New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #34

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I was a bad citizen today and skipped town meeting to climb with one of my Canadian friends..  

No problem, I did the civic duty thing for you.  You climb the ice for me. I think we will each consider ourselves to have gotten the better bargain. 

I got off work a little early and went to my second protest. Waiting for the train to go home now. Local reporter asked me some questions. I was completely incoherent. I'll have to think about what i plan to say before next time. Maybe something about being petrified that we clearly have a Russian asset in the oval office. Instead I blathered on incoherently about my responsibilities for my daughter and my fear of Trump destroying Democracy. Oh well. I'd be worse at ice climbing. 

GO

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I was a bad citizen today and skipped town meeting to climb with one of my Canadian friends..  We talked just enough politics to know we are on the same side.  Did 20 below Zero Gully and led the whole thing again. the ice was much better today. I should have led glass because I climbed well today but that thing is so intimidating and I was still having bad coughing fits..  Also pretty beat up from climbing sat and doing  a big ski tour Sunday and monday.  Excuses.. I am very good at them. My little climbing camera is broken so only a few shots from my phone and this shot Patrick took of me on P2. Foreshortening makes this look pretty short and easy.. Its kind of not... 

Patrick topping out

The Willoughby Gap in a snow squall on my way home.

 

That looks neither short nor easy, Nick. Well done.

On coughing fits… I’m not sure what variants of what viruses might be circling the world, but I had a typical week long cold (minus the usual tight nasal congestion, which was strange) about five or six weeks ago and only now are the coughing fits starting to taper off. Hopefully you’ll soon be cured.

Mine was COVID and pretty darn close to a month now.  It's hard to get the scale of those ice cliffs in perspective. The only way to do it properly wouod be with a shift lense like they use for arcitecture magazines. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Mine was COVID and pretty darn close to a month now. 

I guess mine could have been some Covid variant as well. I did one of those combo flu A/B and Covid home swab tests but it came out negative. That doesn’t really mean anything, though, as maybe I didn’t swab correctly or I did the test before enough bad critters had accumulated to show a positive. My “cold” was actually pleasantly tame since it lacked the usual uncomfortable nasal congestion, but the coughing just really sucked. (I’m a fan of vaccines and fully vaccinated for most everything, even shingles as I saw my dad with that.)

Hard to say if this is civic duty, but I feel pretty good about it

I don't think that Nick would make a very good Californian. There's apparently too much warm, dry rock here for too much of the winter and he would get disoriented ;)

Any wintertime he wants to prove me wrong though.... I think several of us out here would be happy to show him around on some of that warm, dry rock.

I try to get the most out of winter. Used to go to the desert In April but the last time we did that was 2004.. time flies. 

Big thanks to NV Barb, Idaho Bob, CA Barb, Heidi, Titiana, and walking guidebooks Steve and Brandt for a great four days of climbing at Joshua Tree. I had a great time.

Jay Goodwin wrote:

Big thanks to NV Barb, Idaho Bob, CA Barb, Heidi, Titiana, and walking guidebooks Steve and Brandt for a great four days of climbing at Joshua Tree. I had a great time.

It was great fun to climb with Jay and the gang.  It's raining in Rossland right now so I'm not psyched to get home quickly.  Going to climb for a couple of days at Red Rock with BD (NV) Barb.

Walking guidebook partners are the best, especially at Joshua Tree, jealous for sure! I  need a week of desert time, it's been a brutal winter 

Yes, it was a great group here in JT. However, I'll need a few weeks to recover from the routes Jay ropegunned for everyone.

fossil wrote:

Hard to say if this is civic duty, but I feel pretty good about it

Well done!!!!

fossil wrote:

Hard to say if this is civic duty, but I feel pretty good about it

I've been seeing all the posts on Instagram, from the National Parks all over the country, simply in support of the staffers on the ground.

Apparently the events on March 1st came together quickly, with only a couple days notice. Had I known on March 27 that this was happening?

I would have bought gas that day, booked a room, etc, on the 27th or 29th, then headed to Almo for this, spending "locally" at my little home town near City of Rocks. Even not being able to do much of anything at all there, just show support in person, but also not spending on the 28th.

The March 28th economic blackout was just a gesture, one I participated in, but geez, so so many of us are....just tired of a whole lot of stuff. And, that includes in my supposedly "redder than red" state. Parking lots notably emptier than usual that day.

Anyway, we've had some sun here, and just the barest beginning of spring. Yay. It's running late this year.

Best, Helen

GabeO wrote:

I got off work a little early and went to my second protest. Waiting for the train to go home now. Local reporter asked me some questions. I was completely incoherent. I'll have to think about what i plan to say before next time. Maybe something about being petrified that we clearly have a Russian asset in the oval office.

Don’t think this is true here, but the way things are going, it might just as well be   

Instead I blathered on incoherently about my responsibilities for my daughter and my fear of Trump destroying Democracy. Oh well. I'd be worse at ice climbing. 

GO

Unfortunately, you’re not the one doing this… the heads of States are. 

Pete Hegseth said to prepare to go to war with China, after seeing how poorly our latest weapons are performing in Ukraine, I’d say that’s a really bad idea. Hegseth rebuilding our military is a good idea, but the operative tense is in the future not the present.

The economy is most important, and what we’re doing is stupid. Trump or Biden.

Li Hu wrote:

Don’t think this is true here, but the way things are going, it might just as well be   

Unfortunately, you’re not the one doing this… the heads of States are as well. 

Pete Hegseth said to prepare to go to war with China, after seeing how poorly our latest weapons are performing in Ukraine, I’d say that’s a really bad idea.

The economy is most important, and all this racism against Chinese and Russians is only going to destroy everyone. Stupid.

Russia and China are both currently under the control of aggressive, authoritarian governments--nothing to do with racism. Trump very openly wants to emulate them.
What evidence do you have that our weapons are performing noticeably poorly in Ukraine? No weapons system works perfectly in the field--and those being used by the Russians are definitely not exceptions to this reality either--far from it.

Alan Rubin wrote:

Russia and China are both currently under the control of aggressive, authoritarian governments--nothing to do with racism. Trump very openly wants to emulate them.
What evidence do you have that our weapons are performing noticeably poorly in Ukraine? No weapons system works perfectly in the field--and those being used by the Russians are definitely not exceptions to this reality either--far from it.

That’s fine if you truly think this way, but part of making a better world is trying to understand and work with other countries not just discredit them. Cause whatever they’re doing is working.

If they start to edge ahead, that’s when we should be bringing out our competitive spirit which neither Biden nor Trump did or are doing. Instead it’s get as many governments to stop them with stupid Chips acts, sanctions or Tariffs.

What China is/was doing is what we should be doing. Compete. And to say China is not being fair is wrong. Simple as that.

Russia built their missiles better in the face of multinational opposition and sanctions.

They’re doing what we should be doing in the West. Compete and excel.

Engineer and build things, better.

Li Hu wrote:

That’s fine if you truly think this way, but part of making a better world is trying to understand and work with other countries not just discredit them. Cause whatever they’re doing is working.

If they start to edge ahead, that’s when we should be bringing out our competitive spirit which neither Biden nor Trump did or are doing. Instead it’s get as many governments to stop them with stupid Chips acts, sanctions or Tariffs.

What China is/was doing is what we should be doing. Compete. And to say China is not being fair is wrong. Simple as that.

Russia built their missiles better in the face of multinational opposition and sanctions.

They’re doing what we should be doing in the West. Compete and excel.

Engineer and build things, better.

Isn't there something else that society should focus on other than engineering and building better weapons?  I worked for a company that was a sub-contractor on the Saturn project.  All of us young tech types were all in.  The next contract was for fuses for napalm bombs.  Virtually all of the young tech staff resigned.  I was one of those who joined a medical technology company, stayed for 30 years, and worked on projects to help people lead more healthy lives.  What you choose to do is important, working for the defense sector is, IMHO, both immoral and unethical. 

Li--while I could counter your points, it clearly won't change your opinions and therefore isn't worth the effort, and will lead us further away from talking about climbing--which is why most of us are here. Though, Bob, while I sympathize with your position, cold reality is that we do need a military with state-of-the-'art' equipment in order to survive in what is, and always has been, a very dangerous world. I wish it were otherwise but, sadly, it isn't and there are absolutely no signs that this will change in the foreseeable future.

I've been able to climb in yosemite and at tollhouse rock this last week.  I also did a rare for me gym  v5 and  a couple v4's first try.  But what really excites me is that spring is in the air and soon I'll be able to bring my gym strength to my favorite top secret local crag (where gym strength is not really needed, but it never hurts to be a little stronger) with a bunch of bolts to put up more tightly bolted low angle slab routes, camp under the stars and swim in the river.  I'm pretty sure where I want to climb and if it's a good route I'm going  call it "smoking bowls and drilling holes" after one of my favorite summertime activities.  

If you are engaging in dialogue in an Internet forum with the thought that opinions will be changed, you’ll be wasting your time, and likely find yourself quite irritated. However, such dialogues have the potential to bring insight into how others see the world. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with it, but sometimes you get a better sense for how they got there.