New and experienced climbers over 50 #36

M Mwrote:

Notice that when Ward injured himself recently he went right into getting mileage in (basically lots of climbs under his limit),  that to me is the smartest thing anyone can do at any age with injuries. I wonder how those torn meniscus happened, any thoughts on that?

I know exactly how they happened. One was a high step on a thin face climb where I just torqued my knee suddenly and the pain was sharp. I had to lay low for the next six weeks. The other knee happened in the same way a year later.

But what I really feel now is that it happened because I hadn’t done the right strength training.  Especially with age I’m coming to understand that everything has to be strong.  It’s been especially hard climbing this season because I continue to have pain and I’m constantly trying to protect that knee.  

Ken Tubbswrote:

On a lighter note there's nothing like using the oven to warm up my house on a cold, wet Oregon morning.

My grandmother's banana bread. 

I'm headed over to Smith for three days of climbing with Gabe who some of you met at the first over 50 meetup at COR. It's a hopeless effort to weigh him down so I can keep up.

Gabe? Some dude we met? At COR????

OMG!! Oh! Oh! Brain cell is firing! Yes! Tell him the old lady says howdy! 

And do your concerted best to kick his ass, Ken.

Having him there, watching such pure joy? That, was truly special. That Twin Sisters one was a real standout for me, in so many ways it became actually kinda surreal. 

Yeah. Boy. COR delivers. Every. Single. Time. And I never know just what to expect, except, well, it just does something. 

This one coming up?

I think it's gonna be my best friend's time.

Best to all, young, old, honorary old, and whatever, Helen

For those who weren't there, or don't remember, Ken brought along a young, college age guy, and, iirc, this was his first time to City. That, alone, makes for a memorable trip, and is something I always love being part of. People just have no idea, until they've seen the place.

But then....

We had many centuries of climbing experience camped up there. Not just experience, but the stories to go with. And. More then a few, who developed areas, and put up routes. At least one athlete who competed in the field with Olympians. Various other accomplishments from those who've lived full lives.

The whole stretch of that trip was like that. 

He was wowed. Totally floored, the whole time. And all of us there got to watch that, fuel that, and be that, again, at least through that sparkle and smile.

Pretty sure we're all that kid, still.

That, for me? Is why I'll be a climber until you guys stuff me under a pile of dirt.

Best, Helen 

rgoldwrote:

It's "no climbing" in the US.  In the UK that's referred to as "full conditions."

My first climb in the Gunks was High Exposure in the rain.  So much water coming off the start of P1!  First climb in Wales was in "light showers", on a slab with wet leaves.  Sometimes you just have to climb when it's wet.

Brad Youngwrote:

Hi Daniel. seeing as how Phil already posted three times today, I'll pitch in here so you don't have to wait.

They were doing the route Sheila in Pine Creek Canyon on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. One of the all time classic routes in that area. Here's a link:

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105967548/sheila 

EDIT:

I see that Norm has identified it too, using a rating of 5.10a. It was rated 10a when I did the lead, but somehow Mountain Project has it at 10b.

Thanks, Norm and Brad. That is just barely within my current capability so it’s going on the list… hoping I can get there before the performance curve starts its inevitable decline. Thanks. 

Idaho Bobwrote:

My first climb in the Gunks was High Exposure in the rain.  So much water coming off the start of P1!  First climb in Wales was in "light showers", on a slab with wet leaves.  Sometimes you just have to climb when it's wet.

Heading of to North Wales for a few days of mountain trad jolliness on Thursday, the forcast for Llanberis is confusing what is that round yellow symbol?

I'm still going to pack full waterproofs.

I just watched a 53-minute YouTube documentary called “Pertex Presents: Adra” about climbing in North Wales. Most excellent, with pics and footage from the Joe Brown era up through to the modern era. Sounds like a huge variety of rock types within a small radius and a strong trad ethic… and some equally amazing sport climbs. It has moved up on my bucket list… but during the season with the least amount of bugs and rain!

If I may post two great memories.  I do not remember the name of the top climb, but maybe Bob will. The second picture is Run For Your Life.  Whenever I see pictures like these, I just shake my head in amazement. This wasn’t what I was thinking of when I was sitting in my office just a year or two prior trying to deal with demanding clients and child rearing.  So my overwhelming feeling is always one of gratitude.  If my daughter had not said “hey mom, would you like to go camping in Joshua Tree for your birthday and I’ll hire us a guide for a half-day?”… Who knows where we’d be today.

Neil Bwrote:

Heading of to North Wales for a few days of mountain trad jolliness on Thursday, the forcast for Llanberis is confusing what is that round yellow symbol?

I'm still going to pack full waterproofs.

Llanberis?  Didn't see the sun for a week!  But had a great tour of the DMM factory----and the slate museum.

Old lady Hwrote:

For those who weren't there, or don't remember, Ken brought along a young, college age guy, and, iirc, this was his first time to City. That, alone, makes for a memorable trip, and is something I always love being part of. People just have no idea, until they've seen the place.

But then....

We had many centuries of climbing experience camped up there. Not just experience, but the stories to go with. And. More then a few, who developed areas, and put up routes. At least one athlete who competed in the field with Olympians. Various other accomplishments from those who've lived full lives.

The whole stretch of that trip was like that. 

He was wowed. Totally floored, the whole time. And all of us there got to watch that, fuel that, and be that, again, at least through that sparkle and smile.

Pretty sure we're all that kid, still.

That, for me? Is why I'll be a climber until you guys stuff me under a pile of dirt.

Best, Helen 

Yep, same Gabe. That trip provided so many great memories. Here's one

https://youtube.com/shorts/2I5sKKC0iEE?si=5Cbz-gmsaa-9v3hK 

Rested for nearly a week, and my body has reset itself. Blood pressure is lower, I can fully clench my fists. My body feels invigorated.

Can’t wait to get back on my climbing schedule so I can feel tired and stiff all the time   

Lori Milaswrote:

I have a bunch of kedges in mind.  Locally, I keep looking at a few impossible routes to climb.  One is Blackjack 11a.  I know, I know!  Ridiculous!  Might never happen, but it also MIGHT HAPPEN.  I have some other kedges, more personal... but good ones to keep pulling me forward on into life.  

Lori - Blackjack is kinda average IMO.  I know it's close to the road, but there are far better lines to throw yourself on and Bob knows 'em all.

1. Murfwrote:

Lori - Blackjack is kinda average IMO.  I know it's close to the road, but there are far better lines to throw yourself on and Bob knows 'em all.

Murf not only knows them all as well, but has probably done them all.

IMO, Blackjack is a fun climb, but I'm just old.

Murfwrote:

Lori - Blackjack is kinda average IMO.  I know it's close to the road, but there are far better lines to throw yourself on and Bob knows 'em all.

Thank you, Murf!  I really appreciate that. As you know, being roadside isn’t necessarily a good thing. One of my favorite routes, Trix, is also roadside and virtually impossible to hear and communicate.  

I belayed a friend on Blackjack and he took a surprise fall at about the halfway point. Even though the route was clearly over my limit, I had to get on and explore. I just remember it being “thoughtful“. Not just a straightforward slab or face climb. Over the next few months I’ll be looking for “routes I can’t climb“ to see if there are any that have my name on them   I always appreciate your input.  

Whenever I am out by the Watergate area, I have to stop and admire the smooth slab with Dirty Tricks and just sort of wish and wonder. (I was there again yesterday). Bob tells me the art of good climbing is to find rests. It turns out the first real rest on this route is 40 to 50 feet up. “You mean that tiny little ledge way up there?“  “Yup. That would be the one!” 

So between the ground and that first rest it’s dig in with those fingers and bear down.  Scramble, jog, trot, shuffle, grunt, PULL.  (Run out of thesaurus words.) God I’d love to see this. 

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

Grew up east coast and the south. I could not wait to fly the coop, I was dreaming about it early grade school. I went west as soon as I was able. I never looked back. It used to be out west/back east, but now its out east/back west for me, 40 years.

I had pretty good rock climbing where I was in the south. Quite good actually. What I didn't have and one cannot have back east - is room to roam, room to wander and get lost, room to overland, room to explore and find new things. While there are a few great parks out east, nothing I've seen anywhere in my travels rivals the BLM and National Forests lands where we can just go to any ole time we want.

For me, this is far and away the primary reason I stayed, the ability to truly roam the wild lands. I can find honest to goodness unclimbed rock within an easy drive from my house, go there and camp on public land for no fee, and climb all day there and never see a soul. I became accustomed to this, and ultimately, addicted to it.

(With respect to the "why do you live where you live" section above) This, about the relative freedom out west. I grew up in upstate NY through college but spent 2 summers in the 90s during my college years doing dishes and housekeping in Montana (with quick trips through both the SW and PNW at the end of each summer), and after those summers the east coast had nothing for me that I wanted. NYC finance jobs for $, DC political internships., old money snobbishness, city living, none of it appealed.(I understand I'm generalizing, but that's how I felt at 21) I wasn't old money with some family cottage on cape cod or a lake, I wasn't privileged, why stay? The ability to just drive into the woods or desert and car camp any place you wanted was new to me, and I quickly realized that's just not possible in the majority of the northeast. I applied to 2 grad schools in Oregon, no others, and that was that.

About 20 years ago I really wanted to take my dad backpacking for 1 night out of Rochester, NY. Over and over the internet - and a few outdoor gear stores i called - told me that all the land in western/central NY is private and I would have to drive to the Catskills or Adirondacks. These are 4-5 hour drives! Just to walk 1 mile into the woods and cook over a fire and pump some water. That experience brought home why I'm glad I went to and stayed out west. I finally climbed in NY in the Adirondacks a couple summers ago. It was...fine. I can see the appeal for the 5-6 months a year the weather allows for climbing. But I drove 9 hours in 2 days to do it, and here in Portland I have about 10 crags and 500-1000 routes within 40 miles of home that are more or less climbable year round. Not to mention all the car camping I want. I've been lucky to put up routes at over 10 crags around Portland, some that I found on my own or was in at ground zero at, and that sense of discovery just doesnt seem as ominpresent back east as it does out west. 

Ken Tubbswrote:

Yep, same Gabe. That trip provided so many great memories. Here's one

https://youtube.com/shorts/2I5sKKC0iEE?si=5Cbz-gmsaa-9v3hK 

Lol! I forgot that Fritz was also an honorary geezer for that! 

Desert Splitterville kinda came together up at Twin Sisters, originally, only a few months earlier. I think I might even have a line or two in there, lol! It was Fritz's first time at COR, in June. We camped up at Twin, very early June, the place was totally booked....

And it threatened rain, all that weekend. Literally no one else showed up. It never managed more than some sprinkles now and then. Fritz (like Gabe) was gobsmacked, so enthralled, he didn't even leave the area. We had a visitor show up, a local friend who tracked me down, but that was it. 

Are we having enough fun yet?

Naw....

Let's kill someone semi famous!

So much fun, such good friends!

Oh, and for those who have met Fritz, or know him vicariously? He is doing great! Got married, and, (insert drum roll here) is now a very proud daddy! 

Oh, the second. That early Twin Sisters stay, when it was so quiet? 

I usually sleep in my CRV, which meant I was backed in on one side of the parking lot. Facing those rocks across the parking lot, by the entry. A bigger bouldery thing, with a lesser but tall boulder in front of it, was the view I had laying there. Beside campsite 4, where Ken and Gabe would be, come September.

So, waking up, super early that June morning, I'm staring out the back window. Huh. That's a strange looking stick on top of that boulder. 

Eventually, when the inevitable crawl out of bed cuz the vault toilet is across the road time comes, I look up at the stick when I walk by.

It's an entire haunch off of ....some.... body. Deer?? Antelope? Calf? Skinny foreleg, raggedy upper leg with pelt.

Well okay. Someone left something. COR does actually have Mountain Lions. Cool! Not real surprised I didn't notice it earlier, hey, we were having fun. 

We headed off to do something, somewhere, maybe it was the last day, and I took him for a drive, a quick look at the place, don't remember.

But the haunch was gone, when we came back to camp.

Helen

So my how I ended up here story, yeah, random sex with a dude I didn't really know (he wasn't the only one) definitely is the short version, lol!

Basically, I moved in, "temporarily", with a guy I sorta knew, when I was 19, in 1976, only a year after leaving home, and kinda in a no job, no place to live situation at that point, in southern Oregon.

Back then, that translated to sleeping in the same bed, plus, I was 19, didn't know any better, he was 26, certainly should gave known better, but also knew a good deal when he saw one. Plus, I'm a good cook. What can I say? Not really what I should have chosen, or would have, if I'd have had the chance to finish growing up. No money for college, no money for anything, but back then, out of high school meant out of the house, period.

Sometimes, good enough, or at least maybe not so bad?, is what we just settle for.

Eventually, I followed him to Boise, in 1980, as he pursued his career, and I dropped mine. 

All these years later?

I'm a widow, built a second house on the same property he bought in 1980, with the family (his) money I inherited. Our son, grew up in that house, to become my entree to rock climbing, and a new life. We learned together, age around 21, me close to 58. I'm 68 now, and living a life I NEVER imagined, ever. 

Boise, as it turned out, was a pretty good place to be, and I never left, even when the situation I lived in got grim. Rock climbing, this community online, and later, in person?

Saved my life. 

"It's painful to write this...." is the thread where I detailed 2019.

Now? 

It's truly a whole new life. 

Helen

Fingerprint not recognized. 

Always a good reminder of a weekend well spent.

Did what I think was my 13th summit of Monkey Face on Saturday, following a new student up the wall on his 25th birthday. Nice to be able to mentor someone less than half my age.

Hopefully, this will find its way all over the world?

https://wccftech.com/review/msi-titan-18-hx-ai-laptop-review-brutally-powerful-with-intel-core-ultra-9-285hx-nvidia-rtx-5090-24-gb//amp/

A dream machine for many, but my Lenovo Legion is not too far off running benchmarks close to 75%  for machine learning and computer vision applications. Works great. I can break up my datasets and fine tune models. YoloV5 medium model trained very quickly.

Nvidia is moving its global HQ to Taiwan. Makes sense since TSMC is there.

Thanks to the tariffs being lowered, my business plans are back on track.

I’m enjoying my Yoga today, and much more relaxed feeling good with the current administration in USA. Feeling optimistic. There’s nothing more comforting than a world leader willing to back off a hard line stance when he sees it being a bad direction. Kudos to them!

I’ll be up in the Bay Area for a while now, hope to go to Yosemite this season.

I don't bother.