New and experienced climbers over 50 #30

Thanks for checking in here Mr. Gill.

Respect and best wishes going forward, 

Tad

I know that 40,000 humans have died in Gaza and Ukraine is moving in on Russia—and so much more—but today my total focus was on the useless and meaningless endeavor of finding that damn hole Into skinny dip.  And even with perfect instructions by Brandt and Randy, I’m still not sure.

I feel like a total failure. A complete loser. There’s no way to account for the ridiculous amount of time and exhaustion I spend looking for stupid shit and mostly not finding it.  

I’m going to make good on my promise to write a book for old people.  First, I would have to find the language that a nonprofessional would understand to get from one place to the other.  

Along the way, I would include important tips like “don’t look like a flower”. Don’t smell like one either. I’m amazed at how many tourists leave their tourist bus loaded with cologne and looking like a tulip and then wondering why bees are swarming.  

So after approaching from inside Steve Canyon and then from the backside, I don’t know which works best. And what am I looking at here?  “Left side”  Where do we wiggle through?  

This is from the backside looking at this formation. Very pretty.  

I guess it really doesn’t matter where this hole is because I sure won’t try it. And may I ask what the hell is wrong with just Climbing this straight up?  Looks very straightforward so was John Long just being sadistic?

I need to constantly remind myself that it is easier to go up than come back down. Before I could reach the top to have a closer look at this left side. I thought I should slowly turn around and head back down.

Heading home for raspberry sorbet and sympathy. Great music today. Beautiful weather. And for a blessed four hours no bad news.  Y’all be well!

Lori Milaswrote:

 Where do we wiggle through?  

You're looking at it!

Brandt Allenwrote:

You're looking at it!

Oh Brandt. That’s just NUTS.   

Todd Berlier wrote:

I have elbow tendonitis for the first time. Sad. Mad. Going to a DPT on Monday.

John Gill, good to see you posting here! 

You were a great inspiration to me early in my climbing career. In college, I took gymnastics classes and trained until I could do a one arm pull up.  After I got elbow tendinitis I went to an orthopedic doc with a copy of Master of Rock (which pictures you doing various front levers and difficult overhangs) to show him what I'd been up to and wanted to do more of. With each photo I showed him he'd say "Don't do that!," or "Definitely DON'T DO THAT!"

Reading John Gill's and Rich's posts... well, you know it's a trigger.  It recalls all my roaming here, with this whole area echoing of the past and how much I don't want it to be lost... all the skill, wisdom, guidance and folklore.  And the greatness.  To the packs of kids who are hiking past with their boulder pads, I want them to know.  

I wasn't sure how to write this... a few days ago I joined a Facebook group, "Women's Weightlifting and Fitness Beyond 70"... just to see what other older women were up to.  I posted a very short bio of myself and a couple of climbing pictures.  732 people immediately responded. I've never seen a FB site with that many members!  The comments were of total disbelief, awe, etc.  Which tells me, the whole endeavor of climbing, indoors and out, is beyond the norm for almost everyone.  And I'm nothing.  You guys, who have been climbing a lifetime and are still at it in some fashion, are the real super heroes.    

I still have 5 hours of interviews with Dave Houser to unpack.  I got a little stuck with just what to do with it.  Obviously, Dave's just one guy among many.  Half the folks here need their histories and stories recorded, IMO.  It blows my mind that while this world is increasingly 'all about me', social media, and crowd size (size matters!)... climbers have gone about their days quietly and unpublished for decades... achieving some of the most incredible athletic feats in history.  

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Both my knees hurt, and I'm really anxious about climbing again.  Seriously worried that I will be totally weak on the rock.  Todd... I seem to recall that in the collagen-world, there are several types of collagen, and Type II is for cartilage and tendons. Most collagen these days is Type I and III.  I'm going to re-review some studies to see if that Type II collagen might be helpful for knees and elbows.  

Lori Milaswrote:

Reading John Gill's and Rich's posts... well, you know it's a trigger.  It recalls all my roaming here, with this whole area echoing of the past and how much I don't want it to be lost... all the skill, wisdom, guidance and folklore.  And the greatness.  To the packs of kids who are hiking past with their boulder pads, I want them to know.  

I wasn't sure how to write this... a few days ago I joined a Facebook group, "Women's Weightlifting and Fitness Beyond 70"... just to see what other older women were up to.  I posted a very short bio of myself and a couple of climbing pictures.  732 people immediately responded. I've never seen a FB site with that many members!  The comments were of total disbelief, awe, etc.  Which tells me, the whole endeavor of climbing, indoors and out, is beyond the norm for almost everyone.  And I'm nothing.  You guys, who have been climbing a lifetime and are still at it in some fashion, are the real super heroes.    

You’re inspiring all of us too!  

I still have 5 hours of interviews with Dave Houser to unpack.  I got a little stuck with just what to do with it.  Obviously, Dave's just one guy among many.  Half the folks here need their histories and stories recorded, IMO.  It blows my mind that while this world is increasingly 'all about me', social media, and crowd size (size matters!)... climbers have gone about their days quietly and unpublished for decades... achieving some of the most incredible athletic feats in history.  

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Both my knees hurt, and I'm really anxious about climbing again.  Seriously worried that I will be totally weak on the rock.  Todd... I seem to recall that in the collagen-world, there are several types of collagen, and Type II is for cartilage and tendons. Most collagen these days is Type I and III.  I'm going to re-review some studies to see if that Type II collagen might be helpful for knees and elbows.  

Agree with Todd, if you’re getting enough protein, that should be enough?

Best Collagen supplement is “Vital Proteins/Collages Peptides” and is available at Costco. A few nutrition experts recommended that to me when I was hiking and losing weight. I don’t remember if you’re vegan or not? There’s a plant based one too…

John Gill. Thanks for the inspiration, when young, to start with working out. My little group of friends all idolized you and hit the bar and weights 3x per week. We improved and climbed 5.12!!! Some even made a pilgrimage to seek you out.
Glad to hear you are still having fun.

Good to hear stories about retirement! I’m enjoying mine.

I’ve been climbing 3 days per week as best as I can. I have a “project” I’m “working” … 5.6 sport climb?!?. You need to stand on a outside edge with the right foot (hi step, that’s in a giant hole , so the foot is straight out at waist level, bring your left foot up and way out to the left, higher than your waist) this plays right into my weakness. I almost got it yesterday! But foot slipped- I smacked my knee - and started to bleed out!

How do you all deal with thin skin?

Anyway, getting up at 5 am and getting out and getting beat up has helped me recover somewhat. And I was able to speak with one of the root developers and felt better because I found out my project is really a 5.9!!!

And Lori…. Please go put on long pants and long sleeve shirt. Get Brother Bob to lead that sucker and you follow and clean (you have had enuf TR time) it. I think if you do this, you will feel the same as all of us seniors do. That is this “no grainy squeeze chimneys for me, oh no no no…”  it’s something you learn with experience.

I want to make a political comment: 

We can talk about this Wednesday November 6th.
Deal? 

how do i deal with thin skin?

pay a visit to wide fetish 

First day of a 2 week trip:

I like checking out new places. We went up to TJ Swan Cliff.

Got some great views of Crystal Crag from the trail:  

9 routes, 2 cracks, 7 bolted. One turned out to be a variation that didn’t look appealing, but we still got a little over 500 feet of climbing in.

The most fun route to me was this 5.7 crack. Interesting gear placement. I used 3 of my ballnuts!

to John Gill, Guy wrote:

"Some even made a pilgrimage to seek you out."

John Long wrote an article about it, titled Pumping Sandstone, when he and Bachar went to meet their hero John Gill and check out some of his boulders. My favorite line in the article is Long describing Gill's expression watching them attack the boulders: "John began to display that unmistakable smirk which reminded me of an old film l'd seen of Mohammed Ali watching amateurs box."

Thank you for your kind comments Rich, Lori, Todd, Donald, Alan, Daniel, Brad, Li Hu, Tad, Bob, and Guy.  Daniel, I never climbed RBJ, and my shoes during that period were Zillertals, Kronhofers, RDs, and PAs. That sounds like Holloway, but I don’t recall witnessing that move. Bob, I knew a climber from Germany while at the U of Chicago in 1959, and he knew Buhl and told me Hermann could do a one finger pull up. I then managed to do one on the horizontal bar in the gym where I worked out from time to time with the gymnastics team. As for the smirk, John tends to exaggerate on occasion. When the two Johns sat at our breakfast table my wife mentioned to me later, “They are like young Greek Gods”.  Guy, happy retirement!

Rich, we met about 65 years ago at the Jenny Lake boulders. Over the following few years you became a superb climber. Back then I saw rock climbing or bouldering as an extension of gymnastics rather than an extension of hiking, so form and style meant a lot to me – I would practice a problem until it flowed like a gymnastic routine should – and you were the smoothest climber I ever met. Plus, you punched me out on the boulders from time to time   .

We were both destined to become academic mathematicians, like another old friend from the Golden Age, Dave Rearick. Probably something to do with a love of exploration. Dave is in a retirement home in Boulder. Many more good years for you, my old friend. May the ALCT flourish. 

Todd, I am going to focus on knees for a while. I injured my right knee three years ago while out Climbing with Bob and it took a good eight weeks of recovery. Then I injured my left knee climbing and had the same difficult recovery.  I had x-rays and an MRI and to my doctors amazement I have no arthritis.  So I do have a knee program from Esther Smith, who is the climbing physical therapist from Utah.  

I thought I remembered reading a lengthy article on collagen,  specifically Type II collagen (types, one and three are for hair, skin and nails).  One of my go to resources is Consumer Labs, which is a subscription company that does its own testing and publishes its results.  It’s not common that they approve a product and find it to be helpful.

What I understand is that if our diet is focused on muscle meats and we are not gnoshing on bones and marrow, we are not getting the benefit of collagen – – therefore “bone broth” has become one way of getting that support.

So I Decided to do a fun experiment and take 40 mg of UC-II for 60 days and see how it goes.  I’m not good at setting up precise experiments. I see they measured flexion and pain levels. I’ll have to figure out a before and after measurement that will be reliable. Both my knees now click.  They both throb after scrambling. I will work up a chart. I will be the guinea pig!   

After reading Consumer Labs reviews I always hop over to Amazon and browse their reviews.  2000 reviews are surprisingly Positive.  

Can’t hurt, might help. I’ll report back.  

Guy, I am so happy for you. Seems like yesterday that you were coming home from the hospital and feeling pretty miserable. And the work it took to walk a block and then a mile. And now here you are. It must feel really good. Congratulations!

i’ll be sure and run your idea up the flagpole with brother Bob. I’m sure he can’t wait to lead through that tiny hole and get stuck somewhere in the middle.   The idea no longer calls to me.

Last night, I was hanging about on what I thought was a 20mm edge. At first I was disappointed I could only do 7 seconds, then realised that someone had switched to the BeastMaker 2000 so I held a 15mm edge. Then tried the Tension board and all the thin edges. Was able to hang a few seconds at 8mm.

Hung 2.6 seconds with 45 pounds attached on the 20mm edge. My partner said, that’s enough to clip. We both laughed at that being a pretty desperate clip   

Pull ups using only 35 pounds for 6 sets of 3-4 on the warmup jugs.

Getting close to pulling the crux on an off width crack at the gym involving laybacks and thin fingers /foot. Got my foot stuck in the crack again. Tried an arête climb and only got to the first clip. Grades are definitely stiffer, but really nice climbs! Love the new sets as of end of July.

Made a couple attempts on a V6 and making a little bit of progress.

I’m pretty sore right now. Hips, core, calves, shoulders… fingers are okay. I’ll need to work them harder on Sunday afternoon.

REF: https://strengthclimbing.com/finger-strength-analyzer/

Goal is to get to V9 strength, which seems possible as I did “Max hangs” up to 135 pounds on 35mm. I arm for me will happen after 145 pounds is “comfortable” on a 35mm edge. Have also done 90 degree lock off at 125 pounds on the warmup jugs. Giving myself a year or two? 

Todd Berlier wrote:

I'll always have a special place in my heart for Crystal Crag!

I posted it specifically for you. You can see the crystal band on the top right, and the righthand edge is more or less the north arete you climbed. This aspect is looking directly at all the fun sport routes that were developed along the base. 

My video pick of the week. This young lady is fighting against a medical condition that may prove very difficult as she gets older. For now though she is pouring her soul into this song. " Not a dry eye in the joint" True artistry. Check out the English translation of the song
( Towards the end there is an accelarando  section in which she races ahead of the tempo, the orchestra catches up, but then she pulls ahead even slightly faster. This may have been improvised , the orchestra adjusted perfectly -- well done.)

Hard to listen to that with dry eyes. Thank you for that, Donald. That kid has serious talent. 

A standing ovation indeed. Very nice energy.

 Did a weights workout today as I want to build some muscle and strength for a trip to the Blue Mountains in Oct. I haven’t lifted weights for about twelve years (since I started climbing at 50), I used to do a weights workout about three times a week before then, since the age of about 16.
A very pathetic workout. For instance, EZ Bar curls was only three sets of 4 with 20 kilos (+ the bar). But I guess not too bad considering it was with 50% of the biceps tendons most people have.

Protein powder with Coopers stout after.