New and Experienced climbers over 50 #20

Ward Smithwrote:

Staying with friends in Rumney NH for a few days.  My daughter Ella (10) had trouble on this 5.5 then flashed three V4/5 problems in their home gym.  Go figure..

My 11 year old does the same exact thing, bouldering and exposed scrambling give her no anxiety, throw a rope in and she thinks too much.

I bumped into this today and I thought how appropriate. A great part of the discipline. 

To all:  

Ward Smithwrote:

Staying with friends in Rumney NH for a few days.  My daughter Ella (10) had trouble on this 5.5 then flashed three V4/5 problems in their home gym.  Go figure..

This is a completely different animal than any gym 5.5.  What kid raised in the gym has a clue about the body positioning, opposition, foot position, etc, involved in a slabby offset chimney?  5.5 in a gym is a vertical set of buckets.  Night and day.

My daughter wouldn't do any better, I'm sure.

Edited to add: in this photo it actually looks like she's got the idea already.

GO

I had a wonderful day climbing today with two handsome dudes, Brandt and Jay. High up on a hill at New Jack City, without another party all day. We agreed we really like parties of three for sport climbing - somebody to take photos while the other belays!

Hey, I look like a real climber in that photo!

Isa is Visiting family across the pond so I rescued Bernie from the house sitter and we went for a romp. bernie chased my sisters chickens so he got locked in the van. fourtunatly before he had a chance to roll in anything nasty. it's shit spreading season.

he was not too impressed with zuccini and onions but was super stoked about the raw steak I gave him for his dinner :) 

in the morning we skinned to the top of Sterling Mtn. Bern likes laying in the cold snow. It was 60f and sunny.

we made it to the top 

great ski down and a Tired happy dog  on the way home.    Had to leave him with the house sitter and head back to the weekly grind.... 

Jean and I had a great time with Lori the other day at Jtree.

Lori beat us up on a pretty vertical slab that we TR on. We watched Lori do it. I felt sorry for Jean for catching me so many times falling on it. I did get up it but it was not pretty. Lori said that it was hard for a 10.b I looked it up on MP and found it as a 10.c.

Lori told me that she did not like crack climbing so I set up Gargoyle which is a straight forward nice crack about 60 tall. Lori cruised it. 

Near the top

At the top. 

Jean and I want to also thank Lori and Tony for putting up with us for a couple of days staying at their house.

Thank you Lori.

John

Brandt Allenwrote:

Hey, I look like a real climber in that photo!

It really is a classic climber pose and a great picture of you Brandt!

Oldtradguywrote:

Jean and I had a great time with Lori the other day at Jtree.

Lori beat us up on a pretty vertical slab that we TR on. We watched Lori do it. I felt sorry for Jean for catching me so many times falling on it. I did get up it but it was not pretty. Lori said that it was hard for a 10.b I looked it up on MP and found it as a 10.c.

Lori told me that she did not like crack climbing so I set up Gargoyle which is a straight forward nice crack about 60 tall. Lori cruised it. 

Near the top

At the top. 

Jean and I want to also thank Lori and Tony for putting up with us for a couple of days staying at their house.

Thank you Lori.

John

Tony and I had a really good time, too. It’s just really nice to have company and John has gone so out of his way to be a friend even in ways other than Climbing. So now it truly feels like a reunion of good friends and we miss them when they leave.

I’m sorry we couldn’t put something together with Brandt. I haven’t gotten out with Brandt nearly as much as I had hoped but he’s such a great guy and he doesn’t live far away and I’m hoping I can make the drive over and look at his wonderful garden and compare notes on tomato worms if nothing else.

John and Jean are really good experienced  climbers and it’s fun to watch them together. I am coming to accept that there is just no replacement for years on the rock—which they have , but I sure have fun making the best of what I can do. That 10c route was particularly hard I thought because so much rock was rubbing off and it felt a little like climbing on ball bearings. Plus, I’ve never experienced this before, two effusive climbers showed up and offered all kinds of beta and misdirection.   None of it worked for me but we have two new friends now – – one of them a really good veteran  climber here in Joshua Tree.

Bob and I climbed over at stirrup rock today with the intent of setting up jugular vein so I could tick off another Houser route. Turns out jugular vein didn’t have any place for an anchor at the top and so that may be a route I have to cross off my list forever. However it’s a whole new wonderland of exciting routes out there, unexplored by me, and apparently everyone else has spent lots of time out there. A whole different vibe but faces and cracks I would love to come back to and climb.

I have never contacted Dave Houser but I would like to now  with a little letter that starts  “Dear Mr. Houser, what the hell were you thinking when you put up jugular vein?  How am I supposed to climb this?”

Oh! I don’t have to write to Dave, I can write to our very own Jan and ask him what the hell he was thinking? How am I going to tick this route if there is no way to set up an anchor?  I guess this is when men were men… 

Jugular Vein and something Freckles.  That Freckles route looked HARD.  

Lori Milaswrote:

Jugular Vein and something Freckles.  That Freckles route looked HARD.  

Fuck if I know Lori.  I don't really remember putting that one up.  There is a great tale with Peter Eater Pumpkin Eater but I have nothing for Jugular Vein.  But you know, we used to lead them, put pro in for an anchor, bring the other people up, and then figure out how to climb down.  We didn't actually rap off very often because then you had to leave gear (bolts or nuts).

Jan Mcwrote:

Fuck if I know Lori.  I don't really remember putting that one up.  There is a great tale with Peter Eater Pumpkin Eater but I have nothing for Jugular Vein.  But you know, we used to lead them, put pro in for an anchor, bring the other people up, and then figure out how to climb down.  We didn't actually rap off very often because then you had to leave gear (bolts or nuts).

Well can we at least get the tale?  Might make up for having nothing on Jugular Vein.    (It’s probably not too late to put bolts up there so I could climb it—just swing on by one day after work, boom!) 

Freckle Face. A Johnny Woodward route. Anything that fellow put up is going to get your attention.

I'll tell what's a ball breaker is that Overpowered by Funk. Kurt Smith route?

.12b was a climbable grade for me at the time, but getting this thing done made me better. Steep, athletic, and very technical all at once. 

That's Peter Eater to the left.

Crummy pic. Jan probably took it with one of those single use cardboard camera's I brought along.

New V5 at the new area.

Kristian Solemwrote:

I'll tell what's a ball breaker is that Overpowered by Funk. Kurt Smith route?

.12b was a climbable grade for me at the time, but getting this thing done made me better. Steep, athletic, and very technical all at once. 

That's Peter Eater to the left.

Crummy pic. Jan probably took it with one of those single use cardboard camera's I brought along.

Yea, but really it's a GREAT picture.  You posted this once before and I daydreamed about it for days.  I had no idea that we were right there yesterday... Next time I'll go over and take a better look at the route.

I like how you said "getting this thing done made me better".  I took that to mean a better PERSON because that's how I think of climbing.  It makes you better in every way--character, strength, heart. 

There is so much to climbing... just showing up to do something, anything, is a big one for me right now.  Doing your best.  And in some cases, working hard and stretching to your limits... all make you a better person.  

Kristian Solemwrote:

I'll tell what's a ball breaker is that Overpowered by Funk. Kurt Smith route?

.12b was a climbable grade for me at the time, but getting this thing done made me better. Steep, athletic, and very technical all at once. 

That's Peter Eater to the left.

Crummy pic. Jan probably took it with one of those single use cardboard camera's I brought along.

I think that is right about where I fell off that thing that day.  The bottom is so reachy and physical and I kind of had a mind meltdown when I got onto less steep terrain and fell off.  Not the first or last time that happened to one of us on a hard route.  Lori, you should try Peter Eater.  Only the bottom moves are hard and the upper crack is just plain fun.

Mike Waugh and I were out at Josh for a week one spring and Dennis Knuckles, the climbing ranger who lived on the Keyes Ranch property, was climbing with us and carted us out to a few new areas for some new routes.  This was one day and another was when we did the first ascent of Invisibility Lessons on Future Games.  Anyway, Mike is leading and is about half way up Peter Eater and a red tail hawk starts dive bombing him.  He is cringing and almost jumping off but manages to get to the top and hide in a solution pocket.  Meanwhile Dennis solos the wall to the left (must be at least 5.8 and he was barely a 5.10 climber) because he was so excited and figured there was a nest on the top.  Meanwhile, with the hawk busy harassing Mike on top I followed and cleaned.  Right as I get to the top I see Dennis is looking at the nest and then DIVING into the solution pocket next to Mike to avoid being hit by the diving hawk.  She left us alone for a while and we cleaned up and walked off.  Then we sat at the base for a while to make sure that mom came back.  When she did she dropped a dead lizard on us as a warning or offering and then went back to her nest.  Obviously the hawk no longer nests there which is one of the potential bad things about putting new routes up.

This is a great story.  It just seems that, considering how much effort I’ve given to climbing all the Houser routes… and the fact that he has never shown up to show some appreciation… these remaining routes that are too hard for me should be a community effort.    If ya’ll would divide up the leftover routes and come have a do-over we could call it good.  

Lori Milaswrote:

This is a great story.  It just seems that, considering how much effort I’ve given to climbing all the Houser routes… and the fact that he has never shown up to show some appreciation… these remaining routes that are too hard for me should be a community effort.    If ya’ll would divide up the leftover routes and come have a do-over we could call it good.  

I'm sure that between Bob, Kris and me we have already done all the Houser routes so you might as well just quit worrying about it and consider it a community accomplishment.  If I were you I would move on to Randy Vogel routes next.  That should keep you busy for a while.