New and Experienced climbers over 50 ##24

Lori Milaswrote:

But may I ask, rgold... does it help that you've 'been there, done that' for so many years that you have a trove of memories and experiences that bring enough joy?  Perhaps you have no urgent desire to do it again. (?)  It's all just icing on the cake, I would imagine.    

Oh I think undoubtedly it helps. "Icing on the cake" is about right.  I'm still going, but I'm also at peace with the idea that a time might come, and if so probably relatively soon, when it is time to hang up my totally worn-down spurs.  If I don't outlive my parents, I only have another five years or so, and if I do outlive them, there's always the chance that I'll wish I hadn't  .

A good friend and contemporary from way back in the day, already in his 80's, recently wrote,

...my climbing goal is now steadily to recapture that wonder and exhilaration that I felt on my first few EASY but STEEP climbs at the Gunks and that feeling that sometimes washed over me on a good day on whatever, whenever..

I think that provides an interesting answer to your question Lori.  I too have climbing, not as some collection of achievement goals and aspirations as it might have been the past, but more recently as part of an active memory process in which I recover, maybe for just an evanescent moment, the unfettered joy and freedom of being able to navigate the vertical world.  The smell of those roses you mentioned can sometimes come wafting back from a half-century away.  But this is more than reminiscence, which finally would be tinged with sadness, because I'm out on the rock doing my thing still, in spite of all odds.  It helps in this regard to have a "home" area, and it is a big advantage that the home area is the Gunks, which has a profusion of those EASY but STEEP climbs my friend extolled.

And so it happens that I may reach up and sink my fingers into a lovely crimp that I first grasped 60 years ago.  It is exactly the same as it was then.  I, of course, am not, but for a moment my now-weakened grip still unites me with something familiar and yet eternal (at least from our human perspective).  And in such moments I feel that I am where I belong, and that's more than enough for me.

rgoldwrote:

And so it happens that I may reach up and sink my fingers into a lovely crimp that I first grasped 60 years ago.  It is exactly the same as it was then.  I, of course, am not, but for a moment my now-weakened grip still unites me with something familiar and yet eternal (at least from our human perspective).  And in such moments I feel that I am where I belong, and that's more than enough for me.

Great paragraph! Well written rgold.

rgoldwrote:

And so it happens that I may reach up and sink my fingers into a lovely crimp that I first grasped 60 years ago.  It is exactly the same as it was then.  I, of course, am not, but for a moment my now-weakened grip still unites me with something familiar and yet eternal (at least from our human perspective).  And in such moments I feel that I am where I belong, and that's more than enough for me.

Yes Rich, I liked that too.

 I don't know if you remember me. I was the guy with the dual braids in 72/73 and a good friend of Perch. I've been out in Colorado since leaving the Gunks.

Thanks for this Rich. I’m still struggling with the ‘accepting the inevitable’ aspect, so, as always, your words offer a great perspective.

Hopefully, we can climb together again this coming season before we each have to hang up our ‘worn-down spurs’.

I have often teased Jeremy Schönborn that he doesn’t climb, he reaches. The first time I tried to climb dog Day afternoon was with Jeremy over a year ago and he demonstrated how to get it done.  “You just drape your leg over this ridge here and you can even hang hands free.” When you’re over 6 foot tall and your arms and legs are even longer, it’s a very different route. I am declining to post anything from my attempt that day.  

this is one of those routes that I would love to see Lynn climb. 5 foot two is way different from tall lanky guy.

EDIT: I thought this might have been a  McCollum/Houser route, but it went up with Charles Cole. I assume both of those guys were tall, but it does bring to mind a humorous question… Since Jan and Dave climbed so much together how each of those guys might’ve tackled a route like this.

Lori, at 5' 3" I have no problem on Dog Day Afternoon but then I have strong enough fingers to just do pullups thru the crux.  I actually got in trouble on that one because I did it with my wife's mother watching.  When I hit the giant jug at the top I cut my feet lose and made like I was falling.  Nobody appreciated that at all and after their yelps stopped I got yelled at for scaring everyone for the rest of the day.

Rich sure has a nice way with words.

Jan Mcwrote:

Lori, at 5' 3" I have no problem on Dog Day Afternoon but then I have strong enough fingers to just do pullups thru the crux.  I actually got in trouble on that one because I did it with my wife's mother watching.  When I hit the giant jug at the top I cut my feet lose and made like I was falling.  Nobody appreciated that at all and after their yelps stopped I got yelled at for scaring everyone for the rest of the day.

Rich sure has a nice way with words.

Classic! 

Dick Shockley had developed that "move" to an art.

Rich, thank you for your observations and words.

I would sure like to learn “the move”. As I recall I was good for about 3 solid attempts—with fingertips all loaded with Benzoin and wrapped in pink tape.  If I didn’t get it in those three tries my fingers were bleeding and strength gone… quittin’ time!  Of course, that should be the clue that the route is too hard for me but it’s a bummer when it’s only a couple of moves that shuts you down. 

Yes, Rich.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts on climbing as the years march on.  So beautifully said. 

For almost all of my active climbing career I climbed at least 4 days a week; bouldering at Stoney Point on Tuesday and Thursday for 3 or 4 hours, and then at Josh or somewhere else in the summer on weekends.  It would take a concerted effort to wear out my fingertip skin in those 2 days in Josh.  We all had such tough callouses on finger tips that it was hard to feel anything thru them at times and I rarely had good enough prints to unlock a phone for instance.  If you are only climbing a day a week then you aren't going to have those kinds of callouses and will always need to meter your climbing time on a particular route/type of route.

At one time I was really psychotic about protecting my callous.  No excess water on them, plus whatever.  I've always had the problem, even to this day, that once my tips get raw I start having problems because I've never been good at ignoring that particular type of pain combined with the hyper sensitivity and the added feel of oozing/sliming on holds.  When it comes to micro holds I want to be able to let what there is of the hold bite as good as possible without hurting.  I lose that with raw tips.

When I was super active doing a lot of crimping I had some pretty wicked callous.  I remember once when I needed a couple of drops of blood for something medical and they used to prick a tip to get it with some little tool that would snap down with a short needle.  They couldn't get it to work due to my callous.  I've also had problems taking inked finger prints and the likes because there was so little print resolution.

There is a side benefit though - there have been times (non-climbing) when it seemed I really should have punctured or cut a tip and nothing noticeable even happened, possibly partly due to a tough and thick callous.

On the down side - great callouses that can't be maintained with enough climbing do some seriously thick peeling as they shed.  Man, I hate that.  

First time lift service skiing for me  in two years.. Suspect I will have trouble walking tomorrow.  Great spring skiing.  Isa showing the kids how its done.just found out this evening that a good friend of mine who is an active ski patroller and in pretty good shape. Not a serious partier had a massive stroke and died @ 58 yrs old.   Live every day to it's fullest... 
 

Alan Rubinwrote:

Thanks for this Rich. I’m still struggling with the ‘accepting the inevitable’ aspect, so, as always, your words offer a great perspective.

Hopefully, we can climb together again this coming season before we each have to hang up our ‘worn-down spurs’.

We gotta make it happen this year!

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

First time lift service skiing for me  in two years.. Suspect I will have trouble walking tomorrow.  Great spring skiing.  Isa showing the kids how its done.just found out this evening that a good friend of mine who is an active ski patroller and in pretty good shape. Not a serious partier had a massive stroke and died @ 58 yrs old. Live every day to it's fullest...

Isa can really crank her tele turns. Here's Wendy spring skiing in the backcountry in the days of skinny skis, pin bindings and leather boots. Mt. Guyot's NW Shoulder, May 1990.

I find myself pondering this morning… Did Nick name his cat after Adam Ondra‘s kid?  OR… did Adam Ondra name his kid after Nick’s cat?    

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

First time lift service skiing for me  in two years.. Suspect I will have trouble walking tomorrow.  Great spring skiing.  Isa showing the kids how its done.
 

She sure is! Those are some fast, tight turns. Does she race?

long time ago before raising a daughter who is in her 30s now..   Silver medal worlds.. etc. 

Lori. isa named Hugo the cat. it morphed into Hugi.. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Lori. isa named Hugo the cat. it morphed into Hugi.. 

I think you could probably sue for patent infringement.  Or cat infringement . 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

long time ago before raising a daughter who is in her 30s now..   Silver medal worlds.. etc. 

So, yeah, she did a little racing….

Love the understated response! She is a crusher! 

rgoldwrote:

I too have climbing, not as some collection of achievement goals and aspirations as it might have been the past, but more recently as part of an active memory process in which I recover, maybe for just an evanescent moment, the unfettered joy and freedom of being able to navigate the vertical world.  The smell of those roses you mentioned can sometimes come wafting back from a half-century away.  But this is more than reminiscence, which finally would be tinged with sadness, because I'm out on the rock doing my thing still, in spite of all odds.  It helps in this regard to have a "home" area, and it is a big advantage that the home area is the Gunks, which has a profusion of those EASY but STEEP climbs my friend extolled.

And so it happens that I may reach up and sink my fingers into a lovely crimp that I first grasped 60 years ago.  It is exactly the same as it was then.  I, of course, am not, but for a moment my now-weakened grip still unites me with something familiar and yet eternal (at least from our human perspective).  And in such moments I feel that I am where I belong, and that's more than enough for me.

Extremely well said rgold!  Fifty-five years ago, I first grasped some ‘lovely crimps’ at City of Rocks (1968) and I feel so blessed that I too have the ‘advantage’ of living (part time) in my home area.  ‘Something familiar and yet eternal’