New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #33

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Yay for Tony! So Sorry to hear about Phylips robbery. they suck. 

COR rock quality is superb...  as is the quality of the Black hills but very different. 

What sort of luxury is this! Picnic tables and a cooker right next to the crag!! Soft!! 

Phyl, that sounds just awful. As are the fires. I live in fear of them here, ever since the Marshall fire showed how vulnerable our towns are - not just the wildland-urban interface.

I climbed a few on the list the two times we were at City.

Carl Schneider wrote:

What sort of luxury is this! Picnic tables and a cooker right next to the crag!! Soft!! 

Yup! And, if memory serves? That's the Firepit route, 5.11ish.

That's one of the group camps at COR, up at Twin Sisters. And, some of the peeps on here likely got to climb stuff at COR, including the actual Twin Sisters, that since became closed to climbing. 

Great lists and pics, everyone! Nick, I may have actually "crashed" that group at Twin Sisters, so a young friend of mine could meet his hero, Jim Donini. The guy delivering the pizzas gave us an invite, lol! So....I probably crossed paths with ya. I never know just who I have bumped into, unless they introduce themselves, and even then, I have to spend some time with them. 

Glad Tony is up some. That's a big step, no pun intended. And Lori, yeah, use a trainer, learn some lifts, but, they aren't rocket science. And once you know a deadlift, or squat, or whatever, it's just pay attention and don't go sloppy. Plus, in a gym? The free weight area is not usually populated by women that much, let alone not so young ones, so you get huge cred there, lol! Just showing up gets you big points.

And geez. Those fires. We've had fires here, now and then, but town proper has mostly slipped through okay. Anywhere in the west is a possibility of lots of real estate getting wiped out, just anywhere. If anyone wants a terrifically good read, grab The Big Burn. 

I've got COR on the calendar. June 6-13ish. Might do more, that'll get decided later. Looking forward to seeing people!

It's a mild winter here, so far, although not really ever -quite- warm enough for route climbing. And the bouldering buddy has been battling injuries and surgeries. Oh well.

Best all! H.

The Pizza Guy is on here and in the picture

Old lady H wrote:

Yup! And, if memory serves? That's the Firepit route, 5.11ish.

That's one of the group camps at COR, up at Twin Sisters. And, some of the peeps on here likely got to climb stuff at COR, including the actual Twin Sisters, that since became closed to climbing. 

Great lists and pics, everyone! Nick, I may have actually "crashed" that group at Twin Sisters, so a young friend of mine could meet his hero, Jim Donini. The guy delivering the pizzas gave us an invite, lol! So....I probably crossed paths with ya. I never know just who I have bumped into, unless they introduce themselves, and even then, I have to spend some time with them. 

Glad Tony is up some. That's a big step, no pun intended. And Lori, yeah, use a trainer, learn some lifts, but, they aren't rocket science. And once you know a deadlift, or squat, or whatever, it's just pay attention and don't go sloppy. Plus, in a gym? The free weight area is not usually populated by women that much, let alone not so young ones, so you get huge cred there, lol! Just showing up gets you big points.

And geez. Those fires. We've had fires here, now and then, but town proper has mostly slipped through okay. Anywhere in the west is a possibility of lots of real estate getting wiped out, just anywhere. If anyone wants a terrifically good read, grab The Big Burn. 

I've got COR on the calendar. June 6-13ish. Might do more, that'll get decided later. Looking forward to seeing people!

It's a mild winter here, so far, although not really ever -quite- warm enough for route climbing. And the bouldering buddy has been battling injuries and surgeries. Oh well.

Best all! H.

You are correct Helen, that I was fortunate enough to climb a multi-pitch route on one of the Sisters ( I think, but far from certain, on the taller (South?) one) on my first visit to the City (1978) a few years before they were closed. There was no guidebook then, so likely just found our way up the most obvious line--though possibly had some info from a magazine article. My ( very vague) memory is that it wasn't the best quality rock or climbing, but fun to climb the formation. I'm sure that KM and others also have climbed on them. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

The Pizza Guy is on here and in the picture

:-)

Phyl, that sucks. Sorry you two are going through that. At least they didn't get the car keys. No phone, cards or car? Yikes! 

I'm watching these fires with baited breath. Mayor Bass recently gutted $18M from L.A. City Fire Dept. Last I looked the Pacific Palisades fire is zero % contained?! Same for the Eaton Fire. And the house we sold last year might not survive. It's in the Eaton Fire mandatory evac zone. I hope it is okay, I really like the new owners. In some real estate deals there's no connection, it's done and over. But these were cash buyers who took an interest in us, and in doing the deal we became friends. I'm worried about them. Of course we also have a lot of other friends in the neighborhood too.

When I see fires like this I always suspect arson. The news was out for days that a major wind event was setting up. The fires couldn't have been placed better in terms of spreading out resources, both city and county. Also, I have a friend in high places in LASD. We just got off the phone. Apparently there were several other fires started in West Hollywood and Ventura County that got beat down fast. These are not in the news, probably to avoid a panic.

Let's all hope that they can get these things under control. The potential exists for an unprecedented disaster. This is the most recent reliable reporting I can find. At least it looks like the winds have died down for the night.

https://apnews.com/live/live-updates-wildfire-los-angeles-palisades

edit: New fire in Runyan Cyn. 

The Pizza Guy!  So happy to be associated with that title.  Yeah, City/Castle Rocks are the coolest place to climb. I’m trying to figure out exactly where Gill’s pictures are taken - I’ll figure it out eventually.  I kind’a know the terrain up there.  First went there in 1968 in high school and became enamored with the place. That first trip, I said to myself; “someday I’m going have a cabin here”.  That happened about 17 years ago and I’ve been so happy and blessed with all the wonderful people who have visited my place and all who have participated in the pizza parties.

Let’s plan on doing the same thing this June, 2025.  It’s a little harder now with Rock City being closed often or not making pizzas all of the days they are open - but I’ll get it figured out and arrange something with Susan and Bradi.

Darn impressive list of climbs Phylp for a first visit. And, the 60’s hold some historical value, particularly Greg Lowe, establishing some very hard climbs that he rated 5.9+. Sadly, one of the other old climbers to have participated with Greg, Jeff, Rob Brown, Kent Christianson, Jock Glidden, Dave Smith, etc., etc. was named Bruce Roghaar.  He passed away last Sunday morning of heart problems.  

City of Rocks has played a huge part of my life of climbing - with the Tetons also.

Just saw Bruce's obituary today. Both he and his brother are/ were great guys.

I just bumped into this on Facebook. January 8, 2018. This? Is the first time to try ice. Which lead to a whole string of friends, and had very far reaching ripples.

The amazing guy who made this happen? Died a few years later. Just a couple weeks before the very first Over 50s meetup at COR....

....At the Twin Sisters group camp. And I met some truly great people who got me through some tough times, then and since. Trips to COR have ALWAYS delivered, no 2 the same, never routine.

H.

Kristian Solem wrote:

I'm watching these fires with baited breath. Mayor Bass recently gutted $18M from L.A. City Fire Dept. 

Half of the budget cut came from eliminating vacant administrative positions and the other half came from the overtime budget. Neither of these things have any bearing on the outcome of the disaster currently unfolding. Trying to score some political point from this tragedy is in poor taste, imo.

Gary Thomas wrote:

Trying to score some political point from this tragedy is in poor taste, imo.

Agree, 100%, and there’s a lot of that going on right now. Politics is much more about irrational emotions than facts, though. Bass choosing to not quickly return from Africa (or not go in the first place since these winds were forecasted and the conditions were known), combined with these budget cuts is the stuff of which single term public leaders are made.

Trump sees this solely as an opportunity to make political inroads in the hopelessly blue state of California, and to feed red meat to his base everywhere else in the country. Pretty pathetic, but entirely on brand for him.

Working endurance at the bouldering gym 

https://youtu.be/z3PNCF-cy9w?si=JNs90ty-hxeT1KvV

Gary Thomas wrote:

Half of the budget cut came from eliminating vacant administrative positions and the other half came from the overtime budget. Neither of these things have any bearing on the outcome of the disaster currently unfolding. Trying to score some political point from this tragedy is in poor taste, imo.

Bass: 

Her office noted that the budget funds the hiring of firefighters and continues the Emergency Appointment Paramedic Program since the majority of calls to the fire department are related to medical emergencies.

"This budget serves as a reset, in part by continuing to hire for critical positions including police officers and firefighters while eliminating some of the department's vacant positions, thereby prioritizing our City family over empty desks,"

This is, in the words of Orwell, "Double Talk." If she was hiring people to fill "vacant positions," whatever that means, there should not be a budget cut. 

I’m sitting in a dark house in the So Cal mountains, for the second night in a row due to wind/fire related Edison power cutoffs. I’ve been in these mountains for decades, so this isn’t a new phenomenon by any stretch. But watching the Eaton and Palisades fires (on top of the literally dozens of similarly catastrophic fires over the years) certainly induces a lot of anxiety about wondering when the next bullet finds your home. (We’ve dodged two major bullets in the last 12 years with fires that resulted in evacuation of the entire town.)

Besides that, just simply continuing to be able to maintain a home in these places just keeps feeling more unrealistic. The homeowners policy on my modest little home has nearly tripled in the last few years, and after fires like these in unbelievably expensive areas like Pacific Palisades, the entire insurance system seems certain to collapse…and if it doesn’t, those rates are going to go a helluva lot higher. If homeownership is completely out of reach for the middle class because a HO policy can’t be had, the entire economy of this state is doomed.

phylp phylp wrote:

Climb list from that trip - it was a great trip! 

I thought I was a slab climber till I tried Hammerhead. And it looks so easy!

Apogee, you wrote such a touching and vivid post. I hope you were not up all night watching and waiting.  I’m so sorry. Phylp wrote earlier in the day about the winds and damage at her place.  We’ve had ongoing winds here with some power outages and smoke from LA in our skies. 

I was born and raised in Glendale and we spent our summers in Hollywood, Malibu, Pacific Palisades. I’m a California girl at heart, I love this state.  It is devastating to see the ongoing destruction of Los Angeles and the helplessness of our firefighters to contain it.  Peoples homes, peoples lives.

We have not had rain here in many many months. This was the hottest summer on record. We have wildlife that can only endure so much drought.

I woke up this morning to the jolt of our next president’s vitriol … His nonsense WHILE people are fighting for their homes, who have fled for their lives, and so many who have lost their homes. I mean, who does this?Since November I have totally blocked all the hateful poison from 3000 miles away, deleted the crazy social media posts, but this one got through.  Today I just wanna scream, SHUT UP you asshole. Pick up a fucking shovel and help. Or leave us alone to get through this.

EDIT: Altadena is gone?  Omg

They were describing this guy as the patron of peace too. 

Tim Bratten wrote:

I thought I was a slab climber till I tried Hammerhead. And it looks so easy!

Hammerhead was memorable for me as it was the first time I had nothing but underlings to climb an overhang. Good on the Pocatello crew for establishing the route.

Lori, just another hate filled, ignorant, screed from a fraudulent, narcissistic, sexual assaulter. Nothing new really.