New and Experienced climbers over 50 #21

phylp phylpwrote:

Sam, if we connect up in Mammoth on my June or July trips, we can head up there if the weather is right.  The rock is spectacular, beautiful featured granite.  Fortunately there are a bunch of climbs on the left side of the main wall that are a bit easier, most put up by Dan McDevitt.  I think only some of them are logged in MP, but I can get the info. Approach is very easy, about 15 minutes down hill?  Another wall with similar rock right in that area is Transpire Wall.  That has a 3 minute approach, right off the road on the north side but uphill, above the traffic, so it's actually pretty nice.

That sounds great! I've heard the scene there can be quite bro-y, hopefully less so by the 10s and 11s on a weekday.

Yeah, the 12s and 13s on the Tioga stuff are all hard as fuck.  Not a place to go unless you are up to the challenge.  My favorite Transpire route is Walk Like an Egyptian - really cool moves!  There are also a bunch of new routes up across the dam on Ellery Lake and left.  Someone has some guide pages available but I don't remember who.

Well, I just think it would be so wrong for you all to head over to Tioga Wall without me, so I sat up here in Auburn last night mapping routes to Yosemite, and more specifically Lee Vining Canyon.  4 hours if I knew exactly where I was going and what I was looking for. (which I don’t) I’m a free bird for a few days, and could take off on a junket.  I think it’s not going to happen after all because I have grandkids to splash with and some climbing to do… but I have enjoyed the fantasy of showing up there on Thursday and taking some of pictures of that beautiful rock myself.  What are the chances I’d actually find it without driving in circles?  

I believe it was Dallas who opined about there being two kinds of people: Nomads and Castle Builders.  He and his wife are definitely nomads, even still… they just roam.  When he first wrote about this concept I thought, FOR SURE, I’m also a nomad.  I was stuck in Rocklin, in a big house with a big job, and I wanted out.  But now in Joshua Tree, I set right to work castle-building again, rooting in, and It’s hard to miss a minute of all the goings on there.  I want to see every nook, in every season.  I’m watching the sun angles change, watching the various breeds of lizard emerge and leave… we now have a red-breasted little bird nesting under our patio shade.  Have they already had babies?  

Also, I’m enjoying learning the ways of being in the specific  outdoors.  Whenever I’ve been out climbing with Bob, it’s an interesting process deciding where to go.  Not only does he have an up-to-the minute take on the weather, from the most local weather station, but he’ll kick up a bit of dirt to see which way the wind is blowing, knows where the sun is at what time and when the shade will arrive… all those factors together get us to the right crag with perfect weather.  I’ve never climbed in too much heat or cold.  There is an area behind Echo Rock that is a sauna in the winter… you could be in shorts and tank even in a light snow. And there are rocks that are cool and breezy, even in 95 degree weather.  

Being back in Auburn/Sac is a bit bittersweet because I was at the American rivers and Folsom Lake nearly every day of my life, even in raging dark storms of winter, I watched the levels rise and fall… there were times I had to hike 1/2 mile over hot sand to get to the water’s edge and it would be rusty and sour.  Today the lake is at 87%.  I brought my ‘personal flotation device’.  Sitting at the Confluence at sunset yesterday I thought how much it has changed over the last 40 years… and yet not.  This was me and my grand dog enjoying a summer afternoon in the water, just soaking.  

So it would be hard to just drive through Yosemite.  I”d want to stay.  That may be the thing that attracts me to Lonnie… that quality that he grew up in Yosemite, was taught to think of it as his spiritual home, and has lived on those rocks.  I think it’s pretty cool if you can be that comfortable in one place.  

Lori- Hi. You need to drive home via Tioga Pass… then do 395 down the East Side.
Have ya ever done that? (I bet that’s a big no) 

Beware- it might take you 5 days to do so. If you think JT has beautiful rocks, then you haven’t seen real rocks. Make sure you drive up RocK Creek… Pine Creek…. Go to the North ORG parking- look down. Go to the ButterMilks stand between the “Peabodys” and look at the chalk marks… WTF??

I think you will find it a much better drive then 99 or the 5….

Have fun 

Lori Milaswrote:

Well, I just think it would be so wrong for you all to head over to Tioga Wall without me, so I sat up here in Auburn last night mapping routes to Yosemite, and more specifically Lee Vining Canyon.  4 hours if I knew exactly where I was going and what I was looking for. (which I don’t) but I have enjoyed the fantasy of showing up there on Thursday and taking some of pictures of that beautiful rock myself.  What are the chances I’d actually find it without driving in circles?  

You would find it very easily - the guidebook tells you the odometer reading from the junction of 120 and 395 to the parking, and then there is a clearly marked trail.  MP always has a "getting there" section - it's listed for Tioga. But it's probably not worth a special excursion.  The Canyon is pretty but as cliffs go, the rock at Tioga is kind of chossy looking.  Climbs great but not beautiful to look at. The walls/formations in the Valley and in Tuolumne Meadows are far more aesthetic. Donner Summit, not too far from where you are I think, also has some beautiful walls and beautiful lines.

It's funny, I was trying to think this AM if there is any climbing area I've ever been (probably approaching 100) where it's more complicated to find a specific rock formation than in Joshua Tree, and I couldn't think of one. Everywhere else you go, Lori, you will probably find formations, cliffs and routes much more easily.

Now there are places where it's very easy to see your route from a distance, but things can get confusing as you get to the base.  red Rock can be that way.  But that's a whole 'nother story.

Todd … I think the top three Drives - that I have done- in no order. Are: Icefields Parkway in Alberta, The drive from Interlaken that runs below the Eiger, Monch … (sorry I can’t recall the Swiss Highway) and 395 … 

But I’ve never been to Nepal … people tell me I’m missing out.

phylp phylpwrote:

That's funny, I was trying to think this AM if there is any climbing area I've ever been (probably approaching 100) where it's more complicated to find a specific rock formation than in Joshua Tree, and I couldn't think of one.

Not been to the Frankenjura then!

Lori, normally you would take the 99 south to Manteca and turn left onto the 120 east and take that to 395.  But I think you need a permit even to drive thru Yosemite this year.  Instead you could take 50 east to 395 and turn south.  When you get to Lee Vining turn right onto 120 and head up the hill.  Be warned that 120 is a scary road for some people.  One side is a LONG drop off into the canyon with not much in the way of guardrails.  Even doing this though and you will not be able to get into Tuolumne to see the magnificent domes there without a permit.  YOu could go onto recreation.gov and try to get a permit, they do hold a bunch of them for the week prior to your intended entry date.

Guy Keeseewrote:

Todd … I think the top three Drives - that I have done- in no order. Are: Icefields Parkway in Alberta, The drive from Interlaken that runs below the Eiger, Monch … (sorry I can’t recall the Swiss Highway) and 395 … 

But I’ve never been to Nepal … people tell me I’m missing out.

The roads I’ve traveled in Nepal are not in open enough terrain to see much of the mountains. The road from Lhasa to Kathmandu is a different story, as it travels a good portion of the high plateau and over passes up to 18,000’ elevation. The view from Tingri of the north side of Everest and Cho Oyu is spectacular. The descent from there to the Nepal border took more than a day, as we were riding in a wagon pulled slowly by a tractor loaded with Tibetans. This was in 1985 though, so things may have changed somewhat. Currently much of Tibet is restricted for foreigners.

The Karakoram highway has stunning views. Gilgit to Kashgar.

I completely agree with Guy about the Icefields Parkway in the Canadian Rockies!

Jim Tittwrote:

Not been to the Frankenjura then!

No I haven’t!  My extra-USA climbing is very limited. A tiny bit in Italy and Greece, but no where else. It’s never too late to find a new place to get lost though!

Jim Tittwrote:

Not been to the Frankenjura then!

I’ve actually had really good luck finding individual crags in the Franken using the two-volume guide. Now, as for wondering around lost instead of climbing, my picks are Lemmon, Devil’s Head and Labske Udoli (czech). I didn’t find JTree particularly bad, but we stuck to the well traveled classics during our one trip. 

Todd… grab the kids and go to Alberta. Some of the best camping, eating and climbing ever. I really loved climbing the  “back of the lake” at Lake Louise.

Terry … Thank you, some day, some day …. 

It used to be that if you were just driving through the Park, they had to allow you passage.  Might have even been free and you did not need a pass.  Some sort of transportation rule.  Hold up the line sometime and press this workaround.

I’m wishing there was a separate thread on an Mountain Project dedicated to holistic and general health topics. To me this is so relevant to both Climbing and aging but I get that it’s a burden to have to sift through these posts for those who have thriving good health or for those where it’s just not an Interesting topic.  I live with a man who is not a specimen of great health but he would never think to sleuth for answers. Fortunately he’s a really good sport and he’ll go along but most of this is an eye roller.

I recently got to the point where I was feeling so poorly that I just said let’s test everything, the water and my body and see if there’s anything glaring or that jumps off the page,  and now those results are rolling in and I’m glad I did all the testing. For one, and maybe it’s a small thing, I had nearly dangerous levels of cadmium and uranium in my body… Uranium has been an ongoing issue, I think it’s part of living in the desert. Uranium rolls off the granite peaks and into the ground water here it’s not considered radioactive or dangerous, at least I don’t think. But  several samples of our tapwater show significant levels and also lab tests for me so there’s something to think about. But the cadmium is an issue because that is a disruptive heavy metal and best I can tell it is coming from my daily consumption of dark chocolate. A really cool organization called “As You Sow” recently tested all brands of chocolate including the very specialized organic dark chocolates… The two brands I consistently purchase (Endangered Species and Ghirardell)  are in the extremely high range of cadmium. So those have to be history and I think probably my dark chocolate days are mostly over. This is not a heavy metal that can do any good overtime  and what’s interesting is that they conducted the same testing in 2016 and some of those specialty chocolates at that time were not contaminated so that tells me that there is no way to really know from batch to batch. My job now is to get rid of the cadmium  which will take a while.

Another really surprising lab result came from an environmental pollutants test, which I have now done three times. While my test showed significant exposure to almost everything the one obvious toxic exposure was to phthalates—above the highest detection level—, and I do know about those chemicals, especially their ability to block thyroid hormones and lock into estrogen and testosterone receptors. So I have been really careful about phthalate exposure at home, I thought, but what I didn’t know was that a medication I take is loaded with phthalates, and this was discovered back in 2012 when a lady with cystic fibrosis was found to have this toxic exposure (the same medication as mine), it was eventually linked to her medication, and it has been an issue ever since but never dealt with by the pharmaceutical company . This directly affects me because of a growing thyroid nodule that now has to be biopsied and seems to have come out of nowhere, along with needing evermore thyroid medication, which makes no sense. So on the one hand I can be happy if these discoveries help my health but I also wonder who else is being  silently harmed by all this crap.  I always wind up asking, how is clean and non-toxic living so hard these days?  

so I have some actionable things I can do right now to get rid of some big stressors, and they are easy, for instance finding a cleaner medication with no phthalates and further reducing plastics in my house, filtering our water and, the hardest thing, giving up the dark chocolate or at least way reducing it.  For a guy like Tony who will just go along with the ride, or Russ and I admire his stance on this because it sure keeps things light, or Carl whose solution to all of life‘s problems seems to be to drink more and have more fun but for some of us it can be a lonely journey.  

Having said all that I got out to climb yesterday at Donner and had a really good time on very different rock. I wish I was enjoying it more but I hope I will soon. So glad to read the responses on Yosemite… How did you guys ever exist there? It sounds impossibly hard to get in or even find a place to stay and that’s probably why I have given it up so many times. Maybe one of these days I’ll really put my mind to it and find a way to make a trip. 

SO happy to report that the water levels here are high… the mountains were green, Folsom lake is at 87%, I don’t know if that will effect the likelihood of more fires here this year, but I’m happy just to see the beautiful rivers full again.  Usually by June they are a trickle.  

Lori Milaswrote:

But the cadmium is an issue because that is a disruptive heavy metal and best I can tell it is coming from my daily consumption of dark chocolate. A really cool organization called “As You Sow” recently tested all brands of chocolate including the very specialized organic dark chocolates… The two brands I consistently purchase (Endangered Species and Ghirardell)  are in the extremely high range of cadmium. So those have to be history and I think probably my dark chocolate days are mostly over.

My dad has been religious about eating cocoa nibs for years because of the health benefits. He recently switched to taking this cocoa flavonol extract instead because he was getting sick of having to eat so many nibs every day (they get stuck in his throat and teeth and it was kind of a chore to eat the recommended daily volume).

https://www.cocoavia.com/

They do say in the FAQ on the website that their process results in significantly lower amounts of cadmium than other cocoa powders.

I know you like to optimize with supplements, so you may consider adding in something like this if you stop eating the tasty chocolate.

Sam Cieplywrote:

My dad has been religious about eating cocoa nibs for years because of the health benefits. He recently switched to taking this cocoa flavonol extract instead because he was getting sick of having to eat so many nibs every day (they get stuck in his throat and teeth and it was kind of a chore to eat the recommended daily volume).

https://www.cocoavia.com/

They do say in the FAQ on the website that their process results in significantly lower amounts of cadmium than other cocoa powders.

I know you like to optimize with supplements, so you may consider adding in something like this if you stop eating the tasty chocolate.

Oh, Sam, THANK YOU!  It really does take a village.  I will check this out.  I appreciate your sharing this with me. 

Lori - I for one enjoy your take on vitamins and supplements. I learn a lot, thanks.
“Everything in moderation as they say” And to add “To much of everything is just enough” 

Glad you got to climb something different, see the world from a different angle, and soak in cool waters.

Lori Milaswrote:

I’m wishing there was a separate thread on an Mountain Project dedicated to holistic and general health topics. 

Why not create one?  While I have no objection to such discussions being part of this thread, you would certainly get a wider audience if you did create a separate thread.

GO

Hola!  Just checking back in now that I am officially over 50 (birthday in January!).

I used to check in a bit a few years ago but then the overwhelming dumpster fire of the Forums here on MP (not this thread) drove me away.

But moved to Colorado Springs last August and have been having fun trying to hit the 5.7 and down trad classics within a few hours from me with a couple excursions with ropegun partners to Moab.  The climbing here is just AMAZING!

Anyone on this thread live in Colorado?  

What an incredible day this was! In order to climb Run For Your Life Zack and Nelson had to lead up Runaway, and I just stood watching in total awe.  “hips to the wall“, I am still trying to learn this difficult stance.  Yesterday  the closer I got to the wall the more easily I slid right off, so this must be more magic to learn. Pictures like this just make me forget all my troubles. I wish this was me up there on Runaway!