New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #34

GabeO wrote:

 as the tendon builds. 

Sounds exciting.  As long as it doesn't burst.  At the Gunks if the horizontal you just got to is crap for gear then you know the next one will be great.  Maybe.  That mentality got me up  a lot in my youth, 

GabeO wrote:

I've spent probably well over a hundred days at the Gunks, so I'm certainly no stranger to the climbing there, but it still intimidates me. I think it's a combination of the three things: 

First, looking up, it is sometimes impossible to tell if a horizontal crack coming up will be s big positive jug, a sloper, or basically nothing at all. And more importantly, it is equally difficult to tell if there will be gear to be had in the back of the crack or not. 

Second, route finding can be quite tricky. You are following a set of weaknesses in the rock that can be difficult to judge, especially from below. Often there are vertical cracks or seams that help, but then again often there are not. 

Third, the routes are relatively steep for the grade. Combine this with the first two factors, and you can find yourself on poor holds, flaming out, unsure of whether you are on route or not, unsure if the next horizontal coming up will bring jugs or slopers, good gear or nothing, as the tendon builds. You have to keep a cool head as you analyze the situation and decide whether to go up or down. It is a real test of mental fortitude for me. 

GO

I've climbed maybe a total of 10 days at the Gunks over the years. I love the place but it never seemed particularly intimidating. I think that's partly because Moores Wall is my home climbing area and while it's mostly steep gear protected lines like the Gunks protection at Moores seems to be more devious. At least on the Gunks routes I've done but that includes plenty of moderate classics up to mid 10 or so.

Buck Rogers wrote:

Also!!!  Great news!  My middle daughter who is in her second year in undergrad at St. Andrews studying Linguistics and Philosophy just received an eight week summer internship at Trinity in Dublin!  Serious question:  Does anyone have a contact in Dublin for a summer sublet on an apartment?  I know multiple people in the UK but no one living in Dublin.  We're willing to pay the going rate but there are so many scammers out there that we are worried about securing a place for her!

First of all, congratulations! And St Andrews is a great school!

Birmingham, but not Dublin which is in Ireland, not sure people there consider themselves from “UK”?

Ask me? Sure, why not? Ask my cousin? Not sure what the response would be, maybe double the rent?   

Mark E Dixon wrote:

A gym somewhere
This fellow’s technique isn’t terrible. He has a good sense of where to put his feet to obtain balance and does a nice dynamic move at the end, but needs to use his hips better to get more power from his legs instead of his arms.
Hope I’m doing as well in 20 years.

88 years old??? Cool!

Li Hu wrote:

Birmingham, but not Dublin which is in Ireland, not sure people there consider themselves from “UK”?

Brummies - people from Birmingham - would consider themselves from the UK. Dubliners definitely not! 

I have Irish forebears 5 generations back, relatively recent compared with most Americans who celebrate St Patrick's, but unfortunately no contacts in Dublin.

'Gunks climbing has always sounded great and is the one US hot spot from my youth I've not yet visited. It sounds like much UK trad. climbing where routes connect holds rather than follow features. Here's S navigating the "lineless intricacies" of Bristol's Avon Gorge last week on the route Lich Gates (E2 or 5.9R, 5.10c). As you can see from the blue rope, it climbs up, traverses left and then down to where he is. It then goes further left, up a bit, and left again to belay in the bushes. The second pitch goes up to the overhang, back right a bit, up some more, further right and up to finish. It all makes sense when you're climbing as it's the line of least resistance. More direct routes have been forced up the same rock but they are rather harder at E4 (~5.11b R) or E5 (~5.11d R). Solving the route finding puzzles, knowing when to push on and when to retreat as the clock ticks in your forearms, makes for memorable experiences. 

Having spent my first 20 years climbing in the west I had always heard about the Gunks but had never been. My wife accepted a position in CT for a few years and I finally got a chance to spend time there and holy crap, what an amazing area! If you like steep sport climbing and are proficient in placing gear it's a place to not miss. It always helped me to chat with just about everyone you see at the base just to figure out where I was, it's tricky finding the starts of climbs there for sure especially in an area where the 5.6 climbs go through the same roofs as the 5.12s. 

As the gear thing goes I almost always do what Phylp does, each partner brings a light rack. 

apogee wrote:

Same. Been trying to understand why people are so enamored of them...

For some small crack placements, Totems, like offsets, provide for a more solid placement in my experience.  I use just the blue and black Totems.

Did 3 days Yoga last week, 3 climbing, of which one contained a campus session. 

Started Vinyasa Yoga yesterday, loving it. I think it’ll take a few months to get 80% of the poses then a year or more to get more? Can almost balance on my hands. Still learning the names.

Duncan, what a wonderful explanation!

 Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I have never even touched a totem...  

apogee wrote:

Same. Been trying to understand why people are so enamored of them...

How can you be so dismissive of totems if you've never used them?

I am not dismissive at all. Just never had the opportunity to play with one.  They must not get stuck easily because I have not even bootied one. Of course most of my climbing these days is obscure crags in VT

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I am not dismissive at all. Just never had the opportunity to play with one.  They must not get stuck easily because I have not even bootied one. Of course most of my climbing these days is obscure crags in VT

My apologies.  My comment was meant for the other poster.  Totems are great.  They have a flexible stem, good in somewhat flared cracks, and can even hold body weight with just 2 of the 4 lobes engaged.  The lobes are narrower than other cams so they can fit in small pods.  Also, the shape of the lobes allows for a less tight placement if needed, which would be considered undercammed for other brands.

Oh man!  I LOVE my Totems!

I have been acquiring a double set for the past ten years.

They just seem to fit where BD's and other cams won't and they just STICK!  Such confidence boosters!!!

Loved them when I led the little Aid Climbing that I did about 5 years ago in Germany.

And I was so worried about that older guy bouldering video.  Man!  Bouldering just beats the body so much more, in my opinion, than roped climbing.

Those mat impacts can really break bones and strain joints!  I hope that he has had his calcium and Vit K over the years and has strong bones!  ;)

Finally, I've got a rope gun partner for Rumney this Friday/Saturday if the weather holds!  Doesn't look good but I'm going to keep hoping!  Guy is on the UVM climbing team.  I climbed with him at Shelf Rd in Colorado a few years ago.  I was struggling on the 5.10a/b and he just on-sited this .12b bulge climb with all of these mono's!  God!  Something to watch!  But fortunately his girlfriend (who climbs more at my level) is also coming so he'll lead the .10's for us and I'll belay him on the hard stuff!

Edit to add photo:  TRS'ing Aid Practice in Germany with two Totems placed!

Ship T wrote:

My comment was meant for the other poster. 

Same response as Nick. Just haven't encountered them yet, and wondering why everyone loves them so much. No judgement intended one way or another.

Edit to above, after studying it closer: They may provide solid placements, but that clip in point is pretty long...maybe less than ideal for aid...?

apogee wrote:

Same response as Nick. Just haven't encountered them yet, and wondering why everyone loves them so much. No judgement intended one way or another.

Edit to above, after studying it closer: They may provide solid placements, but that clip in point is pretty long...maybe less than ideal for aid...?

There are actually two clip in points, one closer to the cam lobes and one further extended.

apogee wrote:

When NPR does a news piece, it is well done and balanced...sort of. While the facts tend to be presented accurately, the story can lean just a little bit towards the human/personal impacts of an issue- I think this probably gives it the impression of being 'soft', and some people don't like that approach. The choice of stories they report on also gives it an appearance of left-leaning- other rational conservative media sources tend to present different stories that NPR doesn't emphasize.   I used to be a big NPR follower, and then after the 2016 election, I realized I was clearly in a media bubble and shifted my information sources. I'll still go to NPR occasionally, but it's not my go-to any longer.

I quite disagree that NPR was in a such a bubble.  They repeated trump's twitter lies almost every day, often failing to do any mention of fact checking to point out the glaring lies.  The entire media thusly gave trump many billions of dollars of free press, which is what led to his 2016 election.

More recently NPR and PBS often do not let his lies go by without pointing out the inaccuracies.  This is a good thing, and it's one reason that an authoritarian hates them.

Also, the attempt to defund them argues that that they get plenty of private funding. Unstated is the next step by the authoritarians: to extort the sponsors to stop supporting public media. And perhaps extort them to support project 2025 pro bono as has already happened with several large law firms.

Ship T wrote:

Also, the shape of the lobes allows for a less tight placement if needed, which would be considered undercammed for other brands.

Hi Ship T,

Regarding Totem Cams…that might work for body weight placements (as it will for other brands) but that’s not what you want for a reliable pro placement.

Here are some excerpts from my book Climbing Anchors on Totem cams:

“Totem’s manufacturer recommends ”It is best for the cam lobes to work at half their expansion range, i.e., when they are between 50% and 90% closed.” With any cam you use, familiarize yourself with the manufacturer's guidelines, as they can differ. One general rule applies to all cams: tighter is better than open.

 “Do not use the Totem Cam with the lobes near to fully open. Any movement in the rope can change the position of the unit, which could fail. Use a larger Totem Cam.”

Totem cams have several advantages.

1. Greater holding power. The effective camming angle of Totem cams is 13 degrees. This is a smaller camming angle than any other cam, just slightly smaller than the Metolius units (13.25 degrees), which used to have the smallest camming angle. Small camming angles typically go hand-in-hand with reduced ranges, but the fact that loads on the Totem cams are applied along two logarithmic spirals, one the cam surface and the other the load cable path, allows Totems to maintain a smaller effective cam angle while still having about the same range as a Camalot (14.5 degrees). Here's an illustration of the cam angle (the red angle) from one of my Gunks Climbing Coalition clinics.

I've used the conventional expression "greater holding power," but I think it may be misunderstood. Totems were designed and tested on limestone, whereas Friends and their companions were developed for granite.   "Greater holding power" does not mean that a Totem will withstand a higher load then, say, a Camalot in a given granite placement.  What it means is that a Totem will hold in rock with coefficient of friction too low for, say, a Camalot to work---this is the effect of a smaller camming angle; the unit requires less coefficient of friction to stay in place.  (This is not the place to discuss cam engineering, but suffice it to say that in order for a cam to hold, the tangent of its cam angle has to be less than the coefficient of friction.  If the cam angle decreases, its tangent decreases and this means lower coefficients of friction still fall within the holding range.)

2. Narrow heads.  Many of the Totems are as wide as just three of the four cams in other units.  This is of no consequence in splitters, but if you climb on rock with featured cracks, there will be places you can get a Totem in and most other cams won't fit.

3. High flexibility.  You can roll a Totem cam up in a ball.  This means rope motions are less likely to be transmitted to the cam lobes and so less walking occurs.

4. Independent loading of the cam lobes.  Again, this is of no consequence in splitters, but in irregular and/or flared placements there is a theoretical advantage in not having the load distributed to both sides via a single stem.  This possible advantage seems to be borne out by experience; many climbers have found they don't need offset cams as much or at all if they have Totems. The independent loading means that Totems can be placed with the cams on just one side engaged.  This seems to be primarily an aid trick, but might also serve, in extremis, as a better-than-nothing protection gambit.

Disadvantages

1. Totems are on the heavy side, and their harness system is bulky to rack compared to other cams

2. Some people find the flexibility of the red and orange sizes to be too much; they find the cam floppy to place when they want something more rigid.

3. There are no cam stops, so tipped-out cams are in danger of a lobe inversion failure.

4. Durability? I put a question mark here because, although the cams, with all their small cables, seem vulnerable to wear, they seem to me to hold up much better than expected.  If anything does break, I think field repairs will not be possible.

Other points:  

1. Totems seem to me to be easier to clean than other cams.  Dunno if that's true in general or just due to the vagaries of my experience.

2. I don't believe, as Ship T suggests, that Totems are any more reliable than other brands when under-cammed. As Bob says, "tight is right."

No explanation possible...

But It's a 'must see' as far as I'm concerned...   

https://youtu.be/ZeAGlpR1zQE?si=c-vVgDRiiZZz8pwO

Carl Schneider wrote:

No explanation possible...

But It's a 'must see' as far as I'm concerned...   

https://youtu.be/ZeAGlpR1zQE?si=c-vVgDRiiZZz8pwO

Wow!  Did I get Rick Rolled there or what???

;)

We have a local nurse who posts videos of herself on every hike she does, it's as if every mountain she hikes is spiritually orgasmic.  I'm looking forward to catching her making one of these videos just to attempt a video bomb. 

Carl you gotta get a shot of sipping tea in your vansion at a trailhead parking spot, spiritual level 11