New and Experienced climbers over 50 #23

Kristian Solemwrote:

Black tights are good for the well dressed climber..

 

Yep.  My favorite coldish weather leggings.

Kristian Solemwrote:

Black tights are good for the well dressed climber..

 

It doesn't matter what you are wearing, I'm just looking at that delicate hand and footwork.  Really beautiful. 

To blue skies and beautiful rock. I can’t figure out what rock/route this was—maybe Bob will know?  Only that it was steep and fun.  

Todd Berlier wrote:

and i can demonstrate what shit technique looks like:

really fun to be bouldering while my kids hung out and rode sleds and my wife did a trail run on snowmobile track. this was the day after Christmas. 

eta: being cheered on by my 10 year old is the best Xmas present i got this year.

"C'mon daddy!" Yup. Can't beat that.

 

First time on a bicycle in a few years. I got dusted by a 6 year old. We had a blast, I would have kicked the little guy over but his dad was with us. 

Mark Frumkinwrote:

First time on a bicycle in a few years. I got dusted by a 6 year old. We had a blast, I would have kicked the little guy over but his dad was with us. 

Errant stick in his spokes is another possibility.

Alan Rubinwrote:

Oh Phyl, Just skip the wedding and relative thing and do what’s really important, meeting us in G-bury to watch Soon strut his stuff in your tights!!!

I agree, excellent gym, fun group, probably even a guest pass in there somewhere?

Weather up northeast is 40s for a week...

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Goldsmith in Hitchcock Gully on Mt. Willard yesterday. It's good to see other chronologically gifted ice climbers out and about!

All work and no play is bad for the soul. I convinced Isa that Mt Willard was on the way to Home despot and lowes... These types of thinking processes are what makes a good ice climber ;)  but first we had our usual sunrise ski. 

then a very windy hike along the railroad tracks after missing lowes by 3 exits and another 40 min of driving... 

 Isa cruised up Left Hand Monkey Wrench

the top out was interesting. 

then we hiked over to Read Between The Lines. It was busy but a short wait and we got to climb it. i had never gotten on it before. looked at it a few times on my solo hikes through here but is was not in good enough shape.. hiked up with a parther one day but it was falling down. It was Perfect this time. Nice interesting finish.

It gets steep and a bit tight in there. naturally I did not have any rock gear with me so the last 20ft of rock climbing to the anchor was unprotected. 

 I then ran up the east face which is a 60m pitch of 3 to 3+ fast enough to get totally winded.  Ran into mat and Dave at the upper Hitchcock belay. 

 A relaxed and happy Dave

Isa then led us to the top on upper Hitchcock. 

At the summit we took a somewhat subdued selfie. A local fell to his death from this spot about 10 days ago... 

sunset walk along the tracks and then off to Lowes and the Despot.. 

Wow. Nick, you get my entire ice climbing history in, in a single day, lol!

I banged into something at Planet Fitness semi recently, got a small scab on my shin. Started pulling the itchy thing off....and got seriously nostalgic for climbing. I just generally assume that if I don't have some dings here and there, it's been too long since I've climbed! This one was it, and from walking into a metal bench at that.

Still "trapped" by weather here. Still too cold to climb. Now it's also too wet. Allegedly there's gonna be a sunny day later this week, so I'll (hopefully) at least get some sun for a walk. Otherwise, it could end up being walking mall laps with Paul, interspersed with some cutthroat hard core air hockey in the tiny game parlour. I can't reach the center (he can), so he usually wins. I just flail as fast and hard as I can and hope I don't knock the puck in my own goal.

Trying to talk myself into doing stuff today. The list (in no order) is either the mobility or strength workout the trainer gave me, wash dishes, clean the cat box....anything else I can talk myself into. Yippee.

Best, H.

Ready to take Luna for a walk with my new Birthday hat.

I'll be starting a June 2023 Climbers Over 50 City of Rocks Meetup thread soon. Hope we can have a good turn-out!

Old lady Hwrote:

Wow. Nick, you get my entire ice climbing history in, in a single day, lol!

I banged into something at Planet Fitness semi recently, got a small scab on my shin. Started pulling the itchy thing off....and got seriously nostalgic for climbing. I just generally assume that if I don't have some dings here and there, it's been too long since I've climbed! This one was it, and from walking into a metal bench at that.

Still "trapped" by weather here. Still too cold to climb. Now it's also too wet. Allegedly there's gonna be a sunny day later this week, so I'll (hopefully) at least get some sun for a walk. Otherwise, it could end up being walking mall laps with Paul, interspersed with some cutthroat hard core air hockey in the tiny game parlour. I can't reach the center (he can), so he usually wins. I just flail as fast and hard as I can and hope I don't knock the puck in my own goal.

Trying to talk myself into doing stuff today. The list (in no order) is either the mobility or strength workout the trainer gave me, wash dishes, clean the cat box....anything else I can talk myself into. Yippee.

Best, H.

Don’t you have some cheesecake you need to eat?   

Well I’m giving thought to 2023. I have to say 2022 was a bit of a disappointment. I had such high hopes for it since we were supposedly finally leaving the Covid debacle. Right now I am just trying to embrace the life lesson that shit happens. I love that you all seize the moment when the moment is there for you because we’re all aware that the moment can come and go. But that also means being open to the good surprises and that’s where I’m at for 2023.

I love the saying that every storm runs out of rain and I’m hoping mine will too.I will say that there have been some big surprises along the way for me, one of them being Tony. I had some interesting notions about love as an older person. For one, I wasn’t going to be happy unless I could have some anonymous sex on some fabulous rock. It turns out that Tonys brand of love is far more powerful than that. I mean I really thought he was just this dude from Chicago who couldn’t be more different than me and maybe we would just settle. He just pours out oceans of love—not old-peoples platonic love but real and abiding love, tenderness and passion. He has taught me something a galaxy away from anything I ever knew about love. I think it would be pretty cool if we talked about love on this thread especially those of you who have been together for decades. It’s another thing that a 24-year-old could not opine about, but older climbers can. 

I’ve always been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions and intentionality… Even if you can only stick with a goal for a day it is better than nothing. So between now and New Year’s I hope we post up our intentions for 2023.

2022 was a really excellent year, with lots of travel and adventure with family and friends. I had a slow start to the climbing year due to recovery from knee surgery last Nov., and had to cut a couple of trips short when my knee flared up.  It can still flare up even now, but is mostly manageable.  Just another thing to add to the watch list of decaying body parts!

 I turned 70 in August, and my goal for 2022 was to climb with as many of my climbing partners as possible.   I managed to connect and climb with Andy, Barbara, Brandt, Chris, Dan, Denise, Diane, Jay, Jody, Mike, Patty, Paul, Renee, Sam, Skip, Wayne, and of course, my husband Michael (he climbs almost exclusively in the gym). I almost connected with Idaho Bob in LV in October but he had to bail - we'll meet up in 2023 (he, Brandt and I have campsites near each other for CoR). I didn't include 4 gym rando partners in my count because quality is more important than quantity.  

But the scientist in me does like data, and on the quantity front, I reviewed my spreadsheet - I climbed 55 days this year, 32 outside and the rest in the gym.  Managed to do 109 new outside routes, about half my total of outside routes climbed.  The biggest trend I noticed from my data review is that I climbed far too many single pitch routes this year.  I'm going to try to climb more multipitch in 2023.

Happy New Year to All!

Phylip. thats impressive. Its been awhile since i broke 60 days climbing...  I also tend to repeat a lot of my favorite routes and might only do a handfull of new routes a year.  yesterday was fun getting to lead a steep ice climb i had never been on before. This whole last season went by without a single FA.. just too much stress and work involved in getting Isa's cabin ready to sell, getting me moved and finding a place to buy and now trying to make it livable.  Now i am moving again but in baby steps. out of the tiny house and into the single wide...  they are less than a mile apart so the moving is not as much of a deal as the renovating..  just ordered a water test kit. more $$$ spent... 

Yay! The doc let me out of ankle jail yesterday so today.....I rode my bike. It was sunny and 54 F here today, after the deep freeze of Christmas.  He did not seem enthused about climbing, but I explained the unlikelyness (is that a word ?) of me falling on TR and talked him into it, as long as I don't do any sudden pushing off with the bad ankle.  

2022 was my first full retirement year w/o COVID being a major concern (i.e., severely limiting activity and travel).  Biked a lot less, but climbed a bit more.  Given the 3 month layoff due to the ruptured achilles, and a horrible weather Jan and Feb, a pretty good year.  Climbing - 30 days outside, probably 150 inside (bit I don't track those); Biking - 44 days; Kayaking - 30 days.  Some of the biking and climbing happened on the same days, so probably 75 or so days outside.

The two regrets for 2022 are the lack of travel for climbing (and missing the COR gathering) due to high gas prices and, of course, f*cking up the ankle at the start of the best weather window.

Hope to see some of you in 2023, esp after the camper van is done in late May or so.

Happy New Year everyone !

Happy new year Tim!  Looks like I might be able to escape in February to my Arizona boulder project.  My brother (who I have been climbing with for 46 years) and his wife are spending a couple of months climbing in Vegas and he’s up for some bouldering with a three mile approach. I’ve done it from the stand at V5 butt the sit is much harder.  This is just what I need to get my ass motivated, not too far away in time.  Not planning on sending but hoping to make progress and return in November.

phylp phylpwrote:

 I turned 70 in August, and my goal for 2022 was to climb with as many of my climbing partners as possible.  

But the scientist in me does like data, and on the quantity front, I reviewed my spreadsheet - I climbed 55 days this year, 32 outside and the rest in the gym.  Managed to do 109 new outside routes, about half my total of outside routes climbed.  

Happy 70, Phyl, and that is a great goal you had.
I too had about 30 outdoor climbing days this year but, darn, nowhere near 100 new routes. Total number of outdoor routes was about 200 too. But most of them were repeats. Esp the warm-ups.
For 2022, I think I had something like 100 indoor climbing sessions (avg 2 days a week). Not always lead or TR climbing. Sometimes I just boulder. In total, probably 600 new indoor routes clean but that is just an unfortunate fact I still work full time and I live in New England.

Happy 2023, everyone!  

Todd Berlier wrote:

and i can demonstrate what shit technique looks like:

eta: being cheered on by my 10 year old is the best Xmas present i got this year.

That was not so bad, Todd!  Totally understandable if first got!   Your girl is such a great cheerleader.  
Her voice is so earnest and sweet in this clip. You're a lucky dad.

All that beautiful Ice & Snow!

Brandt Allenwrote:

Ready to take Luna for a walk with my new Birthday hat.

I'll be starting a June 2023 Climbers Over 50 City of Rocks Meetup thread soon. Hope we can have a good turn-out!

Well, I'm pretty much always game to go to City, even if it doesn't always lead to climbing, lol!

I sure hope we don't go directly from winter to a scorcher of a summer again, but, I'll be over there anyway, most likely. It's always fun, especially the people!

H.