New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #33

Daniel Joder wrote:

Thanks for this, fossil. I very much remember that photo of Roger Briggs from my younger years of avid perusal of any and all climbing literature. Where did I see it? Wasn’t that published in Climbing? Or some other place? It is an iconic photo and super inspirational. Who was the photographer?

This, and a second photograph, appear on pages 197 and 198 of 'CLIMB!', together with Briggs' FA account. There are no individual photo credits, suggesting that they are the work of one or both of the authors - Bob Godfrey and Dudley Chelton. Their acknowledgement of Briggs' assistance in getting photos for the book supports this suggestion.

fossil wrote:

So Emil,

Are you related to this guy?  His name is Briggs, Roger to be exact.

He used to crush in the 70’s and still does last I heard, most ascents of the Diamond by anyone ever I believe. Here he is on a route he put up called Death and Transfiguration up on the back side of the flatirons. I used to kind of drool over this pic and always wanted to do the line, not because of any number attached to it, but because it was so beautiful, and I thought a very cool name.

As someone who lives at low elevation what was almost more impressive than his climbing was starting in Boulder, hauling ass up to the trailhead and then free soloing the Diamond, all in less than 6 hours -- without using a car! Just the aerobic fitness required for that seems superhuman. But no we're not related as far as I know.

duncan... wrote:

For context to John's excellent post, this is The Great Flake pitch on Central Buttress, Scafell, England which I finally climbed four summers ago. A most impressive achievement for 1914: his second picture shows the climber about to embark on the crux, a burly layback that would be around 5.10b at Joshua Tree. Not the easiest style to down climb. Some contemporary climbers avoid the wide crack by taking the face out left, which is more to modern tastes, have they no sense of history?! 

Central Buttress, 2021 style.

Just to provide some more background on that Central Buttress climb. When Hereford led it, at the crux he used a shoulder stand from his belayer who was tied into a large chockstone that was then present in the crack, so it wasn't a purely free lead; though while previously working on the route ( yes, they were working 'projects' even in 1914!!!) he had climbed it totally free on a top-rope---still a very impressive feat for the time, especially given the equipment and footwear of the era. Tragically, Hereford was one of very many climbers soon to be killed in action during the First World War, as was his German counterpart--Hans Dulfer. It is interesting to speculate how soon climbing standards would have advanced had such climber's lives not been cut so sadly short.

The actual first free lead of the Flake Crack on Central Buttress was still very 'early'---in 1931, by another extraordinary climber and individual, Menlove Edwards. While this climb was impressive enough for it's difficulty alone, it was also incredibly bold. Given the 'protection' (not) available at the time--let alone the weakness of the ropes , pretty much any lead was bold, but Edwards took things a step further as he launched into, and completed, the crux layback before his second had put him on belay!!! They made them hard in those days!!!!--and none harder than Edwards.

Ship T wrote:

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

Movement is about 2.5 miles from my work, and is very convenient.

I tried the 5.9 and 5.10+ cracks down the middle, really nice setup. Hoping to get lead certified if I can schedule a time for it.

The grades seem pretty reasonable above 5.11 and V4. Below that it may be slightly sandbagged.

Emil Briggs wrote:

LOL! I'm glad the Internet didn't exist when I was that age.

Nor iPhones to “capture the moments”   

Looks like Castaic Lake created a good firebreak for the western progression…hopefully I5 will serve as a break for the SW progression, and keep it back from the SFV. If the winds down there are as strong as they are up here, I5 may not matter much. Best of luck to you, Guy.

Todd Berlier wrote:

Hey Ward, this is my goal I'm working toward. 20 feet of squeezing (only 1 down pull on the entire climb) that doesn't ease until feet are over the roof. I've done all the moves on a rope but not close last summer before my elbow went to shit.

Looks cool but I prefer my boulders a little shorter these days   

Todd Berlier wrote:

Hey Ward, this is my goal I'm working toward. 20 feet of squeezing (only 1 down pull on the entire climb) that doesn't ease until feet are over the roof. I've done all the moves on a rope but not close last summer before my elbow went to shit.

Looks cool!  Mine is mostly crimps so I am training all crimps, all the time.

Took Paula for an outing to the gym today and she did a 5.6 on toprope.  Baby steps!

Todd Berlier wrote:

Paula getting after it this fast is inspiring, Ward. Impressed.

I started doing butterflies and lots of pushups trying to get strong for the squeezing. The crux with feet just below lip is a finicky right heal hook, left foot smearing and full iron cross dead point to a side pull jug while left hand is on a flat one pad side pull. I want the squeezing part to feel easy for my head.

Emil, I too, don't like the idea of falling from that height, so I'll have it super wired before actually trying to boulder it.

Yeah I've done the toprope thing on a couple of problems too. Sometimes I feel good enough to go for it but others it's no way!

I like finding problems with low cruxes like this one I did recently. Might be an FA but hard to be sure since it's not a well documented area.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DEfX6AhRL1D/

Todd Berlier wrote:

Looks fun!

I saw on your IG that Chris Jones liked the video. Chris is a friend from SLC in the 90s. We were able to go to Tuolumne about 7 years ago. Great dude. We lived together for awhile. No pics, but that guy definitely has some dirt on me.

The climbing world can be pretty small sometimes! Quite a few folks from North Carolina wind up in SLC. We have some great rock here but the weather sucks compared to the West. Not as many people move the other way.

Edited to add my special pic since I've hit the post limit.

My daughter following the Fairy Tale traverse pitch on the Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle Mount Washington. A special memory for me as it was her 16th birthday. I asked her she wanted and she said a climbing trip so we flew to Boston and drove up to the Whites. Did some cragging and then climbed this beautiful moderate alpine rock route.

Thanks for the well wishes. We didn’t burn, not even close. 

To answer Fossil’s Question…. This is the time of year we have always had fires and Santa Anna winds.

Reconize these dudes?

So Lori is Tony getting to the gym for his workout?
Just wondering 

Emil. Beautiful!  To spend sweet 16 on an adventure with dad. She will remember this forever as I’m sure will you.

Ward. Amazing that Paula is up and attem’ this soon. Wow.  Good for her!  

Todd... you're looking GOOD on that boulder!  Really nice picture!

I had a fresh awakening today, out climbing with Chris. I did not expect to find myself on the  Decompensator today – – my long-term goal. But things just worked out that way. I thought we were going to play around on something much easier.

I decided to warm up on a supposedly 5.7 route (Deflowered?) to the left and totally got worked. Then I belayed Chris up the same route and he was to the top in 5 minutes flat. I’m not sure what made this so much easier for Chris – – of course he is stronger, has many years more experience. But there was an economy to his climbing. He made better choices. As a result he had energy to spare back on the ground.  

I was already mostly pumped and out of steam when we moved over to the Decompensator. All I really wanted was to smooth out the first third of that route – – to kind of identify the holds and see if I could make it flow. So with a lot of struggle and some hangs I made it to the first horizontal. Then there was an easy arching crack that is about as easy as you could get. But I was so out of steam at that point and couldn’t think about the upper part of that route.  I lowered at the halfway. 

I belayed Chris on that same route and he looked majestic on his ascent. I saw that Chris tackled that crack totally different from me and dispatched that in just a few moves. He basically did a wide stem and avoided the crack altogether. (why didn’t I try this?)

If I had had one ounce of reserve left, I would have demanded to climb it again and do it Chris’s way. As it is, we’ll be back in a few days. But this gives me time to think about all of this in a new light. Economy. Efficiency. Pacing. Suddenly, I am thinking about hard climbing from a new angle. It’s not just finding the next step, but finding the ones that will allow me to tackle the crux refreshed. I’m going to give this a lot of thought over the next few days. Gym workouts certainly help. But there’s a lot more to it than pure strength.  I still have so much to learn.

 The end of the fairy tale traverse. 

 I decided to hike up to this thing today

there was a nice view

found some steep ice. the 6mm rap line always seems a bit minimalistic... 

A video about Big Rock for you SoCal types

Not Magnus's best work, but maybe of interest

From the late 1950s. Can you guess the three enraptured adventurers? Where on Earth are they? (photo by Jim Langford)

Lori Milas wrote:

Emil. Beautiful!  To spend sweet 16 on an adventure with dad. She will remember this forever as I’m sure will you.

Ward. Amazing that Paula is up and attem’ this soon. Wow.  Good for her!  

Todd... you're looking GOOD on that boulder!  Really nice picture!

I had a fresh awakening today, out climbing with Chris. I did not expect to find myself on the  Decompensator today – – my long-term goal. But things just worked out that way. I thought we were going to play around on something much easier.

I decided to warm up on a supposedly 5.7 route (Deflowered?) to the left and totally got worked. Then I belayed Chris up the same route and he was to the top in 5 minutes flat. I’m not sure what made this so much easier for Chris – – of course he is stronger, has many years more experience. But there was an economy to his climbing. He made better choices. As a result he had energy to spare back on the ground.  

I was already mostly pumped and out of steam when we moved over to the Decompensator. All I really wanted was to smooth out the first third of that route – – to kind of identify the holds and see if I could make it flow. So with a lot of struggle and some hangs I made it to the first horizontal. Then there was an easy arching crack that is about as easy as you could get. But I was so out of steam at that point and couldn’t think about the upper part of that route.  I lowered at the halfway. 

I belayed Chris on that same route and he looked majestic on his ascent. I saw that Chris tackled that crack totally different from me and dispatched that in just a few moves. He basically did a wide stem and avoided the crack altogether. (why didn’t I try this?)

If I had had one ounce of reserve left, I would have demanded to climb it again and do it Chris’s way. As it is, we’ll be back in a few days. But this gives me time to think about all of this in a new light. Economy. Efficiency. Pacing. Suddenly, I am thinking about hard climbing from a new angle. It’s not just finding the next step, but finding the ones that will allow me to tackle the crux refreshed. I’m going to give this a lot of thought over the next few days. Gym workouts certainly help. But there’s a lot more to it than pure strength.  I still have so much to learn.

Kris Solem on the Decompensator.  

"Economy, efficiency, pacing....there's a lot more to it than pure strength"----BINGO!!!! Also known as 'technique' . You have found the 'key'. While at least a baseline level of physical strength is necessary ( both for climbing and general health as many have mentioned), unless one is pushing the higher grades ( particularly on the really steep stuff), it is focusing on such things as you mentioned that will bring you the greatest gains in climbing performance. As you have noted, for those of us who started young ( or younger) and have been climbing for years, such things are ingrained in our muscle memory,---it is undoubtedly much more challenging to develop such 'habits' when starting as one no longer young---but you are doing a great job. Keep it up.

John, I'm guessing that the middle guy in your picture, the one pointing, is Chouunard. No clue on the others or where.

Fossil---excellent picture and interesting background information. For your information, the pictures that Nick posted are from Lake Willoughby, VT.

Nick, can't tell from your photo---is the Lake frozen? I'm presuming it is, otherwise it must be quite a slog to get around to where you took those photos from----though heavy duty winter 'slogs' clearly are things that you enjoy!!!!

Alan Rubin wrote:

"Economy, efficiency, pacing....there's a lot more to it than pure strength"----BINGO!!!! Also known as 'technique' . You have found the 'key'. While at least a baseline level of physical strength is necessary ( both for climbing and general health as many have mentioned), unless one is pushing the higher grades ( particularly on the really steep stuff), it is focusing on such things as you mentioned that will bring you the greatest gains in climbing performance. As you have noted, for those of us who started young ( or younger) and have been climbing for years, such things are ingrained in our muscle memory,---it is undoubtedly much more challenging to develop such 'habits' when starting as one no longer young---but you are doing a great job. Keep it up.

Alan… thank you so much for commenting. It helps a lot. I woke up this morning thinking what the HELL was I thinking? I am sore in every part of my body and my feet and calves froze up in spasms throughout the night. I could go on…  

This has to be the most complicated thing I’ve ever done. As Tony says “there’s always bowling“. Bob has shared over and over “there’s three ways to get better: strength, weight, flexibility.” I’m working on strength and flexibility. But the deeper level is technique.

But I never had it quite so plainly in front of me: yesterday Chris and I climbed exactly the same routes. He was cool and relaxed during and after those climbs. I was trashed.  I used up all my energy reserves getting from point A to point B.  

Bob has frequently coached me to “find the easiest way“.I think I’m still absorbed with the moment I’m in and not as involved in strategy—how can I cruise up this part of the route so I have some power at the crux when I need it. 

The thing is… This thing I want to climb is so beautiful and it is within reach if I will just learn.

—-

Guy, Tony is on his way to the gym as we speak. He goes through moods, sometimes thinking he’s making no progress and then he gets dark, sometimes real anger at the surgeon and the hospital, but other times he feels brighter and like he’s on the upswing. There are times I have to remind him that he’s been through a lot and healing takes time.

 He’s determined to have that hip surgery to get out of pain and be able to walk again.  

Lori, at the risk of coming across as condescending, I'm going to repeat something that has been said before, but I which I believe is important to say again, especially in the context of what you have been discussing. The best way, by far, to achieve the 'flow' and conservation of energy on the rock that you are seeking ( and that is necessary, for most of us, to progress in climbing), is to 'log in' very large amounts of easier climbing, well below our limits, until we are able to 'internalize' the necessary movements and, as a result, not waste unnecessary energy ( both physical and psychological) and time on the easier parts of routes.

I know this has been discussed before and you have told us that you do, in fact, do a good amount of easier climbing that you don't 'report' on here, but, given what you are saying, I have a strong suspicion that you still haven't/don't do it enough---or, maybe, with the right 'mind set'. I understand that you, not at all unreasonably, feel the ' pressure of time' and, as a result, an urgency to get on and do your dream routes while you still can. However, I strongly feel that if you can temporarily 'shelve' those goals for a time, while you concentrate on doing easier routes ( and even low-ball and easy boulder problems including traverses--make up your own), including such things as trying one-hand and no hand climbs ( or, even, just sections of climbs), you will be able to actually achieve those goals, and in a more satisfying manner, more quickly.

Again, I'm trying not to be condescending, just giving advice that I have found helpful for myself and, I know, has also been very useful for others.

Big easy climbs are amazing!

Pinnacle buttress Mt washington NH 5,8 but this pitch is 5.5

Little Switzerland. East fork of the rosebud MT. 5 ? Pitch 5.8? 

Big hard climbs give you a great feeling of accomplishment but I am not sure how much fun the really are.... 

Snaz, 10a Tetons. Might be easy for many of you folks but it worked me pretty gud. Isa read the guide book carefully and stuck me with all the wide pitches.

Le Promenade 5+ X on this day..  This belay was hanging from 10cm screws... I think Alden even mumbled the 6 word a few times. 

NIck - Beautiful looking routes! Captions please! (Especially the first five photos)

Edit: Thanks!