New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #16

G'day   

No climbing this weekend. Blue bird day yesterday raining today. we opted to skin up a closed ski area and get a nice run down.

I can officially join this thread today. Just got back from 5 days in Red Rock with a good friend, which was a great birthday present.

csproulwrote:

I can officially join this thread today. Just got back from 5 days in Red Rock with a good friend, which was a great birthday present.

Oh my goodness!  Wow.  Those pictures are eye-candy.  And congratulations for arriving at adult-hood!    Happy birthday! 

How the hell did this get to #16?  Who's talking so much?    

I'm feeling nothing but gratitude today.  I woke up thinking what a lavish gift God has given... rock climbing is not easy!  Everything has to be there: health, strength, friends, access to rock/nature.  And here it is.  

Having Dierdre here, I'm feeling a lot of empathy for how hard it is to become a climber.  Yes, she gets out with Alex occasionally.  But otherwise, she's up against the same challenges we all are--finding partners, gaining strength and technique, being close enough to climb.  At our age (Dierdre and I are close in age)... if you go back home and sit around, you have lost all your gains.  And it's not just about finding partners, but about finding partners who are about the same or better skill level, and willing to consistently show up.  

With the best planning, there are still no guarantees.  Dierdre set up with a women's climbing workshop this weekend.  We are having wind storms here... I mean HOWLING.  And they are out at Playhouse Rock because that's the only place that isn't torn up right now.  It hasn't been fun.  But this is what she has, before heading home. 

The other frightening challenge is the prospect of going home alone, to an empty house... and aging alone.  Friends and family can't be there always.  Frailty happens.  Shit happens.  To have a community, to have people who care... golden.

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On that gratitude theme: how could I have gotten so lucky to meet and climb with Bob Gaines?  I will always cherish his patience and caring and constant willingness to teach and suggest.  Without his willingness to do this, I would have thrashed about and hit and miss... this has been a mentorship that is priceless.  

This week I will meet up with my little buddy Jeremy who I have missed A LOT... and he's stoked to rig up almost anything.  So, those routes that I've been SO wanting to climb for so long, he's happy to 'hike up' and set up the anchors (ie. "I'll just hike up The Flake ..."    ).  We can do Run For Your Life, Billabong/Shovelin-Cole, and Dog Day Afternoon in a couple of outings.  I will need more backstory on Charles Cole. 

Bob and I talked about That Old Soft Shoe... and Diamond Dogs.    Beyond that... "next season"... that'll do it for me this season. 

Here's the cool thing about being 'old' imo.  I really don't have much invested in sending any of these routes.  I'd be ok if I tried hard and didnt make it to the top.  I'd just work harder and try again later.  I just want the experience of trying to do something so improbable on these magnificent rocks.  There is no 'failure'.  

But I do have one real climbing problem: my big toes are toast.  The joints on my big toes are swollen and hot and painful from so much steep slab work.  Does anyone have a solution to toe-pain?  I'll be chugging bone broth all week, to try to be ready for Friday's outing with Jeremy.  

How's everyone?  More pictures?  Carl's back to work it seems... Down Under.  

csproulwrote:

I can officially join this thread today. Just got back from 5 days in Red Rock with a good friend, which was a great birthday present.

Happy Birthday!

Lori Milaswrote:

But I do have one real climbing problem: my big toes are toast.  The joints on my big toes are swollen and hot and painful from so much steep slab work.  Does anyone have a solution to toe-pain?  I'll be chugging bone broth all week, to try to be ready for Friday's outing with Jeremy.  

Lori--I have hallux rigidus, a/k/a Damned Painful Big Toe Arthritis. After climbing, especially crack climbing, the joint gets red and hot and hurts! I tape with Rock Tape or KT Tape and it is instant relief!

You need two lengths of KT Tape, one about 6-7 inches and another long enough to wrap around your foot at the widest point. 

Cut both lengths in half lengthwise. You'll need both of the short pieces but only one of the long pieces. Trim off the corners an all pieces to round them--this keeps them from getting pulled up by socks, shoes, etc.

Take one of the shorter lengths, remove the backing, and wrap it around your big toe like a breast cancer "pink ribbon"...the ends overlap at the base of the toe. Wrap the second short strip the same way, but reverse the direction--so if the bottom one is "right over left", the bottom will be "left over right." 

Now take the longer length and place it on the bottom of your foot and wrap it to the front to secure the ends of the other strips.

When using the KT take, stretch it in the middle but don't stretch the ends or they will try to curl up and come off. 

You can use a bar of canning wax to rub over top of the tape to make it less likely to curl up and off....but you don't have to do this.

Hope this makes sense; if not I can find a picture. The wraps I found on YouTube were too complicated--I learned this one from my foot/ankle doc and it works perfectly.

Csproul. happy birthday and welcome aboard .

Why was #15 ended with 139 posts to go?

Brandt Allenwrote:

Why was #15 ended with 139 posts to go?

Ageism.  They want us to get on with it.   

Brandt Allenwrote:

Why was #15 ended with 139 posts to go?

Good question.

Did they change something? Did whoever started 15 lock it? 

I checked on #14, they used to end thusly:

Happy birthday csproul, and welcome!

I'm doing house stuff ahead of the first trip to City. I'm pretty sure it's getting bumped up to Thursday departure, adding on an extra day. Still just three nights, but that's a decent trip when it's only 3.5 hours away.

And, I think the hot springs is open on Thursdays! There's that. 

:-)

Brandt Allenwrote:

Why was #15 ended with 139 posts to go?

Carl applied his golf (and climbing route numbers tally) handicap.

Jay Goodwinwrote:

Carl applied his golf (and climbing route numbers tally) handicap.

It said it was locked, how many posts are the limit normally? I'm back to work tomorrow, public holiday Monday here today for ANZAC day. Going to get assessed for lead climbing in the gym today, also taking my grandson to the museum... 

I think it's the OP from #15 messing with us. 

My lawn needs mowing (it's been raining a bunch), so I tacked on Thursday to the upcoming COR trip. Wahoo! Can't let the community down now, can I?

And Carl, I'm sure there's a joke somewhere if it was me, plus gym lead, plus museums....

Best, H.

Brandt Allenwrote:

Why was #15 ended with 139 posts to go?

Old Timer's Disease, Brain Fart!  I would worry if it was before the age of 70.

Old lady Hwrote:

I think it's the OP from #15 messing with us. 

I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove a thing...  

Lori, ever been out to Samuelson rocks? Pretty trippy...

Kristian Solemwrote:

Lori, ever been out to Samuelson rocks? Pretty trippy...

Looks like vandalism to me   

The guy made tombstones for a living at what was then a very remote location in what is now Joshua Tree Nat Park. In his spare time, of which it appears there was plenty, he carved rants into the flat surfaces left behind from his work. I've walked out there a few times and read them all. There are more than three I show. It never once has occurred to me that they're vandalism. He had something to say, albeit a bit rough around the edges. It's really very cool. 

Kristian Solemwrote:

The guy made tombstones for a living at what was then a very remote location in what is now Joshua Tree Nat Park. In his spare time, of which it appears there was plenty, he carved rants into the flat surfaces left behind from his work. I've walked out there a few times and read them all. There are more than three I show. It never once has occurred to me that they're vandalism. He had something to say, albeit a bit rough around the edges. It's really very cool. 

Ha ha, Kristian!  OMG... all I could think when I saw this is, hey! I have stuff to say, too!      I'm seeing the entire 10 Commandments engraved on Tumbling Rainbow.  Or maybe a short passage from Hemmingway. Or one of Carl's fuck poems.  

Not sure where this is, but I'd love to walk out and see it.  1990's petroglyphs.    

The preface by John Long (2002) to Rock Warrior's Way has meant a lot to me.  I appreciate it so much because of a misunderstood belief in Eastern forms of spirituality that attainment happens through non-doing.    

"First, accept that life is hard, and that transforming our life--or abilities, is very hard.... A colossal swindle of the "New Age" movement is the notion that gaining a state of effortless being and doing requires no effort.  In fact, great conscious effort, discipline, and patience are normally required to enter the 'flow zone' where previously frightening challenges start taking on an aspect of relaxed ease.  The venue does not change. Everest does not get smaller and the North Pole does not get warmer.  It is we who must transform...

Second, the work is a process, and that process lasts a lifetime. Every time you gain a new plateau, a massif of unrealized potential soars above you.  In this sense, you never 'arrive, once and for all, on the mountaintop.  At certain points along the way, the quality of the process changes dramatically.  This is especially true for those breakthrough moments of peak performance, where months of sustained effort conspire to create a sort of wormhole of grace through which we pass--often suddenly and with little 'effort'--into a higher realm of being.  The climb that once spanked us now seems easy.  In such moments we tend to forget the arduous run-up to the crown.  It is then that we might recall  all of those championship coaches who remind us that the game is won or lost on the practice field."