New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #26

We attended the local Coast Film Festival this afternoon and evening. The stand out feature was "Yamnuska, The Ragged Edge.". It is a documentary film on this wild limestone crag/mountain in Alberta, Canada.

So amazingly well done. If you get a chance, well worth seeing.

Timmy O'Neil did the Q and A afterwards. He has a documentary short showing tomorrow about Erik Weihenmayer.

see review and trailer here

Randy wrote:

"He has a documentary short showing tomorrow about Erik Weihenmayer."

Erik is a remarkable person. I had the pleasure of working with him at Joshua Tree (as the climbing coordinator and as his climbing coach) for a commercial for the American Foundation for the Blind. His German Shepherd guide dog was remarkable too- the smartest dog I've ever seen.

I really have to respond to as much of the kangaroo thing as I can.
. I’ve never before heard of a ‘roo grabbing anyone’s pet and attempting to drown it. That’s actually quite silly. They hop away from you, they don’t come near you. You MAY see one or two in a small town but it’s rare.
. I’m not very manly.
. roo bars are real and lots of 4x4s have them. If you hit a kangaroo it can total your car. Same with wombats.
. I’ve run over a kangaroo’s neck on my motorbike. The pic is a bit of kangaroo fluff in my side stand. It was one of the most traumatic moments of my life. It had a little tiny pink hairless Joey that got thrown from her pouch. She was a young mother. When I saw the Joey I said out loud ‘and you have a little baby!’ I’d gone back to find her after hitting her, she came from nowhere. An orchardist came out from his house and took care (shot) them. Very sad.

I would bet the bank that the dog went after the roo and got schooled.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I would bet the bank that the dog went after the roo and got schooled.

You’re probably right Nick. I should’ve let this go but maybe it’s an indicator of what you do with your spare time when you are no longer socked in with a job. I kept thinking about 50 million kangaroos and Carl saying he only sees one or two. There’s 26 million people on that continent. And Carl had to mention wombats.

Well it got me to pull out the atlas asking exactly how big is Australia? I am assuming that most of the marsupials hang out in the outback, but where is that and how big is it. How much of Australia has actually been explored?

Hopefully, I will find a National Geographic series on Australia and can become an expert. Plan B is to pay more attention when Tony’s favorite movie comes around again “Quigley down under“ which Kris Solem had the opportunity to watch when he was here. It’s not like it was a choice. Tony believes he would be insulting a guest if he didn’t play that movie for them.    

——

Likewise, Gaza. It was only this month, but I pulled out the atlas to take a closer look. We’ve all seen maps and certainly know about the conflict over the decades, but I had never just focused.  After laying out the full map and seeing the tiny speck called Gaza… Wait what? It’s barely 25 miles long squeezed into a slightly larger area called Israel. The West Bank isn’t even connected. How did anyone think this was going to work?

It’s a different experience trying to understand the situation today when looking at an enormous map. You have millions of people crammed into a tiny space and nowhere to go. Bordering Israel is the massive Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Sinai, and not that far away Iraq, no one can spare a little piece of land?

I’m sure many of us have done our best to keep up on the situation, and to grasp the various peace accords, and this is a heated topic. But from the most simplistic aerial view, it seems like the arrangement that currently exists – – prior to Hammas attack – – is a recipe for failure.

—-

I went back to visit the rock formation that looked like an upside down washing machine agitator where we climbed this week. Turns out it is Little Rock Candy Mountain, but for me it’s now just “the agitator“. It’s a little like seeing a concert at the old Forum, where you better remember where you parked your car because the building is round and if you’re even a tiny bit stoned, you will never find your car. I circled the whole thing. I really liked this one view that looks like some cracks and dihedrals leading up to a headwall.

Ah yes, Little Rock Candy Mt! Fun spot! My favorite routes: Chicken Bones - excellent route but don't believe the 5.4 rating, I call it 5.7; Sugar Daddy - one fairly stiff 5.9 move at the start of the corner; Little Rock Candy Crack - kinda easy for 5.7 but the leader needs to be careful at the start; M&M Plain - 5.9, good hand jams to pinky jam crux, and M&M Peanut - 5.10a/b, a pretty hard route (and NOT a safe lead) with a number of different ways to do it. Get Bob to string these up for you!

And by the way, I don't see how anyone could get lost going here. It's just a short ways from your car!   

Randy wrote:

We attended the local Coast Film Festival this afternoon and evening. The stand out feature was "Yamnuska, The Ragged Edge.". It is a documentary film on this wild limestone crag/mountain in Alberta, Canada.

So amazingly well done. If you get a chance, well worth seeing.

Timmy O'Neil did the Q and A afterwards. He has a documentary short showing tomorrow about Erik Weihenmayer.

see review and trailer here

Yamnuska has some great routes, but not sure I'd call it "wild".  Red Shirt was my first climb there, everything fine until the rat shit on P3.

Brandt, I didn’t have any problem getting to it. I had a problem getting around it and keeping my bearings with a guidebook in hand. Even starting with the routes I climbed and moving right I still wasn’t sure what I was looking at at all times. 

Lori Milas wrote:

You’re probably right Nick. I should’ve let this go but maybe it’s an indicator of what you do with your spare time when you are no longer socked in with a job. I kept thinking about 50 million kangaroos and Carl saying he only sees one or two. There’s 26 million people on that continent. And Carl had to mention wombats.

Well it got me to pull out the atlas asking exactly how big is Australia? I am assuming that most of the marsupials hang out in the outback, but where is that and how big is it. How much of Australia has actually been explored?

Sounds like you need a dose of this... 

In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson

You get humor, travelogue, history... the whole package.

Lori Milas wrote:

Brandt, I didn’t have any problem getting to it. I had a problem getting around it and keeping my bearings with a guidebook in hand. Even starting with the routes I climbed and moving right I still wasn’t sure what I was looking at at all times. 

Lori, I think you are misunderstanding what Carl wrote concerning kangaroos. I’m sure that he has seen far more than 1 or 2—they are pretty ubiquitous in rural Australia. I was very excited when I saw my first one, but the locals didn’t even take notice. They would frequently wander through The Pines ( the climbers campground at Arapiles). I can see why they are such a road hazard as they are large,  surprisingly fast, and seem to move in an unpredictable manner—and so much of the countryside is wide open and basically flat and the roads, outside the cities, rarely have much traffic.

Alan Rubin wrote:

Lori, I think you are misunderstanding what Carl wrote concerning kangaroos. I’m sure that he has seen far more than 1 or 2—they are pretty ubiquitous in rural Australia. I was very excited when I saw my first one, but the locals didn’t even take notice. They would frequently wander through The Pines ( the climbers campground at Arapiles). I can see why they are such a road hazard as they are large,  surprisingly fast, and seem to move in an unpredictable manner—and so much of the countryside is wide open and basically flat and the roads, outside the cities, rarely have much traffic.

And that is why the "road trains" have 'roo-bars.

Alan Rubin wrote:

Lori, I think you are misunderstanding what Carl wrote concerning kangaroos. I’m sure that he has seen far more than 1 or 2—they are pretty ubiquitous in rural Australia. I was very excited when I saw my first one, but the locals didn’t even take notice. They would frequently wander through The Pines ( the climbers campground at Arapiles). I can see why they are such a road hazard as they are large,  surprisingly fast, and seem to move in an unpredictable manner—and so much of the countryside is wide open and basically flat and the roads, outside the cities, rarely have much traffic.

Yeah. Of course there’s a lot. I was saying you might see one or two in a town. For instance around where I live 100 metres out of town. I mentioned that because some believe they’re hopping through big towns down the Main Street. So of course they don’t take pets, never heard that. Yep, quite common at Araps but Wallabies (basically ugly roos) are more common there. Basically all of aust has been explored. It’s a huge land with very varying terrain, climate and flora and fauna. We’re used to travelling long distances. It takes me an hour to ride or drive to work each day. And hour to drive to a bouldering gym, five hours to drive to Araps. Also used to hot weather, 40 degees c yesterday. 

Carl Schneider wrote:

Yeah. Of course there’s a lot. I was saying you might see one or two in a town. For instance around where I live 100 metres out of town. I mentioned that because some believe they’re hopping through big towns down the Main Street. So of course they don’t take pets, never heard that. Yep, quite common at Araps but Wallabies (basically ugly roos) are more common there. Basically all of aust has been explored. It’s a huge land with very varying terrain, climate and flora and fauna. We’re used to travelling long distances. It takes me an hour to ride or drive to work each day. And hour to drive to a bouldering gym, five hours to drive to Araps. Also used to hot weather, 40 degees c yesterday. 

Carl, thanks for being such a good sport and also for sharing your homeland with us. I hope my teasing is not offensive. I have really enjoyed everything that you have shared over the years including, obviously, your Climbing videos.  I wish I could visit Australia but don’t have any plans to do that soon so you have to represent.

While I was out climbing Tony found a few YouTube videos of kangaroos in Australia. Most were sweet, lovable and playful. But there was one of sort of a fist fight between some guy and a very large kangaroo and there was a whole video explaining that if a kangaroo feels threatened by an animal like a dog, he will try to get that dog into the water where he can drown the animal or at least defend himself, so I guess that is a real thing.

Seems like a wild and wonderful place!  

Lori Milas wrote:

Carl, thanks for being such a good sport and also for sharing your homeland with us. I hope my teasing is not offensive. I have really enjoyed everything that you have shared over the years including, obviously, your Climbing videos.  I wish I could visit Australia but don’t have any plans to do that soon so you have to represent.

While I was out climbing Tony found a few YouTube videos of kangaroos in Australia. Most were sweet, lovable and playful. But there was one of sort of a fist fight between some guy and a very large kangaroo and there was a whole video explaining that if a kangaroo feels threatened by an animal like a dog, he will try to get that dog into the water where he can drown the animal or at least defend himself, so I guess that is a real thing.

Seems like a wild and wonderful place!  

Oh thank you. Generally I check in here a few times a week. Flashed any graded route at the gym today, just TR they reckon it’ll be graded at a 22. Also repeated the 21 I did Thurs. I’m feeling strong and ready for Araps next week for a few days with a new tent, new jet boil and new stove and I bought some cheap walkie-talkies too, I used some last trip and it made comms on multi pitches really easy. AAA batteries so easy to keep charged while camping (I don’t have a solar panel or battery).

We got over to trespassers wall at Little Hunk yesterday to see Torturers Apprentice.  I am searching for words to describe the experience.

Squaring off on 100 foot sheer wall everything just goes silent and there’s a job to do. It feels sacred.  It’s a long, lonely journey but I always feel so accompanied. Halfway up I looked over to wave at Kris Solem on the compassion of elephants route. (I’m not sure what year he did that but his picture on that route inspires me.) To think Charles Cole climbed the route to my right and he’d still be climbing today I’m sure, if he could. But I can, with enormous gratitude.

Beyond a certain point, there are no holds, so to speak— it gets much sheerer above the dike, and it’s an experiment in trust to move up. Five or six times I said “what? This actually stuck?“ and then there you are with 1 foot on a tiny edge and nowhere to go, but it’s a good idea to go anyway before the whole thing crumbles.

Man. This is an opportunity in boldness because I have to TRY to override the impossibility of what you see and feel and just go. I try not to get too distracted with the fact that whoever led these routes BITD was insane. I’m not even sure where that first bolt is but you could surely die on the way. And yet many of you lead routes just like this. Where were your mothers?  

It just gets so quiet up there and all senses are heightened. Climbing these walls is stillness. There was a tiny little bird with a yellow breast nearby flitting about in the manzanita jungle. I got to wondering if bighorn sheep could climb this and I was thinking about 50 million kangaroos.  Random thoughts just passing through.

Just when the climbing was getting really good my blood sugar tanked and I had no choice but to come down and deal with it. So I’m excited to try again and see if I can make it to the top.

This year when I picked my four routes, I asked Bob to set the roadmap.. On the wall he does a hybrid of coaching and setting me free – – “hey, get back on your route!“ or just silence if I’m not straying too far.  I just feel so lucky.

it’s very hard to get the shoe cam exactly right. I would adjust the slope of this route a little.  With my phone pointed out from way below the route can go anywhere. That is to say it’s not always exactly correct in the vertical representation.

Lori Milas wrote:

Where were your mothers?  

letting me wander around outside by myself learning how to be independent and build confidence in myself.

Well, Tim, herein your problem! You were allowed to roam too much, and look at you now!  

Our parents had no idea. I had a couple of incredible years taking LSD, hanging out on the Sunset strip, listening to every kind of music and having a large pack of friends. I wouldn’t trade it.

But when I visit these routes that were put up BITD— it is startling, and they were death defying.  

I’m giving thought to taking a drive up to Sacramento to see this program in Folsom. Four or five years ago I attended their concert of Revolver and it was spectacular. Now they’re doing the White album. I think it might be worth the trip.

Hi everyone, put up a new boulder problem on my 63rd birthday, V6? from the sit start.  Having fun in the sun out west.  Another week here before heading back to Massachusetts. 

Good going Ward!!! Not quite as nice back here in western MA—have a dusting of snow on the ground this morning, though now melting fast. Enjoy the rest of your trip—-and Happy Birthday!!!