New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #33

Lori Milas wrote:

We had a power outage at our house this morning, so I figured what better time to get out in the snow. What a beautiful morning! What I didn’t expect was to see the footprint of local critters and I have no idea who they are. Do we have any paw experts here?

This one is about 8” with stride 3-4 feet. It has me worried.

I believe those are the tracks of a chupacabra.  In the Joshua Tree area their prey consists mainly of old, tough climbing goats. 

A three legged dog walked into the saloon . . .

A younger Locker? 

Cosmic Cragman?

Alan Rubin wrote:

There was an excellent thread about Devil's Lake on Supertopo ('the Taco')--I believe that the pictures Fossil posted above came from that thread. That is why many of us who were part of the 'Taco campfire', are so sad that it was shut down. Much of the written portion of the threads is ( or, at least, was) available on the Supertopo archive, but without any photos or material derived from 'third party sources', and likely otherwise reduced as well, as Bob mentions. Too bad, a very important resource that is now largely lost.

Thanks Alan. I used to peruse the Taco back when it was still functioning, but somehow missed the Devil's Lake thread. I'll check the archived version for the thread. There's still got to be some meat on that carcass.  

Brian in SLC wrote:

Didn't Phil do a bust of Batso too?

Incredible talent.

This one.

Lori you got treated to JT in the snow- lucky you.

Early (1900) highball bouldering on the 20' Alport Stone, England (photos by G. A. Fowks)

It now has at least 10 routes.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Bridwell? probably not

Guy Keesee wrote:

This one.

Or, these...

Knew I'd seen them somewhere...Todd's house at one of the fundraisers.  Good times!

That Buhl sculpture is amazing.

Old Man Winter finally showed up at Joshua Tree. Some shots from today…

Old Man winter returned up here in the Sierra Nevada last weekend and thank God (if she's listening).

Every year when there's a lull in the cold and snow and rain, the cedars start to throw out pollen. I always get my only bad allergies this time of year.

And this year's were tied for the worst ever in the 30 years we've lived in this house. Long term allergy meds didn't touch it. I had to take two Benadryl every four hours at night to be able to breathe enough to get at least some sleep. Constantly, horribly itchy eyes.

One storm usually washes most of it away and this one did. Ahhh.

Cool stuff!

Re-starting my career in hardware. People saw all my fluff pretending to be a Software Developer and all.

Tried eating young people food. Vitality bowl, Protein Açai Whey Boosted Smoothie. As advertised, no sugar. Tasted terribly bitter. I suppose that’s what healthy tastes like?   

fossil: Just testing   Is this enough, or should I enlarge more?

Bob Gaines wrote:

Old Man Winter finally showed up at Joshua Tree. Some shots from today…

Love these images. I’m a huge fan of monochrome. Have you printed any of these large? If you made them with a camera with enough megapixels I’d think they would be really nice as, say, 30” x 20” prints. Those moody, stormy, foggy, bad weather days are spectacular for photography (also given we probably aren’t out climbing anyway!).

At some point maybe I’ll post up some of my B&W Montserrat images. 

Thanks Daniel, I shot them with my Nikon D3300 (24 megapixels). Here’s another shot you might like that I took during a Jtree sandstorm when the winds were clocked at 70 mph.

Wow. Weird and nice color there in a well-balanced composition. And I like the different horizons, and of course the JT as the obvious center of interest. (There is a nice secondary area of interest with the twin peak and the triple peak sort of mirroring each other.) With 24MP you should be able to make some nice big prints, depending on expected viewing distance. If a sharp image is what you are after, a tripod, mirror lock up, and a 2-3 second shutter delay (or remote shutter release) will all help. However, I’m guessing, from your background, you already know all that!

I’ve been fascinated, watching three great climbers climb the Book of Hate.  The level of fitness and endurance is mind blowing and inspires me to stick with the gym training. I’ve got my eye out for dihedrals here.  I’d be thrilled to gracefully manage a 5.6.

Sasha Diguillian   

I just realized there is a master class for stemming in Randy Leavitt’s Instagram videos.  

It’s a strange thing about climbing I would never have known – – you get a route or a boulder problem in your heart and cannot let go. Reading Ward’s description of his boulder in Arizona, the numerous trips to try again, the gym training to get a little stronger at that specific thing— I think I totally get it. Part of the route I want to get back to soon may require a bridge if my arms and legs aren’t long enough to span the gap, so when I’m at the gym, I’m wondering EXACTLY what do I need to get this done?  

Lori Milas wrote:

 if my arms and legs aren’t long enough

Think Lynn Hill.

Lori Milas wrote:

It’s a strange thing about climbing I would never have known – – you get a route or a boulder problem in your heart and cannot let go. Reading Ward’s description of his boulder in Arizona, the numerous trips to try again, the gym training to get a little stronger at that specific thing— I think I totally get it. Part of the route I want to get back to soon may require a bridge if my arms and legs aren’t long enough to span the gap, so when I’m at the gym, I’m wondering EXACTLY what do I need to get this done?  

Lori, try ten minutes a day.  It is all about consistency.  I have always been inflexible, and I doubt that I will ever get to a full split, but I am much more flexible now than I was as a kid.

Ward Smith wrote:

Lori, try ten minutes a day.  It is all about consistency.  I have always been inflexible, and I doubt that I will ever get to a full split, but I am much more flexible now than I was as a kid.

 Nice, Ward! Look at you!  I’ll take that advice.  

I’m full speed ahead at training and certainly stretching. Fortunately flexibility is my strong suit.

I’m adding a very careful Deadlift to my new routine. Climbing so much slab has given me chronic low back pain.  I have got the Squat dialed in.  Now the Deadlift.

On another equally important subject…. I made minestrone soup yesterday and it called for the rind of Parmigiano Reggiano.  I bought some to try and it stunk up the whole car.  Tony had all the windows rolled down. But boy did it make great soup!

fossil:  Allen Steck ?

If not, give us the year of the photo.