New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #34

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Speaking of Maine

Full Sail. One of the best 5.6's anywhere with only two 5.7 moves on it. 

Oh man!  

Another one added to the "To Do" list!

Damn!  I need to get out and do some serious climbing to whittle my list down!  Over 200 on the list now!

Looks like a trip to Acadia with the family and some top roping at Otter Cliffs and a day South Wall and Left Wall are in order!

Acadia is well worth the trip Buck. We've gone there at least once a year, sometimes twice, for 46 years now. Still love it--though does get pretty crowded much of the season. Heading up the week after Memorial Day this year.

Alan Rubin wrote:

Acadia is well worth the trip Buck. We've gone there at least once a year, sometimes twice, for 46 years now. Still love it--though does get pretty crowded much of the season. Heading up the week after Memorial Day this year.

The only time I made it up there it rained the whole time so I didn't get to climb anything but we still really enjoyed the area. Definitely want to get back at some point and sample the climbing.

Ship T wrote:

I like this kind of go pro footage.  I know some people don't like it, but I think that that is just a subjective preference.  For me, this kind of footage is better than mere climbing photos from afar.  You get a sense of the actual climb and the difficulties, including the comments like, "Where did I crash last time?"

I think I’m a visual learner and also I love pictures. I had high hopes for the GoPro even though Rgold advised against it because it can be dizzying.  But I have found it great for training purposes. You can observe up close things like technical movements while climbing and crimping that you can’t see from a distance.  

Bob has encouraged me to use the thumb over forefinger crimp on steep slab but it doesn’t come easily. In my little clip, I had mostly open palm and maybe I wouldn’t have fallen if I were using a full crimp.  So I think a GoPro can be helpful to catch things like that  Does anyone here have a favorite crimping style?

In fact, I’ll go one further… Bob has said that if he can find any small divet to dig in a finger , he will not fall.  This kind of mirrors something Jan said about climbing one of his nearly vertical face climbs… Something like “just bear down like a mother and don’t let go.”    

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I wish I would feel better but so far I’m still not recovered from whatever. I may go see if Epstein Barr has reactivated. But it gives me time to scroll, and I saw this recently posted picture by Randy Leavitt.  It just blew me away. I’ll bet Kris Solem knows this route since he wrote a guidebook for the area. Oh my goodness what I wouldn’t give… 

It's funny now that winter is winding down and the outdoor activities are changing the one thing I want to do the most is ice skate more! It's been a fun way to get the miles in this winter. Carrying the pack full of gear up and down through the talus the other day wasn't as fun as gliding around on glassy ice

Anyone planning on climbing up here in the park should definitely try a day in Clifton an hour away, there are some really good climbs there too. New book even. Ward could tell you more, he helped develop the place BITD. Bugs can be a problem mid summer though, that's when staying on the coast has to be the plan

Lori Milas wrote:

I think I’m a visual learner and also I love pictures. I had high hopes for the GoPro even though Rgold advised against it because it can be dizzying.  But I have found it great for training purposes. You can observe up close things like technical movements while climbing and crimping that you can’t see from a distance.  

I agree.  I sometimes watch go pro footage of trad routes I plan to climb in order to get a sense of where to place cams.  I haven't climbed in jtree yet, but I've watched gopro videos of double cross and already feel like I have it dialed in, haha.

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Bob has encouraged me to use the thumb over forefinger crimp on steep slab but it doesn’t come easily. In my little clip, I had mostly open palm and maybe I wouldn’t have fallen if I were using a full crimp. So I think a GoPro can be helpful to catch things like that Does anyone here have a favorite crimping style?

In fact, I’ll go one further… Bob has said that if he can find any small divet to dig in a finger , he will not fall.  This kind of mirrors something Jan said about climbing one of his nearly vertical face climbs… Something like “just bear down like a mother and don’t let go.”    

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I don't full crimp because it doesn't feel natural to me, but also because they say if you don't train it often you have a higher risk of pulley injury if your foot slips and weights your hand while in a full crimp.

I usually just half crimp, which is the same grip as full crimp without the thumb wrapped over.

M M wrote:

It's funny now that winter is winding down and the outdoor activities are changing the one thing I want to do the most is ice skate more! It's been a fun way to get the miles in this winter. Carrying the pack full of gear up and down through the talus the other day wasn't as fun as gliding around on glassy ice

MM nice you have a spring ice season! Up here the skating ends when the snow arrives around Thanksgiving. There are few things in life more fun than skating far and fast on perfect ice. Have you tried Nordic skates instead of hockey skates? Highly recommend .

M M wrote:

 the one thing I want to do the most is ice skate more!

I grew up ice skating in winter, and I really loved it.  I hate the cold and that was about the only thing I could do outdoors that made me happy. I started very young - we had a big flat backyard and after there was some decent snow accumulation (at least a foot), my Dad would go out back and shovel out a big circle for us, piling the snow on the sides.  He'd flood it with the hose and overnight it would freeze.  We'd skate out there until we were numb with cold and then come inside for hot milk. My parents would also take us to skate in evenings and weekends at the local pond, when that would freeze up so that the plow could clear the snow.  You could really build up some speed on that big space.  As a teen, I would even go "down the hill" to the local park, which was mostly swampy woods.  Some years, you'd get just the right conditions to skate in the woods among the trees. I miss it.

phylp phylp wrote:

I grew up ice skating in winter, and I really loved it.  I hate the cold and that was about the only thing I could do outdoors that made me happy. I started very young - we had a big flat backyard and after there was some decent snow accumulation (at least a foot), my Dad would go out back and shovel out a big circle for us, piling the snow on the sides.  He'd flood it with the hose and overnight it would freeze.  We'd skate out there until we were numb with cold and then come inside for hot milk. My parents would also take us to skate in evenings and weekends at the local pond, when that would freeze up so that the plow could clear the snow.  You could really build up some speed on that big space.  As a teen, I would even go "down the hill" to the local park, which was mostly swampy woods.  Some years, you'd get just the right conditions to skate in the woods among the trees. I miss it.

Where? Obviously some place other than where you live now!

Brad Young wrote:

Where? Obviously some place other than where you live now!

Hi Brad, I grew up in New Britain, CT - "Hardware Capitol of the World", and the home of Stanley Works and Fafnir Bearing, amongst other hardware manufacturer's.  Went to college and grad school in Boston for 9 years.  And then got as far away from a cold and grey climate as I could, moving to Stanford, CA in 1980.  As I got to retirement age, even northern CA seemed too cold to me, hence the move to the LA area.  I love it down here.  My husband and I are city people, so we like living close enough to cities to reap the fruits of their proximity, without being in the midst of them. Just yesterday, we popped into town to see the Caillebotte exhibit at the Getty. Fabulous. The week before, went into DTLA to a really fun immersive art thing called Balloon Museum.  We do something in one of the nearby cities every week.

I hope everyone has seen the latest post in the Climbing Memes IX thread. It’s about us!

"Skating in the woods" brings back some great childhood memories of the pond/swamp out behind our house.  Thanks for that.

Daniel Joder wrote:

I hope everyone has seen the latest post in the Climbing Memes IX thread. It’s about us!

Lemme get that for ya:
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/message/200603506

Also, a shot from our first nice day outside this year earlier this week (Tuesday) -

dragons wrote:

Lemme get that for ya:
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/message/200603506

Also, a shot from our first nice day outside this year earlier this week (Tuesday) -

A Gunks day in March feels like shoplifting.

Just in case anyone missed this…

Daniel Joder wrote:

I hope everyone has seen the latest post in the Climbing Memes IX thread. It’s about us!

Ha ha that’s cool.

It's because we are:

• Cool as wuck
• Old and fit
• Civil
• Interesting
• Can talk about ANYTHING, I mean ANYTHING
• Funny

Carl Schneider wrote:

Ha ha that cool.

It's because we are:

• Cool as wuck
• Old and fit
• Civil
• Interesting
• Can talk about ANYTHING, I mean ANYTHING
• Funny

Witty, old and sometimes grumpy.   

Li Hu wrote:

Witty, old and sometimes grumpy.   

Add it to the list! 

Carl Schneider wrote:

Ha ha that’s cool.

It's because we are:

• Cool as wuck
• Old and fit
• Civil
• Interesting
• Can talk about ANYTHING, I mean ANYTHING
• Funny

This is great.

The civility and respectfulness is what keeps me coming back here.

I hardly ever "dare" to comment on other threads as it seems people are just waiting to jump in and cause conflict and rage away on their keyboards.

There are some Legends of Climbing lurking and sharing here and I think that helps to keep it civil.

And Damn!!! I missed the eclipse last night!  I had not heard about it!

I guess that is what you get with only checking APNEWS and BBC once per day!

Phylp… I love that you do that!  Your pictures are amazing.  Tony is not very mobile so we haven’t been doing a lot of travel. However, last year we went to the Air museum in Palm Springs and had an incredible day. Have you seen the ads for desert X?  It looks like it’s an art exhibit outdoors in Coachella where you drive from point to point. I’m sure we’ll be doing that soon. Keep posting pictures of what you guys do!
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I’ve been paying a lot of attention to my WHOOP, after these last few years of use it’s become invaluable to me. With every new version, it has become more accurate with regards to sleep, strain and recovery. Now WHOOP has introduced VO2 Max estimation.

I was already curious about VO2 max because I keep reading that it is the most important measure of fitness and longevity, which is a big claim. And yet no one knows how to measure it.

I have a friend who’s an ultramarathon runner in Texas, he’s in his 70s and also a type one diabetic. About as fit as one could possibly be.  And yet on a recent routine visit with his doctor, he was immediately sent to a cardiologist who determined he has a 70% blockage in his heart. It was the “calcium score“ that gave the data along with a subsequent CAT scan.  So he is now a huge proponent for keeping an eye on your ticker and at least getting some baselines.  

After watching a video of Randy Leavitt climbing Book of Hate… working so incredibly hard and with extreme exertion almost to the point of failure over that crux… I joked with Bob that I felt better about getting that out of breath and working that hard on my routes. Bob said something like not so fast! – – we’re much older than that. We’ve had a few climbers recently drop dead at their peak of fitness. So how hard can we push? How valuable are wearables like WHOOP to stay within some limits?