New and Experienced climbers over 50 #23

S. Neohwrote:

LOL.  How did they do?  Crushed it?
Did you also have a less steeep wall for warmup aand cooldown?  Kinda of hard to do that on a 60 deg overhang.  At least for me! :) 

It was mostly jugs so basically the warmup was a beer and standing by the wood stove. 

duncan...wrote:

Carl, the mass media portrayal can make the USA seem an uninviting place to visit. Nothing could be further from the truth in my experience. I've had tremendous hospitality and friendship from the climbing community on my visits. 'The natural aspect' and the climbing are both stupendous of course.

I've climbed a reasonable amount in Australia and I'm fairly confident there is nothing like the glacier polished granite the folks above are talking about. Mt. Buffalo has some granite slabs but with much better friction and more featured rock. The low angle teflon-like slabs give a memorably insecure form of climbing that is quite unlike anything else I've experienced. I was never great at aproneering but [spray]my highpoint in the genre, Green Dragon, was memorable in its sustained insecurity. On every move I felt I was about to fall off, between every move I felt it was only a matter of time before I started to slide[/spray]. 

In other news, it has finally stopped raining here so I could combine climbing with visiting my mum who is still living independently but needs regular support. We had a glorious day at a sea cliff close to where she lives. 

The climbing you describe actually sounds quite horrible!!

It is an acquired taste, but once you adapt to it, moving up through the sea of apparently, but not really, featureless granite can become addictive.

Carl Schneiderwrote:

The climbing you describe actually sounds quite horrible!!

It’s BIG stuff Carl - terrifies many climbers who mostly go craggin. Not much to hang onto up on Glacier Point. 5.8 (I think you guys call it 16 or something) gets real serious when you’re 30 feet out. Makes for cool calm climbers.
If you change your mind and get to the USA I’d be delighted to go cragging with you.

Don’t know WTF is going with MP… photos don’t load to well. 

Reading Carl‘s comments brings me back to my own education in climbing.  I only joined the climbing gym because I had become passionate about Joshua Tree but couldn’t be there all the time and this was the next best thing. Only of course it wasn’t. I learned over time that gym Climbing had its own charm. 2+ years of climbing at least twice a week in the gym made me stronger than I knew. When we moved to Joshua Tree there was a climbing gym not far away but it closed literally the week we got here and I was pretty bummed. 

I was always egging Ryan saying “where are the slab walls and where are the crack climbs here?“ Of course there were none in that gym. Meanwhile one day in Joshua Tree Steven said let’s go climb something new and this is what he had in mind. I ask you how any gym climb could ever come close to this beautiful rock?

I was going to leave my comments at that however now that I have had six months of sedentary  life with the occasional outing I have grown slack and weak and I would say somewhat depressed. So those days in the gym are probably what we all need in order to stay strong and happy. I’m going to think this over and see if I can’t come up with something to approximate that great workout of a climbing gym.  

Any of you want a vintage road map or three? CA are 70 and 72, Yosemite is 67. Stuff keeps surfacing, lol!

Best, H.

Happy birthday, OLH!

You want slabs?

I really enjoyed this piece!
5.13 and 5.14 slabs and lower angle faces. Wow!!
Johnny Dawes is the baddest slab master ever!

Guy Keeseewrote:

It’s BIG stuff Carl - terrifies many climbers who mostly go craggin. Not much to hang onto up on Glacier Point. 5.8 (I think you guys call it 16 or something) gets real serious when you’re 30 feet out. Makes for cool calm climbers.
If you change your mind and get to the USA I’d be delighted to go cragging with you.

Oh cheers! I’ve been doing a lot more leading lately. Up to about grade 22 sports (5.11bish) but I’m still a sooky la la on trad.  

Of course if any of you peeps make your way down under I’ll show you Araps and The Gramps. 

Lori

 I remember this older movie for you to watch. It is documentary of the 2nd assent of Wings of Steel in Yosemite. It was first climbed in 1982. It is a slab/aid climb. No one had repeated for 29 years.

 You can watch it on TUBI for free. It is called Assault on El Cap. Since you like slab climbing, I believe that you would enjoy it. It is not your typical slab route. It a mix of both free and aid climbing. The rating is 10+ A3+R.

 It is about roughly a 900 foot slab.

 John

Oldtradguywrote:

Lori

 I remember this older movie for you to watch. It is documentary of the 2nd assent of Wings of Steel in Yosemite. It was first climbed in 1982. It is a slab/aid climb. No one had repeated for 29 years.

 You can watch it on TUBI for free. It is called Assault on El Cap. Since you like slab climbing, I believe that you would enjoy it. It is not your typical slab route. It a mix of both free and aid climbing. The rating is 10+ A3+R.

 It is about roughly a 900 foot slab.

 John

I’ve changed my mind John! I am no longer a slab person and I’m tired of being ridiculed for it. Now I only want to climb what Carl climbs. Or what most everyone here climbs. I want to climb the funky monkey route whatever that is. Or the beaver. That’s my life calling now.  That’s who I am and it’s my destiny!

I do not recall the desert ever being this cold. I am out walking in it while I dictate this. Maybe I can stick this little rant in here just because I need to say it. Tony took me to the urgent care on Friday because I had been up for days unable to breathe. A very cool hip doctor came in and he prescribed a few things and just said this will take care of it. Once again I didn’t want to be overly suspicious so I went ahead and filled the prescription and took the first pill of Singulair. Couple hours later I wasn’t feeling so good and 12 hours later I was really not feeling so good and I decided to read the insert! there is a black box warning that this is a dangerous drug with severe mental health effects. That it should only be prescribed when everything else has failed and the patient and their partner should be fully aware and watch for anxiety, agitation, hallucinations, depression, and suicide attempts. Don’t you think the doctor should’ve mentioned this? And when I picked the prescription up at Walgreens I asked the pharmacist to let me know if there any side effects and he just said no you’ll love this! I dug a little deeper and discovered that there are thousands of people who have reported this to the FDA and many completed suicides and so the FDA added to that black box warning in 2020 and in 2022. so I swapped it out for Claritin but had I not read that I might’ve continue taking the Singulair until it was too late. After all this time I do think I’m more of a herbal homeopathic type woman.

Oldtradguywrote:

Lori

 I remember this older movie for you to watch. It is documentary of the 2nd assent of Wings of Steel in Yosemite. It was first climbed in 1982. It is a slab/aid climb. No one had repeated for 29 years.

 You can watch it on TUBI for free. It is called Assault on El Cap. Since you like slab climbing, I believe that you would enjoy it. It is not your typical slab route. It a mix of both free and aid climbing. The rating is 10+ A3+R.

 It is about roughly a 900 foot slab.

 John

Excellent movie with The Pirate! Full version below.

Heavy wet snow today, so did a 30 minute ARC session in the basement.  No stairs to do laundry, but there is a ladder. 

I’m so glad you posted your climbing wall Ward!  It reminded me to get my butt out there and do a little work on mine.

It’s an interesting and wonderful thing about this climbing community. You seem to show up with the love and support when it’s most needed. Bob Gaines sent me this picture this morning and I had to sit in the Walmart parking lot and shed a few tears. This is the direct start to the ZZZZ route at Little Hunk.  We spent at least a couple of days over there and there’s so much left to do. Looking at this picture it’s hard for me to believe it’s a 5.9.it’s also a reminder of the miracle of climbing at all, especially “at a certain age“… And how much I am anxious to get back there.

My daughter and I are in touch now almost every day because we seem to be going through the same thing almost identical. She’s dealing with Long COVID.. We have agreed upon more protein except I wont eat canned sardines and she will but we have discovered something called an epic bar and I am going in first on that one. But the new thing we’re talking about is strength training and how important it is for health. Muscle mass is actually an endocrine contributor. I’ve read that 100 times but I sure haven’t been in the mood to lift weights. I did just go in my garage and spend 20 minutes on my climbing wall And that’s a good start.

Tony is serving up meatballs for dinner.

With moving twice, buying a house, renovating and working its just been too hectic of a year for me. then here was the massive thaw to contend with.  Finally got to the lake . this must be about the latest start for me in forever...  anyways the ice was good if a bit steeper than normal due to not filling in yet....   Isa follows P2

 at the belay just before the wind kicked in for real... 

P3 was honest 4+ usually this rig is a bit soft for the grade  at the lake. 

Nice blowing gusty snow for some alpine fun. 

 naturally with all the moving half my shit is misplaced and I don't have enough lockers, long slings etc. 

just barely enough snow to butt slide down. the climbing pants need a bit of repair... 

Naturally I was clumsy enough that i lost an $85.00 screw in the snow... 

I always love your pictures Nick. Just think if we lived a little closer you could swing by for some meatballs.  

Terry Ewrote:

Excellent movie with The Pirate! Full version below.

Even more entertaining is the SuperTopo thread. http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/72849/Wings-of-Steel