New and Experienced climbers over 50 #23

Phyl, your gym looks like it had a very creative architect -- fantastic!

Nick, I miss my teleing days. Finding glades that weren't too avalanche-prone in mid-winter was always challenging. Now my beautiful ski set-ups sit in the garage.   Not so much in vogue now.

S. Neoh wrote:
Lots of holds and lots of routes in yours.  Where is it?

https://www.senderoneclimbing.com/sna/

One of the Sharma gyms.  There is a gym 10 minutes from my house but I go to this one because the walls are so tall and I can get a really good workout. Plus, 5 cracks. It's packed at night and on weekends.  There is a big bouldering room that you cannot see from my photo.

I haven't made pizza in a few years. I make upside down pizza. I start with a 12" cast iron skillet and pour in olive oil at least 1/8 inch deep turn on the fire then add any meat you want then veggies then cheese let it get really hot then top it off with the top or bottom half of a round loaf of Hawaiian bread take it off the stove & flip it over on a plate. Kids go crazy for this. 

Our gym is so small.

phylp phylp wrote:

https://www.senderoneclimbing.com/sna/

One of the Sharma gyms.  There is a gym 10 minutes from my house but I go to this one because the walls are so tall and I can get a really good workout. Plus, 5 cracks. It's packed at night and on weekends.  There is a big bouldering room that you cannot see from my photo.

That is a wowza of a gym!  My twice-weekly gym sessions had become such a deeply held thing for me, I'm not sure I would have moved to Joshua Tree had there not been a local gym.  I was willing to accept the gym we did have (in Palm Springs) but it closed almost the week we got here.  The next nearest gym is far away.  

I know it is said that Joshua Tree affords all the gym workout one could ever want.  But for me, it's apples and oranges.  I miss tall vertical walls, and the workout they afford. And today, it's raining.  Again.  No climbing today.

Phylp… Sender One… lts a 110 mile drive for me and worth it.

Mark- Bishop don’t need no gym- look out your back window!!

Packing day- Driving to Phoenix early tomorrow with the Wife. Me to organize the race, Wife to see Sister. Forecast is for sunny skies.

You all stay dry and warm now. 

I don't know Guy Mt. Tom is back there somewhere.

Have a safe & fun time. I know you are an excellent driver but still, be careful. & give Danny my love.

Mark Frumkin wrote:

I don't know Guy Mt. Tom is back there somewhere.

Have a safe & fun time. I know you are an excellent driver but still, be careful. & give Danny my love.

Thanks- about 3 years ago I jumped into the car and drove to Phoenix with the wipers going full speed for the entire drive, every day we had pouring rain and drove home with wipers going full bast. I don’t think this will be like that, but still packing the rain gear.

Edit: MP still sticking the photos at the top???
Edit, Edit… or not sticking them at all?? 

Guy, next time you come up bring your ice skates my creek has breached and there is about 3"-6" of ice under the snow. Spent yesterday knee deep in freezing water trying to get it to flow downstream. 

Mark Frumkin wrote:

I haven't made pizza in a few years. I make upside down pizza. I start with a 12" cast iron skillet and pour in olive oil at least 1/8 inch deep turn on the fire then add any meat you want then veggies then cheese let it get really hot then top it off with the top or bottom half of a round loaf of Hawaiian bread take it off the stove & flip it over on a plate. Kids go crazy for this. 

Our gym is so small.

Wow!

I'm pretty open minded about food (and climbing...) 

And, I'm sure it's tastes good and the "kids go crazy" over it...

But, I don't know if you can honestly call it "pizza."  

To my mind, it's like bolting a splitter crack and calling it a trad route....

ed “not a food snob, but grew eating New Joisey pizza...” e

Pizza casserole?

New Haven apizza snob here (although a Sicilian deep dish can be good)

Guy, you do know that there is also a Sender One gym near LAX, right?  That is only about 50 miles from your house.  And you do have a couple Boulderdash gyms relatively close by although their route setting does pretty much suck.

Mark Frumkin wrote:

... a round loaf of Hawaiian bread take it off the stove ...

Our gym is so small.

What makes Hawaiian bread Hawaiian? Pineapple juice and ginger?  I looked up some recipes on the Interweb and those two are the only 'unusual' ingredients that I saw.

I do not have a dog in the pizza fight since I have put pizza out of my diet for a number of years. Before that, I enjoyed a good Neopolitan as much as a good deep dish. Don't miss either.

Being in the wonderful (wink, wink) Northeast, I have 6 gyms within a 20-minute drive of me. 3 good sized ones and 3 smaller ones. Tack on another 6 if I were to drive up to an hour.
Two gyms which I like are actually about 1hr 45m each way for me. I won't say worth every minute of the drive but I make the most of the day by leading most/all of the 450 to 600 linear feet I climb.
Can't wait for some outdoor here before the leaves appear with the Spring rain! March in the NE can offer some very good climbing. But very small window. Like 10 days :)

Jan Mc wrote:

Guy, you do know that there is also a Sender One gym near LAX, right?  That is only about 50 miles from your house. 

55 X 2 = 110.  I'm pretty sure he is talking about LAX.  SNA would be much father for him than that, more like 180 RT.

Jan Mc wrote:

Guy, you do know that there is also a Sender One gym near LAX, right?  That is only about 50 miles from your house.  And you do have a couple Boulderdash gyms relatively close by although their route setting does pretty much suck.

The only CA gym I have experienced is Planet Granite in San Rafael, North of SF.  
Good gym. Fun routes. Well set. Grading was rather ego padding up to .10b or so. By the time .11d/.12a rolled around, pretty much consistent with what I expect to find on a gym route of that grade anywhere.
Oh, they have cracks and those totally befuddled me. No idea how anyone can dance up overhanging off-fist!! I am so not worthy!!

Snowing here.  Park is closed.  Tony is teaching me how to drive in snow.  He's SO bossy!  (I'm not even bringing up the pizza again.)

Since it finally isn't raining here tonight we will have some grilled Atlantic salmon in a tangerine, honey, soy marinade with grilled zucchini dusted in olive oil, garlic and fresh thyme.

And I have a pork ragu started but that will take at least 5 hours to cook down.

Jan Mc wrote:

Since it finally isn't raining here tonight we will have some grilled Atlantic salmon in a tangerine, honey, soy marinade with grilled zucchini dusted in olive oil, garlic and fresh thyme.

And I have a pork ragu started but that will take at least 5 hours to cook down.

Well what the heck. I’m seeing some kind of trend here.  All climbers are chefs. And all climbers grow tomatoes. This is the personality profile for the criminal climbers among us.   

That pork sounds incredible, Jan! 

I made a half boasted chicken with various roasted vegetables for dinner tonight.  Tony made a salad with olive oil.  And for dinner conversation we debated why Marie always wears purple on Breaking Bad.  (Rewatching series hit and miss).  

Woke up to.....snow. Yay.

Half boasted chicken, eh? Sounds semi modest.

Yesterday was chicken fraternizing with a miscellany of veggies in the cast iron. Super simple, plenty yummy!

Tomorrow is the 6 month followup with the surgeon, and the official "after" pics. That went by fast! 

I've been upgrading clothes, that's been really fun! I popped for a Cotapaxi jacket today, got quite a bit of other stuff recently, including an actual htg dress! Now it's sort through the closet and disappear everything that's not something I like.

Fun stuff!

H.

Went winter hiking again this afternoon.   Frankenstine is on the  way to Lowes   ;) Really ;)    Guys. I will see you tomorrow. got to go to the lumber yard......   a bit of driving and  a walk along the tracks.. the thing I had in mind was busy. My friend Matt was guiding a client on it. he is fast and its only a 30m climb so i hung out and  watched. kind of like iceing the kicker in football with a time out..  Clawsicle 5- according to the NH book ;)  It's actually pretty casual but you cant place a screw  or swing or kick hard until you are above the attachment point. 

 Matt Hiking it. just another day at work.

And finally  a screw placement

 naturally when they were done and gone it was my turn.   I was too amped up to remember to take a photo until I was rapping down on my 6mm tag.

Its steep but the 2nd half  above the roof eases off so not pumpy, just super fun.   A short hike brought me to Standard Rt. which is a 300 something? ft tall creature with a big cave about a 3rd of the way up. Its been so long since I have pitched it out I can't remember the actual length. 

 I moseyed up to the cave. It was a bit intimidating because of the snow patches.  I hate deep snow on big ice climbs..  each patch has to be assessed for stability. Ruled unstable and then often climbed through anyways.  .. 

I clipped the guide bolts in the cave a took a breather. I was considering climbing out through this window

which is a grade harder but snow free. The ice was dry in the cave and the move was a bit awkward and i was not feeling it. Still pretty jazzed from the Clawsicle and not ready for any real excitement yet.  After much internal debate I took a left out of the cave  and too the usual groove. Great climbing for 30m and then the angle eases off so the snow loads up and it gets spooky again. I hate these kinds of layers. I have had plywood sized sheets of this crap give out under my feet... 

 It usually forms like that at the base of steep pillars. this was casual climbing with several annoying bulges. one move wonders 300ft off the deck with crappy top outs into another pile of insecure snow...  Finally a last bit of ice to the trees.

the hike off featured an awesome butt slide through the snow back to the RR tracks. 

40 min drive back to Lowes to get my sheet goods and an hour drive home... 

really stoked to get up the Clawsicle again. 

The Standard Route in 1974. Bob Dodds leading the 2nd pitch w/ a Chouinard Alpine Hammer, 70cm Chouinard axe and Salewa screws. They made WI3+ an adventure (especially since the picks of Alpine Hammers were prone to breaking in mid-climb).