New and Experienced climbers over 50 #22

Ward Smith wrote:

Alaskan Pipeline, 11a?  Hardcore flared chimney thrash. 

Looks ugly, Ward, but strangely attractive!  Trad?  Mixed?

S. Neoh wrote:

Looks ugly, Ward, but strangely attractive!  Trad?  Mixed?

Trad, stoppers to #5 camalot.  Beautiful rock but a full on thrash.  I put it up ground-up onsight a couple of years ago. The boys both hung so no downgrade, lol.

The crack above is Rat Bastard, 10b, named for the rodent that chewed partway through the static line.

Still not a lot of climbing going on here but more and more walking so that’s something. Helen get off your butt and get out there—you just laid out good money to have great tits so now go and let the world enjoy them!    Also post pictures here.

Here’s my recollection of the day Bob took me to Sail Away. On our way there I found  a feather from a raven and I picked it up because I wanted to take it up with me for luck. That was the one and only time that Bob got stern with me and told me to leave it where I found it. At the time I couldn’t understand what the big deal was but he was not kidding around so I think I left it behind. Now I understand completely that especially in the desert you don’t move stuff and you don’t pick stuff and you don’t cause disorder when you’re passing through. It’s a fragile place. I appreciate the lesson learned.

Healthwise I am still completely unsure of what’s  going on. I have a new doctor in addition to the conventional ones, he is a naturopath but I am surprised at what all he can do. And he’s sharp! So all Testing should be here on Monday and I will be at his office for a nutritional IV and we will discuss what is coming up on these lab tests. I still can’t put on weight and I can’t get my iron levels up. Having said that I truly know that “every storm runs out of rain“ – – this won’t last forever and one day I’ll have more answers. 

Andrew Rice wrote:

this is so true, Alan. And lets not kid ourselves, most people of our age don't know how to use a map and compass to actually navigate by directions, either. They just relied on the Thomas Guide. 

Actually using a topographic map and compass for navigation and needing to convert grid bearings to compass bearings taking in to consideration grid/magnetic variation adjusted for when the map was printed AND adjusting the variation given in degrees and seconds and converting to mills is pretty much a skill held only by those who soldiered last century, possibly Boy Scouts and maybe archaeologists…

I think we used to be more resilient and less worrisome. I remember absolutely DISASTROUS car situations in the unforgiving Australian outback that we just muddled through somehow.

The story of when we locked the keys in the car boot (trunk) and had to take to it with an aluminium base ball bat that we kept in the car ‘for security’ until we’d smashed the FUCK out of the lock and it finally opened. Or deciding, for some strange reason, to take the valve thingy out of the water pump thingy on a hot day in the desert (to help with cooling  ) and then I broke a bolt putting it back on so it overheated every 5ks. Had to gather water from pretty dry creek beds to put in the radiator. Took us a whole day to limp 50 or so Ks to a garage. Fun days though. No phones, only cash, beer, drugs and a whole lot of not giving very many fucks. 

Carl…. Sounds like you got some of that 10x weaker boo we had in the olden  days … b curious to know exactly what bolt you removed to improve the cooling function of your “spaceship”.

I’m sure all us old climbers can recall your “black book” with names, addresses and phone numbers. The Wednesday evening phone circles, making plans via “hand written letters” by god.

When I was young I vowed to myself never to be one of those old farts who sat around knocking down young people. I’m happy to say I haven’t- except for this. Kids today only listen to shit music, sung by singers who use voice correct and sample old songs to give their “music” some  sound. And 99% of them can’t work a wrench. And 99% of climbers today are terrified to lead a pitch protected with “nuts and stoppers” 

Carry on 

Guy Keesee wrote:

Carl…. Sounds like you got some of that 10x weaker boo we had in the olden  days … b curious to know exactly what bolt you removed to improve the cooling function of your “spaceship”.

Thermostat?  Then busting a bolt on the cover?

We used to take 'em out of beater cars all the time in the summer.

Carl, your retelling of your desert mechanical adventures brought to mind this trip through Mexico when I was 21 in my old 1977 FJ-55 Landcruiser. "No phones, only cash, beer, drugs and a whole lot of not giving very many fucks..." Indeed! 

Guy Keesee wrote:

Carl…. Sounds like you got some of that 10x weaker boo we had in the olden  days … b curious to know exactly what bolt you removed to improve the cooling function of your “spaceship”.

I’m sure all us old climbers can recall your “black book” with names, addresses and phone numbers. The Wednesday evening phone circles, making plans via “hand written letters” by god.

When I was young I vowed to myself never to be one of those old farts who sat around knocking down young people. I’m happy to say I haven’t- except for this. Kids today only listen to shit music, sung by singers who use voice correct and sample old songs to give their “music” some  sound. And 99% of them can’t work a wrench. And 99% of climbers today are terrified to lead a pitch protected with “nuts and stoppers” 

Carry on 

You sound old! Tony is completely locked down to 50s 60s and 70s pop and he swears that no good thing came after that and it’s really something to turn on a PBS special and see a room full of old folks grooving to the Troggs or the turtles or the Byrds like that’s the most recent thing they ever enjoyed.  I just re-watched Woodstock and was blown away by Joe Cocker’s performance, and Joplins, and Hendrix. But I’m a believer in evolution and I try to listen to what’s new. I guess Beyoncé is not exactly new but I had a mental block there until I watched her concert at Coachella and realized she is powerful!  I can still remember my mom‘s radio station in Glendale that she listened to every morning before work and it was a routine schtick  to play one or two bars from a Beatles song and then drag the needle across the rest of the record and say he couldn’t bear to hear it. We don’t want to be that.

Lori Milas wrote:

You sound old! Tony is completely locked down to 50s 60s and 70s pop and he swears that no good thing came after that and it’s really something to turn on a PBS special and see a room full of old folks grooving to the Troggs or the turtles or the Byrds like that’s the most recent thing they ever enjoyed.  I just re-watched Woodstock and was blown away by Joe Cocker’s performance, and Joplins, and Hendrix. But I’m a believer in evolution and I try to listen to what’s new. I guess Beyoncé is not exactly new but I had a mental block there until I watched her concert at Coachella and realized she is powerful!  I can still remember my mom‘s radio station in Glendale that she listened to every morning before work and it was a routine schtick  to play one or two bars from a Beatles song and then drag the needle across the rest of the record and say he couldn’t bear to hear it. We don’t want to be that.

LOL. The thing a lot of us forget about the music of our childhood (whenever that was) is that over decades the bad falls away and mostly the good survives. So when we think about, say, disco, we think about the Bee Gees and when we think about the sixties we think about Hendrix, etc. But almost nobody is waxing nostalgic for "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen! Or Disco Duck! Hindsight really is 20-20 with rose colored lenses, too. 

Part of the problem for those of us that love to listen to good music is that so much of modern pop music is just so badly recorded and mastered that it is hard to listen to.  Then you put something on from the 70s or 80s and it sounds so good and it is hard to go back to modern pop music.  I really like some of the music from the 10s but little of it is what is really popular.  And in my opinion, popular music has gone down ever further in the last 5 years so I am even less inclined to hunt the few good pieces out.  I have mostly moved to listening to instrumental music like Jesse Cook or Zoe Keating rather than pop.  Just don't ask me to listen to jazz!

Andrew Rice wrote:

LOL. The thing a lot of us forget about the music of our childhood (whenever that was) is that over decades the bad falls away and mostly the good survives. So when we think about, say, disco, we think about the Bee Gees and when we think about the sixties we think about Hendrix, etc. But almost nobody is waxing nostalgic for "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen! Or Disco Duck! Hindsight really is 20-20 with rose colored lenses, too. 

So you are saying "The lights all went out in Massachusetts" is BETTER then "Bird is the Word".  Really??  Hendrix yes.  Bee Gees not so much.

Last day in Arizona yesterday.  Worked the sit start to the Monolith that we did in February at V5 from the stand.  I  need to train up and come back!

Eric Engberg wrote:

So you are saying "The lights all went out in Massachusetts" is BETTER then "Bird is the Word".  Really??  Hendrix yes.  Bee Gees not so much.

I have to admit that a dark cloud came over my life when disco came into being. For some reason I thought the 60s was a permanent thing and that’s the way I wanted it. I remember going to a party thrown by some high school friends of mine, four years later, And the music for the night was Boz Scaggs. I just didn’t know where I belonged anymore. These were the same people who eagerly awaited each Led Zeppelin album and who sat in a back room with me and listened to Quadrophenia when it first came out. I felt like they were traitors now.
But the Bee Gees were just heresy to me. Now looking back I have to take away the mental block on that one too because Boz is now one of my favorites and the Bee Gees were good. Of course Tony gets tears over any song by the Gibbs. He loves them so much. Sometimes it’s easier to appreciate something much later.

Lori- thinking about Woodstock. The music is all good! Ever noticed that the Jefferson Airplane members are all looking at each other? That’s so they can stay together and deliver a decent sound. The din on stage must have been overwhelming.
And of course whenever I say 99% I really mean “most” …. Today I do like some “Country Music” because it’s really more like “rock music” of old. You have your lead guitar, bass, drums and some singer. Pretty basic I figure. Bands like SMO, Moonshine Bandits, Redneck Social Club, Colt Ford, Bottleneck and Arron Lewis.
These bands all fill up my pandora mixed in with James Brown, The Grateful Dead, Simon & Garfunkel, NWA, Dead Kennedys and even The Bee Gees! I have found memories of how ez it was to score big time if you put on an “ice cream suit” and didn’t care if you “looked stupid” on the dance floor.
But enough of music. What Woodstock showed off really is the fact that- us boomers, at least 99% of US, looked fabulous naked! Something you can’t say about the current crop of today’s 20 year olds.
Oh yea I went climbing yesterday- got tossed off of a few 5.10’s, but at least they were graceful, stylish falls.

Carry on

"..but at least they were graceful, stylish falls". Hey, Guy---do you give pro falling lessons, I can use one?

I don't even know how to stumble into music anymore, chagrined to admit. And, I somehow missed entire decades of music and movies everyone else knew. Dave was mostly classical music when I moved in, then New Age wandered in, then a long long stretch of no music at all.

Internet gives you access to all sorts of shit, but, you need to have some idea what that shit is. Then, that's what you'll get, and get, and get....

No serendipity anymore. I do miss that, it was a big plus when I worked at the library and saw books nonstop!

How do you stumble across Leon Redbone? Or Stephan Grappelli? Or the Peruvian music on that Nature series about condors? Or an opera you first heard on the Bugs Bunny/Road runner show? Or Duke Ellington? 

Bitd, the answer to an eclectic mix of music was the local public radio station, housed on the BSU campus, on the days when locals put together shows. There's still one old guy going, doing that now, but whatever is interesting, thrown together and somehow working, might as well be flintknapping it seems.

Although we got a guy here who does that, too.   

Best, H.

"I've got a brand new pair of roller skates...."

Ward Smith wrote:

Last day in Arizona yesterday.  Worked the sit start to the Monolith that we did in February at V5 from the stand.  I  need to train up and come back!

Why do you want to trade tee shirt conditions for puffy crap?
JK. Safe travels. Enjoy T day!
Hope to catch you and P at Hadley at some point.

Guy Keesee wrote:

Oh yea I went climbing yesterday- got tossed off of a few 5.10’s, but at least they were graceful, stylish falls.

Like Alan above, I want to know/learn how to get tossed off climbs stylishly.  Mine are usually ugly, drawn-out affairs of the inevitable.  Except for the few times when "the fall came from nowhere!".
Well, out of carelessness really, but hey it was over quickly and without drama.

Brian in SLC wrote:

Thermostat?  Then busting a bolt on the cover?

We used to take 'em out of beater cars all the time in the summer.

Yep exactly well done, on a Holden 308.  
This is us (I’m on the left in the grey top) aged 19 trying to workout how to put snow chains on. The wheels were already spinning as we tried to make it up the hill to the ski resort at Mt Hotham. NO idea what we were doing 

One word about Woodstock:  Santana, Soul Sacrifice. If that drummer don’t blow your socks off yer dead inside.

Right around 2:30 for you boomers in a hurry…

https://youtu.be/gm-YTV48R6k