New and Experienced climbers over 50 #21

Black velvet goes into the shade in april and gets cold.... 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Black velvet goes into the shade in april and gets cold.... 

Yeah I usually climb on BV there May and September. 

My friend Rich Romano, who is fast, arrived at the base of Epinephrine at the same time as another party.  He asked if he could go first--saying his party was fast (which it was)--and that if the folks behind caught up with them he would rap off and leave the route to them.  The other party agreed, and Rich was on top about the time the other party was half way up.

Alan Rubin wrote:

Gabe, Mormon is one of my favorite crags, not far from my house, but even closer for Ward, just down the hill for him. I was there last Saturday—great conditions and not too busy.

When will you be there? If on Saturday  it is possible I could come over and join you—though  it is raining hard here right now and Mormon can be slow to dry.  Alan

Alan, that would be great!  We're driving out this evening and camping at Barton Cove CG.  Not sure when we'll roll out of camp and get to the crag, probably not super early.  I expect we'll be there by 9 or 10.  Not sure if you recall, but we climbed together once, briefly, at Farley.  I think this was some years ago, either before my daughter was born, or when she was still basically immobile.  I also had my wife and my niece there.  Anyway, I was looking for a recommendation for a nice route around low 12.  You suggested something that looked good, and I promptly got shut down on it.  :)

Anyway, I can PM you my cell number, or you can just show up, I'll be there.  Sunday too (at least for a bit in the morning) if Sat doesn't work for you.

Cheers!

GO  

Alan Rubin wrote:

Gabe, Mormon is one of my favorite crags, not far from my house, but even closer for Ward, just down the hill for him. I was there last Saturday—great conditions and not too busy.

When will you be there? If on Saturday  it is possible I could come over and join you—though  it is raining hard here right now and Mormon can be slow to dry.  Alan

Ward, would be nice to meet you as well!  Should be a gorgeous weekend, looking forward to it!

Gabe

Oldtradguy wrote:

Brian

I found an old picture of me climbing Generic Crack in Indian Creek. Check out part of my rack. I did carry a couple of the old rigid Friends. I have not used them in a while. I did have a full set from i to 4 inch and then picked newer rigid Friends in the 2 and 2.5 range for use in Indian Creek.

I also had a small camel back for water since we would go out there in July and climb in very early morning before the sun backed us. We always stayed on east coast time and we would have the place to ourselves since most people did not want to climb in the heat. 

I even had hair back then.

John

John - Great pic!  As I recall, my first rack consisted of a set of wired stoppers with a couple of doubles, a couple of rigid stem cams, about three of the first gen Camalots, and a bunch of hexes.  A sparse rack for sure, but I spent my 20's pretty much broke and happy.  Most of the hexes were given to me by my friend who taught me to climb - some of them allegedly were owned by Chouinard himself.  I still have all of the hexes and placed a couple on last trip to the City of Rocks.  there's something about the clang that a big hex makes on a rack that is nostalgic.

Nice shoes, btw!  I think I still have my old Sportivas from the 90s lying around somewhere as well.

And I had hair back then as well.  I'd have to dig out the pics from a box somewhere to prove it, though.

Brian

rgold wrote:

My friend Rich Romano, who is fast, arrived at the base of Epinephrine at the same time as another party.  He asked if he could go first--saying his party was fast (which it was)--and that if the folks behind caught up with them he would rap off and leave the route to them.  The other party agreed, and Rich was on top about the time the other party was half way up.

I have never had to 'negotiate' starting a long route with another party.  Eric and I beat another party to L29 by about 20 minutes.  They settled for Eagle Dance.
In this case fast is all relative. One can be faster than Party X and yet snail slow compared to Party Y. What is the proper protocal assuming both parties got to the base within 1 second?
Rich Ramano's protocol seems as valid as any other. 

Very much dating myself here, but my first ‘rack’ consisted of several soft iron pitons—mostly horizontals—and several very heavy steel biners, that would too often painfully snap closed on my fingers. ‘Fortunately’ my original crag was Devil’s Lake and we normally top-roped!!!! I then went through several iterations of Chouinard and Long chromolly pitons —with a few token construction nuts—before stoppers, hexes, and, eventually, cams arrived.

As for John’s shoes. I still consider the Megas to be the best edging shoes I ever used—by far. I was heart-broken when they were discontinued. I wish I could get my hands on a couple of pair today!!!!

Hair, yep, mine isn’t quite what it used to be either. 

Oldtradguy wrote:

Brian

I found an old picture of me climbing Generic Crack in Indian Creek. Check out part of my rack. I did carry a couple of the old rigid Friends. I have not used them in a while. I did have a full set from i to 4 inch and then picked newer rigid Friends in the 2 and 2.5 range for use in Indian Creek.

I also had a small camel back for water since we would go out there in July and climb in very early morning before the sun backed us. We always stayed on east coast time and we would have the place to ourselves since most people did not want to climb in the heat. 

I even had hair back then.

John

Very Conan the Barbarian, John.    

I arrived in Sacramento this afternoon, and feel bad about missing all the fun at COR.  I hope everyone is having a lot of fun.  

I listened to my first audiobook on the way up, which really changed the drive.  I’m 10 hours into a 21 hour book.  It’s a kind of health book, revisited.  Has anyone used chaga as a supplemental shroom?  It was one of the recommended supplements. 

I received a phone call from my daughter this morning while I was driving. “so, you probably heard heard about the roped team of four on Shasta last weekend? The ones who took the 2500 foot fall and the guide died?“ She just wanted me to rest assured that this was a freak accident I am not to worry. There were three other helicopter rescues on the same south face on the same day… Which she was supposed to be on that day. Ironically at the moment she called I was listening to one of Alex Honnold‘s podcasts on risk.  No, i do not feel better about this. At all.  

.

Generic crack  kicked  my  butt.... I did  much better the next day on Sparkling  Touch.

GabeO wrote:

Ward, would be nice to meet you as well!  Should be a gorgeous weekend, looking forward to it!

Gabe

Gabe, we are heading up to New Hampshire today but may be at Farley in the morning Sunday.   I live 10 minutes away.  

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Generic crack  kicked  my  butt.... I did  much better the next day on Sparkling  Touch.

Nick

The first time I did Generic Crack, I did not have enough of the right size of cams. I then had to leap frog them to finish the climb. After that struggle, I just wanted to throw up. It does have about 70-80 feet of perfect hand jamming. Jean did not have a great time due to the size of her hands. 

John

Todd Berlier wrote:

if that makes anyone jealous:

i tr'ed generic and it kicked my ass. i suck at crack climbing--was redpointing 5.13 (sport) and fell many times trying to figure out how to climb that thing. if i remember correctly the crack is flaring and the good jams were a little deeper. good horizontals for rests but i was working waaaay to hard for the grade.

Todd

Here is an old mug shot of Jean and I back in 1974 when we were both in college.

John

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Lori, go to red rocks and get up something long and fun.   something like  Group Therapy, Tunnel Vision, possibly Frogland. If that goes well then Dream Of Wild Turkeys or Price of Darkness is in order.  

Lori, I second Nick's recommendation.  To get used to sandstone climbing I'd suggest first going to Calico Hills, First Pull Out, and climbing at the Hamlet.  For guiding you could contact Dan Young via Desert Rock Sports.  He's the FA on a number of single and multi-pitch climbs at Red Rock, nice guy.  When you get to the long trad. climbs don't overlook Birdland.  

While hiking in the Sierra foothill today I found myself trailing behind a beautiful Native American man with long black hair down to his waist and a white wide brimmed hat, and in my hopeful fantasy world I was pretty sure this was Lonnie Kauk and the universe finally brought us together. I was so sure it was him I was even looking for his signature magic line label. I am so lucky the universe never fulfills any of my dreams because it could only lead to trouble. I was way too bashful to catch up to this guy to see if it was him. 

Tony is so much more mature than me. I’ve never seen him fall in love with anyone but if he did I think it would be an Italian beauty like Gina Lollobrigida. Someone who doesn’t climb and who delicately eats anti-pasta and smiles at him with big brown eyes over a plate of spaghetti.

John, you and Jean haven’t aged at all since that picture!!!! Well, maybe just a little. You are still both fun to be with and very hospitable. Hope to see you again during our next visit to PA or if you pass through this area over the summer.

possibly OT, but anyone have good rehab ideas for the lower back?

climbing & skiing were good for it, but my love for snowmachine riding beat the crap out of it.

now I'm (feeling) old...

Buff Johnson wrote:

possibly OT, but anyone have good rehab ideas for the lower back?

climbing & skiing were good for it, but my love for snowmachine riding beat the crap out of it.

now I'm (feeling) old...

Loosen the sit too much muscles, the hamstrings. 

Buff Johnson wrote:

possibly OT, but anyone have good rehab ideas for the lower back?

Degenerative disk disease seems to run in my family, I was diagnosed with it in my lower back in my late thirties. My back was at its absolute worse when I had a two hours driving commute every day, and a job which kept me at a desk or chair for most of the day.  Had a lot of back pain and sciatica in those days.  Like Montoya says, sitting is terrible for your low back.  These days I'm reasonably pain free.  The most important thing I've found is to do hamstring stretch every day, followed by proper body mechanics for bending and lifting, and increasing core strength. Ice in the evenings is a ritual for many of my body parts (I ice knees, shoulders, and low back, depending on what's worst for the day ;-)

 It's really worth seeing a orthopedist/physiatrist and getting a Rx for 12 weeks of PT.  You will learn a big repertoire of exercises and stretches for your low back.  These days, the things that irritate my back are gardening (too much bending involved, even when done properly), and climbing days that require a lot of downhill through big talus.  And of course, very long days in the car on road trips.

I had quite a bit of lower back issues 15 to 20 years ago.  Now I hardly do.  A bunch of little things really helped to turn the tide.
Silly enough but first thing on the list was getting a proper snow shovel and learning how to shovel properly. Second which also benefited my climbing was to incerase and mantain a good level of core strength. Third is tthe use of the seat heater on long drives 10 months of the year. Sounds crazy to have the heater on in June but it really helped me. I have a 3.5 hr drive tomorrow to VT for a conference and I imagine I will have the seat heater on for most of the time.

For the past two years I have been using a stand-up desk for my "desk work". Not sure if it makes a difference but many people at work swear by it for back health.