New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #29

Lori - You might be mistaking (among other things) South Wonderland Parking for Barker Dam Parking.

Edit: Ok, that sounded kinda snarky. What I meant was if you get the two parking areas mixed up, that will lead to much more confusion as to what's what out there. 

Lori Milaswrote:

Glad to see everyone is out and having a good time. You’re a good dad, Guy. I could’ve passed all those requirements, even on Angeles Crest. I love driving a stick. And I think I might be the best parallel parker of this entire group.   

Are you up for a friendly "park off" comp, Loi, in the city?

I live in the NE and regularly parallel park in Boston and her semi hilly neighborhoods. Stick shift or Auto makes no difference to me.
Also no use of backup camera or any proximity warning thingies.
The older the car the better for gauging this skill.  A heavy clutch just adds to the fun.  :) 

I’m 43. Don’t kick me out though! I’m here with someone! My wife just turned 51 on 5/16. We primarily do multi pitch trad with absolutely no plans on stopping any time soon. It’s great to be with someone who’s just as passionate about climbing as I am. 

Scott Doeringwrote:

I’m 43. Don’t kick me out though! I’m here with someone! My wife just turned 51 on 5/16. We primarily do multi pitch trad with absolutely no plans on stopping any time soon. It’s great to be with someone who’s just as passionate about climbing as I am. 

Nice last post Scott!  

M Mwrote:

Nice last post Scott!  

Thanks! Hope you’re enjoying Maine. We were in Acadia last fall and fell in love with it. Will definitely be back this fall again. 

Old lady Hwrote:

Partner still needs to get himself together, but yes, he does still know which way a rope goes. Sort of. In fairness, COR rock fakes us out, every time. It takes some getting used to, rock you can actually climb on, feet that miraculously stay where you put them, holds that don't snap off in your hand....

It is definitely getting polished, on a few of the most heavily traveled routes. They are harder now, especially at the start. 

So, what happens to grades? Do they stay the original, with a comment? Or do they creep up, over time? Just curious. For myself? I just figure I'm climbing a harder route than you are, simply based on needing about 20% more moves than you more average height people to cover the same ground, plus, the placement of everything is different for me. Anchors get real interesting sometimes....

Grades do get adjusted over time.  At the City, Norma's Book is a good example, originally 5.6, now rated 5.7. There are some holds in the upper section that are really polished.  An extreme example of polishing is After Six in Yosemite.   VERY polished at the start, upgraded to 5.7 a few years ago.  My observation is that lower graded routes (5.6-5.7) are the ones that suffer more from polishing due to high traffic.  Broken holds, especially on sandstone, can also result in upgrading.  Good example at Red Rock is Fender Bender. Originally rated 5.2 (in Joanne Urioste's "little red book", 1984) it is now rated 5.6.  Just too many people climbing these days given the number of routes with short approaches.  

I said ‘yes’ to going to Arapiles this coming long weekend. Problem is when I said ‘yes’ it was a lovely sunny winters day and now the forecast is max of 16 Celsius and rain. I HATE being cold. Trying to be bold. Failing. 

Carl Schneiderwrote:

I said ‘yes’ to going to Arapiles this coming long weekend. Problem is when I said ‘yes’ it was a lovely sunny winters day and now the forecast is max of 16 Celsius and rain. I HATE being cold. Trying to be bold. Failing. 

Agree. Cold and wet, miserable…

Gym climbing is more my thing now, in my old age.

A friend of mine once said there are two kinds of people, ones who like to put clothes on and ones who like to take clothes off.  I am a take clothes off kind of person and I live for the summer. I just don’t get people who love being cold.  Every day when I get out for a hike, I have to decide between the shorts and a tank, which makes me happy but is less safe against snakes or responsible, long pants.  Likewise when Climbing it makes far more sense to wear long pants to protect against knee abrasions but I’d rather scrape my knees.  

When I arrived here, I didn’t know what a puffy was. Wendy explained it.  It’s an art form to dress for a day of climbing in the winter – – a minimum of four layers, most of which fly off during that first lap up a wall.  And there’s the solarium where I have climbed when it was actually snowing on the ground and I could have worn a swimsuit.

And who sits in tubs of ice other than Nick? I know this is the thing now, but I believe those people have something wrong with their heads. However, the idea of hot cold sauna might work – – we have the sauna built in right here in here in the summer, it was well over 100° yesterday in Palm Springs. No need for a warm-up with that kind of weather.

S. Neoh, regarding your parallel parking challenge. You have no idea who you’re dealing with here. I would take you up on that challenge, but I would hate to make you feel bad.  It’s a definite yes to all your requirements, in fact, the more newfangled gadgets on the car the harder it is to park. An older plain wrap car with no bells or whistles, back her up and see how it goes!  

Tony said he would take you up on your challenge in an 18 wheeler and I would take him at his word.   

Brandt… I did not take your comment as snarky, but thank you for the clarification. I don’t know where the hell I was parked. At the Parking lot is a sign for Wall Street mill which down the road a piece from the Parker dam lot.  

It’s probably good to know ones strengths and weaknesses.  Bob has a built-in sense of direction and never gets lost. The first time I tried to walk the real hidden Valley loop I lost the trail four times and wound up in tears.  Now I see people also in the same predicament who just keep on wandering out to sea and some of them are wearing flip-flops and have no water.  What kills me is the amount of heavy perfumes and aftershaves people wear as they head out for their hike.

But I want to see if I can find that Afro blues wall and I think that’s close enough that I can safely explore.  Or not.  

EDIT:  regarding grades. I don’t know if this is a thing elsewhere, but there are many routes that were established here when 5.9 was the highest grade in existence so it’s really hard to gauge the real difficulty of a 5.9 route. The one I so desperately want to climb, White Room, is rated 5.9 but Bob has said he doesn’t really know if that’s accurate. It looks so steep and beautiful from a distance, but maybe in fact the actual grade is much harder and I may never get to find out.  

Lori Milaswrote:

EDIT:  regarding grades. I don’t know if this is a thing elsewhere, but there are many routes that were established here when 5.9 was the highest grade in existence so it’s really hard to gauge the real difficulty of a 5.9 route. The one I so desperately want to climb, White Room, is rated 5.9 but Bob has said he doesn’t really know if that’s accurate. It looks so steep and beautiful from a distance, but maybe in fact the actual grade is much harder and I may never get to find out.  

FA ascension was Bob in 1991. Guessing it’s not “5.9 is the highest grade”, but likely that Bob simply guesstimated a grade? Could be 5.9 or 5.10a or even 5.8 with a fear factor added?

The R rating puts it into a class of “I’ll likely not lead that one”.

Carl Schneiderwrote:

I said ‘yes’ to going to Arapiles this coming long weekend. Problem is when I said ‘yes’ it was a lovely sunny winters day and now the forecast is max of 16 Celsius and rain. I HATE being cold. Trying to be bold. Failing. 

If it makes you feel any better, Carl, it’s -3 C here this morning. And snowing. In June.

Chukchi summertime at the beach. There’s open water out there where the clouds get dark. Almost paddling season.

Lori Milaswrote:

 I would take you up on that challenge, but I would hate to make you feel bad.  

That would be an unlikely outcome, either way.  
I try my damn-est to onsight every new climb (and those I have forgotten due to dementia) I get on. More often than I like, I fail and need to clean up later.
Which is to say failure is just part of the experience and journey of life for me.
As long as I do my best during the attempt, that is a reward upon itself. Success is just cherry on top, and I do cherish my cherries :)

I do not go to So Cal often but if I am there next we can do the challenge, with vehicles that have either four or six wheels.

Li Huwrote:

FA ascension was Bob in 1991. Guessing it’s not “5.9 is the highest grade”, but likely that Bob simply guesstimated a grade? Could be 5.9 or 5.10a or even 5.8 with a fear factor added?

The R rating puts it into a class of “I’ll likely not lead that one”.

I don’t want to speak for Bob, but he seemed to be saying that he really doesn’t recall exactly the difficulty of that route and as far as I know, it’s only been climbed once. I would like to be the second. But I guess until someone gets on it again it will be hard to really know the grade.

Greg, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to post your description and a map – – you make great maps! This helped so much this morning. Going back I could put the truck and Willys health food store in perspective and I found the boulders and found the wash and hiked a ways so now I feel so much better! To put the cherry on top, I encountered two very handsome fully uniformed rangers who stopped to chat and they confirmed I was indeed headed in the right direction and had maybe under a mile to go. But they also did mention that when it all opens up it can beconfusing and easy to get lost. so, enough for today and I’ll just push forward a little at a time till I feel done!

Just saw this...the new Petzl Neox. Over the years, teaching people to lead belay with a Grigri has been....challenging. This looks like a game changer! Can't wait to try it out.

Story about Uncle Willie’s….. 

Around 75 or 76 a few friends and I were having a “Rest Day” - IIRC it might have been spring break. Anyway after eating the L we sort of transported over to the parking lot and made the decision “to get farther out then we have ever been”. We discovered Willie’s ranch, just recently burned down. His personal stuff was scattered about mixed in with tons of burnt stuff, chairs, photos etc. We found his check book and figured out his name. Found some invoices he had sent to people and the letter head showed “health food”. I think he was a bee keeper. Randy probably knows the details better than me.
So we are hanging out in the shade of the trees- just sort of watching everything. Steve stands up, walks over to a pile of burnt tin cans and says “I wonder what’s in the can? Peaches…” So he tosses the can over by where we are sitting… picks up a length of pipe and walks over to the can, raises the pipe up and smashes down on the can hard! The contents of the can sprayed everywhere. We all got hit with bits of the contents which turned out to be “roofing tar”…Henry’s roof patch! You couldn’t wipe that stuff off of your skin and it just smeared around. We were covered in the stuff- for the rest of the week.

So now you know the story, Lori.

Re desert wandering… I find it helpful to stop and turn around and memorize details of the landscape- the big boulder with the flake on the ground, the bent tree, the bushes you pushed through etc… hope this helps.

Scott- welcome. 

My daughter loves the Tintin books. We have read them all, and are starting to reread them. Perhaps our favorite is the one with the exploding mushrooms. Maybe some of you have read it before?  

This one contains the usual excitement, hilarity, intrigue, plus also a touch of slightly spooky sci-fi.

Anyway, this last Sunday I just started working on my first 5.13 route, called Journey to a Mushroom Planet, and every time I think about the name of the route it makes me think of this book.  

The route is gear protected, and there is a good nut in a roof which the rope lifted out when my partner fell on the piece after it. For my sake he went back to that position in the roof and tried to replace the nut, but couldn't get it to stick. So he placed a small cam instead. When I got to that point I was gassed, so I rested on the cam.  I thought some of you might be amused to see what happened next.  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xNTMD9Ng17yw2MiV7

The volume is low, so if you can't hear it, it goes something like this:

G: "Take there. I'm pretty beat." 

D:  "How's that cam?"

G:  Looks up... "Ouch!" 

D: "Oh f*ck!"

G:  In answer to his question: "That good!  Hahaha!" 

GO

Bob Gaineswrote:

Just saw this...the new Petzl Neox. Over the years, teaching people to lead belay with a Grigri has been....challenging. This looks like a game changer! Can't wait to try it out.

Thanks for the heads up.  Looks cool!  Might pick that up whenever my Grigri wears out.

Speaking of which... anyone here use doubles technique much?  I think RGold does?  I like doubles in the Gunks.  I have been using a TRE, but once mine wears out, I'll be in the market for a new device good for belaying (and rapping) two ropes.

GO

I've got a Neox on order direct from Petzl. Look forward to other people's 2 cents on it!

In the thread discussing it, people rambled off into multipitch discussions, grigri vs atc. I'm the disdained single pitch top rope cragger now, so all I need is whatever makes my rope gun happy! Old hands will be liking this device, methinks. Holding tonnage on the other end of the line while someone is staring at something....gets kinda old. 

Guessing that cam wasn't what it could be?    That route looks hard....and awkward....

And fun!

H.

Bob Gaineswrote:

Just saw this...the new Petzl Neox. Over the years, teaching people to lead belay with a Grigri has been....challenging. This looks like a game changer! Can't wait to try it out.

I have been watching it for a while.  A likely candidate to replace my very old Gri Gri 1 for gym use and lazy cragging days.
Just wish it were not so pricey.

Bob Gaineswrote:

Just saw this...the new Petzl Neox. Over the years, teaching people to lead belay with a Grigri has been....challenging. This looks like a game changer! Can't wait to try it out.

It looks great for single pitch but unfortunately Petzl has not certified it for top belaying. I'm looking forward to reports from people who try it anyway. After all, I don't think Petzl certified the GriGri for top belaying at first.

Edit: Bob corrected me below.