New and Experienced climbers over 50 #23

Kristian Solemwrote:

My cousin was, a long time ago, mayor of Fargo North Dakota. This business of seeing your spit hit the ground frozen was routine. Do not ever grab a metal door knob without gloves on. Everyone has an electric heater for their car motor. You plug it in at night, otherwise your oil freezes. And when you drive away the frozen flat area on your tires goes "clunk, clunk, clunk" down the road for several minutes. You do not drive at night, except in town, without heated snowmobile suits in the car. If you slide off the road on black ice and no one comes by for a few hours you're dead.

Ohhh! I forgot about the frozen tire thud thud thud! I had to have my car towed to the mechanic to get it inside and thawed out. It's only happened about once every 15, 20 years, but, Boise does get that Fargo type cold very rarely. The one I remember most, it stayed below zero (F!) high and low both, for more than a week. It was miserable.

I'm starting to think City of Rocks.... :-)

....still months away. :-(

Hope all of our easterners get through the current and upcoming weather mess okay!

Best, Helen

Utah is normal and Maine is normal, definitely cant imagine the amount of damage the freeze is gonna do to about a third of the country.

we are in the midst of a crazy storm. for some crazy miracle i still have power...  yesterdays fluffy powder is rapidly disappearing. mid 40sf and gust up to 83mph....  trees down everywhere...  tonight is supposed to be a deep freeze...  

Yep Nick, similar here, though not quite as severe (yet)--but you are a New Englander so you know.....

Your new digs look great. Fantastic work on the kitchen. What town (using that term loosely) are you in? Not surprised that you ended up close to Willoughby.

Greensboro bend. Not to be confused with greensboro ;)  hopefully i will have some time to actually enjoy Willoughby....  it has been an incredibly hectic year making this move. 

This Willoughby? 

Lori Milaswrote:

This Willoughby?

Could well be, I guess. But in Nick’s case it is a Lake in the part of VT known as the Northeast Kingdom, which is the locale of the ice and rock routes that he posted photos of above.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Didn't you get kicked out of the gym for those tights ;)

Yes. But I’m a rebel. Although I wasn’t actually kicked out. A complaint was made. People are so narrow minded. I bet Wolfgang didn’t get complaints made. 

Carl Schneiderwrote:

Yes. But I’m a rebel. Although I wasn’t actually kicked out. A complaint was made. People are so narrow minded. I bet Wolfgang didn’t get complaints made. 

Would anyone give this dude a hard time?  We are not worthy!

Loud tights were fashion du jour in climbing, even for men, early to late '90's. I wore them. I have thrown away most, save one; solid bright purple.
I still wear it climbing outdoors on exceptionally warm winter days. They are thick and warrm.

These days, men's climbing tights are rather boring. I go with tthe flow but I get envious whenevver I see the ocassional woman wearing something eye catching and reminds me of the good olde days.
Totally fits when one crushes.

Funny that Carl is wearing pretty much the same tights as Wolfgang was wearing in that picture.Carl, in case you don’t know, that puts you in legendary company.

I never had a problem with the tights. But the leg warmers I saw Watts and the gang wearing at Smith were a bit much! Hopefully they were isolated to central Oregon.

Closest I came to tights back in the day was a pair of purple Ron Hill Tracksters.  Wish I still had those bad boys.

S. Neohwrote:

These days, men's climbing tights are rather boring. I go with tthe flow but I get envious whenevver I see the ocassional woman wearing something eye catching and reminds me of the good olde days.

OK, S., I'll call your bluff.  PM me your waist size and inseam length and I'll sew you a pair of tights in as bright and garish a pattern as I can find.  On the condition that as soon as you get them you climb in them in a well-populated place and post a evidence photo here!

Deal, phylp!
My jeans size is 29w/30l. Game on.
If you are coming East to CT this winter, I will even wear it to meet up and climb.
I've got thick skin.

S. Neohwrote:

Deal, phylp!
My jeans size is 29w/30l. Game on.
If you are coming East to CT this winter, I will even wear it to meet up and climb.
I've got thick skin.

So. Many. Choices.

I will be in CT for a wedding mid-Feb. Will get this done by then and can hopefully carve out time to meet in Glastonbury gym.

The "retro neon" zigzaggy one is actually pretty cool!

phylp phylpwrote:

So. Many. Choices.

I will be in CT for a wedding mid-Feb. Will get this done by then and can hopefully carve out time to meet in Glastonbury gym.

Agree!!
The "leopard skin" and the one above it are what I would term as moderately loud.

Skip the shipping charges. Bring it with you and let's meet at CRG Glastonbury. Very much loking forward to it. I want you to surprise me!
Heading there on Jan 2 so anytime in Feb will be a good return visit!

P.S.  I will bring 4 pairs of shoes so we can decide on the best match; Scarpa Green and Ylw, La Sportiva Yellow and Black, LS White and ORN, LS Purple and Pink.  Yes, I wear women's LS so nothing is off the table!

Ah yes, the days of lycra. Why did they end? I always looked at it like this (assuming I was at a crag with other climbers around). If I wore lycra I'd painted myself into a corner. If I climbed poorly then it would be like "Who's the wanker in the outfit?" On the other hand if I did okay people would ask me where I got the tights. If you wear the lycra you'd better deliver.

These are from the wayback, 1990's. 

Red lycra (solid colors are cool if they're clean).

Dressy tights. These were made by Ken Gohegan, the veterinarian in 29 palms and one hell of a climber. We did a new route in the part of Josh known as Indian Country. We called it "The Last of The Gohegans."

Solid purple with a red pinstripe. Yes...

White tights. Like I said they have to be clean.

Pattern tights. My apologies....

I was a regular at the Danskin store in Hollywood. They thought I was weird. 

I think all of those shots were taken by Guy or Jan. Except the whites. Guy was belaying. Kevin Powell took that one. I was as close to peeling as you can get right there. 90°, and in the sun. You wanna grab that fin just above my fist but I was too sweaty to hold on to it so I slid down into the fist and pulled it off by the skin on my teeth. It would have been a real flyer too. Kevin told me I was looking really dicey, and he was hoping I'd fly, it would be a far better picture. Screw that.

Kris, is that third pic the one that Suzuki thought edging shoes would be better on?  Maybe Rule Brittania?

Me, I just wore black tights, or calf length in summer.  I was never as flashy as Kris!  I also had very little fashion sense back then....

Jan Mcwrote:

Kris, is that third pic the one that Suzuki thought edging shoes would be better on?  Maybe Rule Brittania?

Me, I just wore black tights, or calf length in summer.  I was never as flashy as Kris!  I also had very little fashion sense back then....

It's called Pitfall. An old Laeger route, 11+, that no one notices despite that fact that it's in your face as you walk into real hidden valley. Up on the right.

That "Edging shoes be much betta!" was a classic moment. Yes that happened on Rule Britannia. Right there you have British Airways, London Calling, and Rule Britannia right in a row.