New and Experienced climbers over 50 #20

Okay, so I have one rope that's a dedicated ice only one, in case Idaho ever gets ice, and I can lure my icy friend over. My other 3 are all 70 m. City of Rocks ropes. The original, my first rope ever, a second one, same rope, only newer, and the edelrid tc blue/purple bicolor....just cuz.

Old ropes?

 https://www.instagram.com/p/CVZBjPNtGaV/?utm_medium=copy_link

Kate McKinstry in Bozeman makes truly beautiful works of art with rope! She also does graphics and such, and is a very good climber. Super nice, too!

Best, Helen

S. Neohwrote:

Thanks, everyone.  Clearly, I need more ropes :)  My wife will not be pleased, however.  :)

Looks like I need to give a sub 9.4 mm single rope a try.
You see, I am still hung up on ropes thinner than 9.4 mm. Even though I searched high and low to buy a 60m Mammut Galaxy 10mm BITD.
Many questioned my choice back then when 50m 11mm was the standard. That Mammut Galaxy was indestrutible. It fared better than all the 11mm I had before and all the 10.5 and 10 I had after. I retired it because of age, not wear. Just an amazing rope which Mammut made way beyond spec and to prove that a rope that thin can last.

For Jan and those of us who are petite; I, when I weighed significant less than 55 kg, considered buying a half rope as my 'hard rp' rope.  Back then that was 8.9 mm or 9.0 mm.  Funny how 2-1/2 decades later we have several single ropes which are 9.0 mm and thinner.

Take a look at the specs. for the Edelrid Swift Protect, I found that it compares quite well to my larger diameter Mammuts.  I've been using mine for about 8 months on granite, sand stone and limestone.  Very little sheath wear.  My only complaint is that it's not offered in bi-color which I prefer when rapping in dim/dark light.

Thanks, Bob!  I def will.
I am soooo slow setting up raps because I am paranoid about unequal ends. So many have gotten hurt or killed rapping off one end that I triple check every rap setup.
Few things in life are worse than seeing a friend flying thru the air after he made a mistake with the ends.  He lived but there was a lengthy rescue and even longer recovery before he climbed again.

Congrats to your daughter, Todd!

GO

Nothing better than a photo of a happy kid.

Yup, congrats! And I hope she totally owns those freckles and red hair, too!!

:-)

Alan Rubinwrote:

As Soon knows, I am very old fashioned in such things. Yesterday I was belaying someone on a ‘shoe lace’—I have no idea of  what the diameter was, but it was awfully thin. I really had to work to control the lower of my pretty average weight partner. Super thin ropes make sense for alpine and red points on cutting edge routes, but to me they are not reasonable for normal cragging and, especially, as I experienced yesterday, in gyms.

It will be all good, Alan.
I will continue to have 9.5/9.8 mm for gym ropes. I need the heft given the number of leads I do indoor *and* I am cheap as hell.
For outdoors, I will continue to bring my Mammut 9.5 mm which you are familiar with. It is just shorter now; down to 58~60m but is still OK for almost all routes in MA.
I like to get a thin 70m for NH even if I only use it to link 2p routes at sport crags. Got to remember extra draws for those too.

S. Neohwrote:

Thanks, Bob!  I def will.
I am soooo slow setting up raps because I am paranoid about unequal ends. So many have gotten hurt or killed rapping off one end that I triple check every rap setup.
Few things in life are worse than seeing a friend flying thru the air after he made a mistake with the ends.  He lived but there was a lengthy rescue and even longer recovery before he climbed again.

There’s no reason to not tie knots in the end of a rope (or tie the ends together). That I can think of.  

Try  climbing  multi pitch in the  wind..

Loss of Life

by Carl

(for the Ukrainian people)

There’s little dogs’,

Small black noses,

And pink toes belonging to cats,

There’s yellow, black and white roses,

And cosy cottages

With woven welcome mats. 

There’s leaves falling from trees,

As you ride beneath them on your bike,

There’s buttercups,

and butterscotch,

and treacle, 

And summer drinks with ice.

There’s LP records in your room,

Smoking pot with the girlfriend you’ve kissed twice,

There’s surfing in the morning waves,

There’s pink ears on tiny mice.

There’s watching a child born,

There’s music, 

parties,

Drinking with friends,

Painting, climbing, 

Deciding what other people should do with their lives.

There’s dreams where you’re flying,

Or running or fucking, 

Or at the bus stop naked, 

Or in heaven, 

Hell,

Or being killed,

Or taking a life.

There’s sunsets of orange,

It’s tinting the foam,

Of the waves, 

Rolling on to the beach,

Where you sit,

With a sprig of rosemary,

A glass of wine,

Contemplating your life,

There’s light for cameras to take pictures of war, 

and trouble,

and loss of blood,

and loss of life,

There’s so many people to cry for right now,

Is your ego worth this loss of life?

Beautiful Carl.  We are watching unimaginable suffering before our very eyes.  I believe it's not only ego driving this war, but a deeply wrong-headed belief in the 'russian world' with a spiritual/religious component (the partnership of Putin and the Russian Orthodox head).  Yesterday Lindsey Graham asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are in terms of religion?” As a Catholic, I hope we keep our government OUT of religion... and ideologies that hold one belief to be 'right' or correct, and worth killing for.  

---------------

We had a fun/interesting day yesterday.  Drove into Los Angeles to see my mad-scientist doctor, Uzzi Reiss.  Tony is a good sport, and tried to keep an open mind.  Actually, I'm way over my head with Tony and his needs, after a lifetime of hard living in Chicago and that family ethic of totally ignoring one's health in favor of good times and pasta.  I've traipsed along after Tony to his many doctor appointments through Kaiser, and now Eisenhower... very traditional appointments where they insist upon the very lowest hormone levels, and the very highest amount of drugs.  I wanted to see what Uzzi would recommend, with the shitload of lab reports I brought along.

Thumbing through all those labs he stopped and said "Why would any doctor expect you to survive on this level of testosterone?  You are a big guy!  It's as though they don't want you to have any muscle, or sex drive, or erections."  I was taking notes fast and furious.  I wrote down the recommended dosages and lab levels for thyroid, cortisol, testosterone, HGH, etc... along with heart health, ejection fraction (heart issue), osteoporosis, etc.  Uzzi answered a ton of questions lightening speed... questions we have been shoved from one specialist to another to get answers. For every answer, if you want them, Uzzi will shove a pile of studies to back up his answers.  Tony just sat back and watched the papers fly... totally blown away.  Back in the car he said "I've never seen anything like that."   

After 30 years of knowing Uzzi, I know how to take prodigious notes, and grab what I want, leave the rest.  I always appreciate his review of my stuff.  I would rather pay for one fifteen minute visit with Uzzi, than a dozen with Kaiser (unless it was a broken leg).  This kind of stuff is all new to Tony... ALL NEW.  But we were able to sit back and realize that in 3 short years Tony's entire health has been transformed... everything is better, much of it totally healed, he is on NO medication.  So, he and his kin can roll their eyes at "your organic girlfriend" but they have to admit he's a different guy today.  

Does anyone remember "Comin' into Los Angeles
Bringin' in a couple of keys
Don't touch my bags if you please, mister customs man ..."  

As for me, Uzzi asked "Are you still climbing mountains?"  He knows it's pointless to ask me to stop... so he wrote out more suggestions for recovery.  I thought I'd check out the pomegranate extract (Urolithin-a).  

I'm still thinking about the last route I climbed with Bob  (or TRIED to climb)... very difficult for me, very tricky moves, technical I guess... over my head in almost every way. Bob hums, sings, whistles when he climbs sometimes, giving the illusion that this is just a casual day in the park. Then when I tie in... OMG.  No whistling for me!  I am wondering how hard is too hard to be a worthy project?  I wonder if it's the adrenaline, or some biochemical, that makes you rethink and relive hard climbs, over and over, and drives you to go back and try again.  I'd really like to try again.  

Moving onto this face is not an easy task. 

Don’t even know what that photo is lol.  Glad to see you posting again Todd, when you were sick in Yosemite I feared the worst. 

Looks like Todd needs a little barefoot time.  Hard to get this time of year in the northeast I assume.

Whatever that wrinkled photo thing was, it definitely needs some outdoor time. Just today I suffered a short barefoot hike back to the packs and it felt amazing and painful with my winter soft NE feet.

Lori Milaswrote:

  I am wondering how hard is too hard to be a worthy project?  

A frend of mine, who is much more into projecting than I am, once told me that if you can do 50% or more of the moves free on TR the first day spent on the 'project', then it is a viable project.
LOL. My threshold is much higher. I will abandon the 'project' if there are more than a few moves I can't do (or figure out) within 5 serious tries at each ot them.
For me, I think of the opportunity cost of "over investing" in a route that I very well might not send, ever.  On the flip side, there are people who spend an entire season or even seasons attempting to send one route.  So, the ultimate answer is, "whatever motivates you".

Todd Berlier wrote:

i almost drove back to yosemite to get on that problem again. i couldn't justify the 7.5 hour drive for 3 hours of climbing, but i did sit at the intersection for 5 minutes deciding.

Honestly, that’s the biggest difference that I notice with aging, I can’t stand driving any more.  I used to drive 12 hours round trip just to work on a new route for a few hours.    

Ward Smithwrote:

Honestly, that’s the biggest difference that I notice with aging, I can’t stand driving any more.  I used to drive 12 hours round trip just to work on a new route for a few hours.    

Whoa.  Really?   I guess that makes you hard core and me not :)
I had thought 9hr RT (The Gunks) for a day and a half of climbing was "bad".  :) 

Ward didn’t mention that some of those drives were in bellow freezing winter temperatures to climb in Down East Maine!!!

M. Montoya—what crag is that in the picture you posted just upthread?

Yes Lori, was that The New Riders of the Purple Sage or Arlo Guthier, or?

Mark Frumkinwrote:

Yes Lori, was that The New Riders of the Purple Sage or Arlo Guthier, or?

Argh. Can’t keep quiet. Of course it’s Arlo GUTHRIE