New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #33

Guy Keesee wrote:

Fossil….. please stop toying with us. Post up some BITD pics I know you got the goods. I promise- if you do- I’ll go dig through my slides- up in the attic and post some.

I go to lots of places, climb whatever I can manage and watch a bunch of folks. I hardly ever see 5.12 on sight success. Lonnie Kalk OS a climb in the ORG that was 12C… about 30 people just stopped to watch him show his skills.
Beautiful skills too I might add.

I hardly ever see 13’s going down without a whole bunch of hanging etc. Shoot I hardly ever see someone really go for it and take a real fall on EZ stuff. (5.11/5.12) 

Lori…. You should take Brandt up on his offer to join in at NJC …. Some mighty fine 5.7/5.8 steep sport climbing on big holds… a lot like ladder climbing, little thinking, but you must know how fast your burning through the gas in your tank, and learn how to become an economy car, conserving strength, finding rests. You might just love it! IMHO Josh grainy face climbing gets way boring after you have done it for awhile. IIRC we started calling all those climbs “generic face”.

I was able to successfully climb a “Sierra 5.5” or a “5.8d” or a “5.10” depending on who you ask.

“the Backus Scaryain” went down Sunday. Took some effort on my part.

Later all 

I know what you’re saying Guy.  This place bores me to tears.  I mean 10,000 routes over 800,000 acres all just seem the same!  No sooner do I finally finish exploring one square acre of Joshua Tree then I only have 799,999 acres left to go.  

I would love to go to New Jack City with Brandt. (Not this week!).

What I was thinking of was the Auburn Quarry up North that has numerous sport routes I have been on and wouldn’t hesitate to climb those on lead today. But it wasn’t a place I particularly liked. What I loved was the American river below it and throwing an inner tube in the water and floating on back to the confluence.

If I were free to go anywhere, and had the right partner , I would go to Needles.  I still have.Kris Solem’s guidebook, and that rock and those pictures are the stuff of my dreams. Never say never, but may I say that I feel so lucky to have what I have. I will never complain about “only” having Joshua Tree as my backyard.

EDIT:  ever since Todd mentioned aretes I have thought about earnestly climbing some this year.  Here is one I keep looking at.

also… There is one on King Otto’s that may be no big deal, but totally freaked me out this week. I felt wobbly and didn’t want to look down.  Maybe next time I’ll take a peek.

fossil wrote:

I would like all of you to know, my uptick in trying to fit in here is driven by my desire to stay away from the news, coupled with the fact that I am sitting on a wealth of historical climbing writing and pics and some yarns of my own that I would not mind sharing with the right crowd. While at times it may seem I am shooting from the hip, I read what you say to me and I try to give a thoughtful response. I try to see a funny side to anything if it exists, therefore I joke a lot and sometimes people do not know how to take it, especially on these electronic talk box thingies. My keyboarding skills are at about the 5.2 level so it takes me a bit to put stuff together in an attempt to entertain you all, so I am still weighing the work to reward ratio of putting stuff out there.

I do not want to argue, I would just love some engaging climbing discussion, so I will leave you with this...

Fossil I appreciate your input and sorry if we got off on the wrong foot. I suspect we have quite a bit in common wrt to our views on climbing. I'm not and never have been anything special. My main claim to fame is probably being consistently mediocre for a long time. But I've had the privilege of mentoring people far more talented than me. Introducing them to outdoor climbing, teaching them to place gear and climb multipitch has been one of the best things about it for me. And maybe my perceptions are skewed because some of them were so talented.

Lori: Responding here to evade the post limit.

It's true that a lot of strong people who come out of gyms never gravitate towards bold/risky climbing. But there are so many strong climbers these days that even if it's a small fraction who do it's still a fair number. You might not see them though because outside of a very tiny circle most people don't climb risky stuff all the time. There are several routes that I did when I was younger that were "one and done" because if you push too close to your limits on risky stuff all the time it will catch up with you sooner or later.

Emil Briggs wrote:

He's the most well known but just counting people I know personally at least half a dozen flash easy 12 all the time. Sure it's mostly sport (but not all) and this is just from my little corner of the world. As JG pointed out the number of climbers is vastly larger than it was in the past so some of that could be from more natural talent. But every one of them trains too and IMO that's a big part of it. 

Exactly, the number of crushers is only growing.

I also know at least a dozen people who easily flash 5.12 and they’re leading 5.11 trad climbs in Yosemite. 5.10 trad isn’t really that hard. It’s mainly huge runouts that turn people off to some of them. No sense risking your well being for higher risk.

The number of people hitting 5.13 or 8a is also substantially increasing.

You either need to spend decades getting good without training or a couple years with. Less injuries, faster development.

Ok, 'fossil' , I'm really impressed. I'm old, but a 1953 photo of Wayne Merry, way before 'my time'  --if it is a photo you took, and you are still climbing very regularly and at a good level at Smith!!!! I'm very, very impressed!!!!

By the way, if you run into Earl and Glenna Alderson out there, please give them my regards. Great folks!!!!

"We got your buff 1953 Wayne Merry styling at Tahquitz"

Hi Fossil, if you took that photo when you were 18, that would make you 90? 

So I'm guessing it's not your photo. Do you know who took it? I haven't seen that shot before.

If 90, that’s really cool!   

Bob Gaines wrote:

"We got your buff 1953 Wayne Merry styling at Tahquitz"

Hi Fossil, if you took that photo when you were 18, that would make you 90? 

So I'm guessing it's not your photo. Do you know who took it? I haven't seen that shot before.

Maybe we need to do some C14 dating on the "Fossil"? 

Fossil…. I like. Gimme a day or three to dig some up. The power has been going on and off lately, making life difficult.

You know you're right Lori. With 10,000 routes in JT there's something for everyone. You might enjoy leading Coarse and Juggy for example. 

philip bone wrote:

You know you're right Lori. With 10,000 routes in JT there's something for everyone. You might enjoy leading Coarse and Juggy for example. 

Thank you, Philip. This is very sweet of you.   I misread your post at first and thought you were joking about Coarse and Buggy.  I plan to be out with Chris tomorrow and so your timing may be perfect.

Am I alone in this? Never have I been so aware of time and of making good choices. If I were 30 with endless time and horizons, my choices would be different. But I constantly search my heart – – because climbing is so much fun, but it also takes everything out of me. So where am I really drawn and what am I willing to give it?

I am trying on a slightly different mental attitude of suggesting that I might have another decade of hard climbing ahead. That would be great, but it’s more likely that my time will be measured in terms of months or a few years. So what do I wanna do with that precious time?

There’s three or four routes I really want to climb on a top rope this year and I’m trying to put blinders on to everything else. I have a rack and I certainly know most of the basics of trad and leading. How much do I really care?

I just want to make this time count. I am keeping close track of the new gym work. I feel like I’ve become an expert on sleep. Yesterday I gave in and slept most of the day and saw that my HRV and resting heart rate was better than it’s ever been. With the extra energy I’ve been thinking about time around water this year, going to the beach, rivers. Visiting some vineyards and finding some black soil somewhere in northern California. Going to Santa Cruz – – all stuff I can do with Tony.

I would ask this group these same questions. What’s important to you now both in Climbing and in life. Maybe you just wing it? How many here thoughtfully planned out your next moves? How many here “say yes to one and let the other one ride“.

https://youtu.be/1cEFh9zurug?si=idKLyw2GgqYPfzSW

I apologize for the ramble.

its been brisk..  another -31c shot for Carl

its a polar wax day.

The truck thermometer was even colder and this was sitting still in the driveway. 

 Isa's lungs not up for a big ski so I went up to mt Wishicouldtellya  solo yesterday.. It felt a little spooky breaking trail late in the day with no cell signal but not too bad. Certainly aware that I am one broken binding away from an epic up here by myself...

fresh moose tracks

It’s freezing in Sunnyvale, and started a new gym membership.

They’ve got 50 foot walls. Got on a couple 5.10+, winded at the top. Going to enjoy that. I think the grades are similar to my old gym?

Can’t complain, the AirBnB is pretty nice and my job is fantastic. Of course, I just spent my first day going through corporate training.

Li Hu wrote:

It’s freezing in Sunnyvale, and started a new gym membership.

They’ve got 50 foot walls. Got on a couple 5.10+, winded at the top. Going to enjoy that. I think the grades are similar to my old gym?

Can’t complain, the AirBnB is pretty nice and my job is fantastic. Of course, I just spent my first day going through corporate training.

What the heck, li Hu? It’s hard to keep track of you. You’ve been in Pasadena, Japan, some other places? And now, Sunnyvale. This is your career path, apparently?
I don’t remember if my Sacramento gym, Pipeworks, has 40 or 50 foot walls but they were a good workout. How tall were the walls in your previous gym?  

Somewhere in the conversation the mental aspect/challenge of leading was mentioned. It's a rush one does not get on TR. It's a game we play. Start small, with a solid partner. You can always decide it's not for you and lower off, providing you choose a route w lots of pro potential. 

The ground up podcast has an interesting segment about Armand La Douceur, a young man who started climbing at 17 years of age and 18 months later sent the Glass Menagerie (a 7 pitch 5.13a at Looking Glass). His path has insights about the role of mileage on real rock and training (hint: lots of both) plus the mental aspects of leading.

https://www.thegrounduppodcast.com/

Lori … asked 

“I would ask this group these same questions. What’s important to you now both in Climbing and in life. Maybe you just wing it? How many here thoughtfully planned out your next moves? How many here “say yes to one and let the other one ride“.

EZ ….  I try to do whatever I am able to do. I’m realistic about my current condition. Some friends are trying to get me to climb El Cap with them. They say I can jug a bunch of it. I just say No.  It’s one thing to say yes, from the comfort of your living room couch, but when your up 20 pitches? One could seriously die.
So I’ll stick to climbing one pitch face climbs, steep is best.
Traveling to places I have never climbed at before is fun. As long as the approach isn’t to long I can still get to things- getting down is the issue.
Partners: I let them know far in advance that we need to plan for My Failure and inability to clean certain climbs. I prefer sport climbing and I’m the world’s best belay slave.

Camping and FlyFishing- I’m quite proficient at both although Fly Fishing is hard to master.
I have a task master who shows me what is possible.

So you see Lori it’s all about trying to do the best I can at this point in my life. Being realistic keeps me from getting discouraged at my lack- or loss of, my previous levels.

So I celebrate getting a clean TR on a Sierra 5.5… 

Later all.

edit to add: 

Fossil now your talking… 

Some real dirt out there for sure.

Lori Milas wrote:

What the heck, li Hu? It’s hard to keep track of you. You’ve been in Pasadena, Japan, some other places? And now, Sunnyvale. This is your career path, apparently?
I don’t remember if my Sacramento gym, Pipeworks, has 40 or 50 foot walls but they were a good workout. How tall were the walls in your previous gym?  

Pipeworks is a bit of a drive for me, but it’s a must go to again! 35 feet for the Post and 60 feet at SenderOne if you could climb 5.13/5.14. Mostly stuck to 40-45 footers there but the routes did go under an archway.

I’ve lived in Fair Oaks as well, my best climbing buddy is from there.

You forgot London, Paris and Hong Kong. I’m everywhere and yet nowhere. I’m a displaced PNW type, but not from there, though my mom lives in Seattle.  

It is always important in climbing for me to have a project, usually a first ascent.  Right now I am training for that boulder problem in Arizona, three or four days a week in the rock gym.  I am also on day 22 of no alcohol and daily stretching.  No way I would have done it without the goal route in mind.

I have to balance my climbing obsession with my business and family.  I have a 13 year old daughter and I am trying to be the best dad I can be.  I am also helping Paula with her training while she recovers.  All equally important.

Li Hu wrote:

It’s freezing in Sunnyvale, and started a new gym membership.

They’ve got 50 foot walls. Got on a couple 5.10+, winded at the top. Going to enjoy that. I think the grades are similar to my old gym?

Can’t complain, the AirBnB is pretty nice and my job is fantastic. Of course, I just spent my first day going through corporate training.

Movement Sunnyvale? If I'm not mistaken, that gym has some great crack climbs.

Oh no… So far the God of fire has smiled on me…

That’s about to change, I’m afraid.

That’s directly up wind 

Fingers crossed