When we scrambled on top of the perched blocks at the base we saw that the wall was studded with closely-spaced black knobs that protruded from the blond rock and formed a sinuous path almost all the way up the near-vertical slab. Looked like perfect stances for hand-drilling! Only problem was that the first knob was about 15 feet up. In high school I played football and was also on the track and field team (sprinter and long jumper). I ran the 40 in 4.6, the 100 in 10.7, and long jumped 21 feet. I sized up the situation and decided to do a running start, then push off the wall with one foot and leap for the knob. What made it tough was that on top of the block there wasn't much room for the running start (only a few steps) and if you blew it, you crashed and burned. Lucky for me I had springy legs. Years later I went back and added a bolt to the start, so you could aid up and arrange a little toprope situation for the start, or just avoid the jump all together to get to the stellar knob climbing, and since then the route has been climbed quite a few times. I'd say to successfully do the run and jump you'll need the leaping ability to jump up and touch a basketball rim (which is exactly 10 feet high). Hard to rate the run and leap up to the knob at the start, since it's not really a climbing move, but I'd use the rating system you sometimes see for run and jump boulder problems (J1 through J5 , J5 being the toughest) and rate it J4, since you don't get much of a running start due to lack of space. So I guess I'd rate the route 5.11b J4, or 5.11b A0. |
Bob Gaineswrote: Is this even legal? And why did no one stop them? Jan and Kristian said to climb with better climbers. All that’s doing for me is developing deep seated insecurities that will take years of therapy to overcome. My solution to “the boulder problem”...  |
wendy weisswrote: I need my shoes for top roping. Its just trad that gets to me, esp leading trad. |
Lori Milaswrote: Classic. But now I have coffee in my keyboard... |
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I don't give a hoot about grades and am pretty good at bailing. It does help if you have a littany of legit excuses in your back pocket to recite when needed ;) the one that sucks though is not being able to to pull the age card. Too many over achievers older than myself cranking much harder than me takes that one off the table .... |
Old lady Hwrote: You remembered! Yep, just got my second a couple of hours ago. I’m also waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m now even more enthusiastic about COR in June. I’m going to make a two week epic road trip out of it. Start in COR, then Ten Sleep for the festival, then Lander for the other festival. I seriously need some time off. Good thing I like driving around. |
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Much nicer day today. Eighth time I've led Piccolo, grade 11. Lovely climb. Climbing for the first time in socks as my heels were a little raw. Didn't mind it at all....  |
Lori Milaswrote: Your solution is the javelin throw? |
Mike Kwrote: Hey Mike... you hit the nail on the head. I've been slacking. What do you do? Some years ago I learned that we loose 10% of our muscle mass every decade after 30 unless we do something to prevent it. That sounds about right to me. With the gyms closed I just let this go... restarted a serious weight program this week. Does anyone here take any kind of Human Growth Hormone, or arginine or any of the other HGH precursors? |
Lori Milaswrote: I have been doing squats, overhead presses, and a collection of band work to keep my shoulders/rotator cuff strong. I generally do this twice a week and hit the climbing gym 2-4 days per week. I think people tend to make strength training more complicated than it needs to be. If you regularly do any type of progressive resistance training you can prevent a lot of age-related muscle loss. |
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You don't need HGH or any other drug! I have been around old powerful people my whole life. My oldest sister is in her late '70s & in great shape because she does yoga, dance,& strength-trains every day NO WEIGHTS! My youngest sister is 40. She like me has a ton of body injuries including a broken hip at 19 from Ballet. Pound for pound I would put her up against anyone! She trains every day. She looks like a nice little lady with no big muscles. She is pure power! It takes a little longer the older you get, but old people can build muscle & power. There was a football player in the '60s named Decon Jones. He played D-line & 275lbs, the first half of his career teams ran away from him & assign four plays to stop him, it did not help. The second half of his career teams ran right at him that way seven plays would be on him, it did not help. He spoke at a forum I went to in the '70s & said he could take a week off from time to time with little to no negative effect, but two weeks and it would take five to six months to get back to that fine edge. He was Black & from the south, when he was a rookie one night the O-line men decided to dress in white hooded robes and haze him it did not go well for them. Generally, the O-line is heavier than D-line, Decon tossed all of the men through windows. Consistency, slow stubborn determined consistency.
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Mark Frumkinwrote: Mark... thanks for that. For the record, I wasn't asking about HGH as a playtime drug. As a Diabetic with multiple endocrine failures, and after much lab testing by my Endocrinologist, it was determined that I am extremely low in growth hormone and would benefit from low dose. That was actually several years ago, and I continue to ponder it. So, that's not about bulking up with steroids. And I'm still in the decision-making process... more than that is really tmi. I was just asking. |
Lori Milaswrote: Lori...... if you can get it - go for it! I have a unnamed friend who works as a chemist- they were importing HGH - $5,000/gram- by the pounds. Anyway while doing “quality analysis” some would get lost. The little caps of HGH + Andro did miracles for me - I had a badly torn up leg, like 40% missing from my thigh- I also dropped 15 lbs of fat. My wife got tired of me coming home to “ravish” her during my lunch hour...... in short I felt like I was 20 again. If you can get a prescription for it - do it. |
Guy Keeseewrote: Guy, I don’t know how you manage to do it, but you always show up at the right time with the right words. Thank you! Here is a bouquet for you, my first new cactus flowers!  As for HGH, even with a doctor’s prescription the cost is about $500/monthly. It can only be injected although there are some peptide precursors you can take orally. I’ve always been a big believer in maintaining physiologically normal levels of hormones. When any of them are low or missing it’s impossible to heal, produce energy, (yes, be sexual). HGH is huge when it comes to bones, healing, muscle, sleep and mood. When it drops so far below a normal range there’s not much you can do but replace it. I just hate the expense and have kept hoping that I can find some workarounds. Weight lifting (hard, 3x a week) is one of them.
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My endocrine system got cooked about 15 years ago, so I supplement just about everything, although my hgh looks okay. Not hyped up, but in the ballpark for 20 years ago. I'm told that can be the case with all the other stuff I'm doing. Most of the stuff is by IM injection, which is a little trippy, but by far the best way to regulate doses accurately. Anyway, I'm a big fan of hormone therapy, I've seen it change the life of a good friend, and my own as well. A lot of athletes take creatine to support muscle growth. What's under-reported are the benefits for older people. Lori, you'll probably love the stuff since you lift heavy (or maybe you already take it). Anyway, it's cheap and beneficial, two words we don't see together a lot. My wife competes at power-lifting, and it seems like there's a new 4.5 lb. jar of the stuff on the kitchen counter every couple weeks... |
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Lori, I am pan hypo pituitary. Meaning my body no longer makes anything so I supplement everything - except HGH. I don't know very many doctors that will give someone our age HGH since it basically turns into a cancer causing drug that just isn't worth the risks. I've been hypo-pit since my 30s but with the right supplements (but no HGH) and training I climbed 5.12 throughout my 50s before I finally started exploding body parts and had to slow down. I still lift weights (dumbbells mostly) to keep in shape - mostly climbing antogonistic muscle groups. I also hike up hill a lot. So whatever your body is doing should NOT be an impediment to good, hard climbing if you are willing to put the work into getting strong and thin. |
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Jan, Kristian... I love this topic—especially now as it takes some extra effort to stay healthy and strong at this age. Share more if you feel like it. I see my “hormone doctor”, Uzzi Reiss MD, annually since I was 35. Over the last decade he starts our visits with “I bet you’ve heard HGH causes cancer. Let me explain why it’s safe...” and then he loads me up with stacks of studies and his own statistics from his 2000 patients. The thing is I was never worried about cancer, because we are talking about small physiological doses. But I know it’s a concern. This seems to be a period in my life when I’m recalibrating and making some changes. Turns out I really like data. So I’m enjoying the HECK out of Whoop. Maybe it will only be useful for a week or a month. This week I was having a hard time understanding the Strain module so I had a 15 minute phone consult with a woman from Whoop’s analytic team. They had set my maximum heart rate at 185 which is too high—I never get there. But she said “What were you doing at 10 am last Monday? At that time your heart rate was 173.” Well, I was climbing Shaggy Dog at that moment. Even after a 2 1/2 hour hike on Ryan’s Mountain my heart rate never got nearly that high. So my max heart rate is now set at 175. I’m learning what it takes to approach that max heart rate—mainly, climbing! Speaking of maximum heart rate, I’ve been thinking about Illusion Dweller. |
Jan Mcwrote: Now we know who I was talking about when I said hormone therapy changed a good friend's life... |
