New and experienced climbers over 50 #38

Talking about TBIs at a moment that two folks in my life with past TBIs are hitting the bottle hard is good, especially hearing from Buck, Nick and ? that alcohol is out of the diet. From TBIs to depression to early onset dementia, booze is absolutely a terrible thing for folks that suffer from these things. Another friend years ago had the same issue and was beyond help, I don't know if he is 100% better but at the time it was impossible to talk any sense into him even when he was sober. Speaking about sleep being so important,  one thing that these folks all have in common is drinking in order to sleep. Imagine living life hungover every day and the mental and physical declines that would go with that... 

John Gillwrote:

A little more history from your elders. Here, about 1912, Rich and I tackle another challenging boulder problem, with a lot of company we picked up along the way. I am standing on the ground bracing the rock which is in danger of tipping with so many on it. Rich is climbing between two lovely women that Rich convinced bouldering was great fun. He was a bit of a dandy in those days.  

I remember that just a week after that picture was taken, the boulder---without the mighty Gill to back it up---did keel over, nearly squashing the intrepid ascenders as flat as scones with clotted cream. Here's a very similar episode a few years later.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QYRDAUuHBiM in case embed doesn't work

A few small rocks at the base and some discarded boots propped the thing up at the very last moment, and the climbers were able to wriggle out with some damage to their outfits.

Many efforts to right the ship failed, and so one of the great boulder problems of the early 20th century was lost to gravity and torque.

Since your brain is just another bodily organ, any exercise you do is also good for your brain.  I think the other item is to work on learning something new all the time to keep building new synapses.

Playing a musical instrument later in life has been given good recommendations for maintaining brain health. I would think learning the accordian later in life might send you back to the aforementioned bottle but the focus on figuring something out is important. 

Learning something new. After having Chinese food in 29 Palms I asked Tony if he’d mind driving out to Belle to look at some routes. As many times as we have been there Tony swears he has never seen this rock before in his life.   There is actually only one rock in the entire park that he claims to recognize and he intentionally botches that name. (He calls Intersection Rock Intercourse Rock).

Somehow, I had been so smitten by the slab routes here—That Old Soft Shoe and Count Dracula—I never noticed the plethora of cracks. Oh my goodness I could spend a year in this one spot just learning crack and slab.

Diagnostics  5.6

Bella Lugosi. 5.11+

Music Box 5.8+

Count Dracula. 5.11a

That Old Soft Shoe 5.10d

I know I climbed this, but I don’t think I REALLY climbed this.  I probably didn’t realize I was getting a little help from Nelson. I’d like to go back and do it right.

See, fossil! You’re not the only one with cracks.

And it’s HOT

Lots of fun cracks in JTree for sure.

And once you have mastered those you can find some good crack routes in Wyoming too!

Lori Milaswrote:

Rgold, John… I hope you take this question in the spirit of which it’s intended: how’s your brain? You’ve done such a beautiful job of documenting where you’re at physically and with training, my guess would be that you are as sharp as ever. Have you done any cognitive tests or do you have any means of assessing where you’re at today relative to earlier decades? Do you do anything special to keep all cylinders firing? 

I was sailing along pretty well until I tripped in my living room and snapped my right femur in two at age 87. Then, in the hospital it was discovered I had cancer elsewhere. Plus severe scoliosis and worn out joints all over. Lots of medical procedures. But I am doing well now and have gotten back to exploring some unusual concepts in elementary mathematics and writing BASIC programs related to these little projects. When I was in recovery someone would come by and read me a list of ten objects, divert my attention for a few minutes, then ask for them back. I think I barely passed. Then the same person would read me a fairly complicated story, divert my attention for five minutes or so, then question me about the story. I passed that test with flying colors.

Here is a workout at age 80 if you are interested.

I was done with my photo gig early today and was able to hook up with Isa at a sport crag on my way home. 

we got six climbs in. the last one was a long traverse so I belayed at the top for the view. 

cooked dinner by a lake. the fire smoke was thick today.. 

growing up and living in VT for over 60 years I almost never saw fire smoke up until about a decade ago. when you did it was a big deal.  Perhaps half a dozen  or so days of real fire smoke from the 1960's to 2015.. Now fire smoke is the new normal....

Sorry you are dealing with the smoke Nick.

https://firemap.live/

Pops Rocks today. Ann on Sky Betty 10.A 

Wait for it . . .

He’s backpacking. But I was baiting my friend. “10.A my ass!”

Could be 10b? I will say this. One of the best e ticket rides within an hour of Sonora.
Betty is my cousin. Sky is her nickname. 

Jim Uwrote:

If you are gonna video it make sure you oil up first…..  ;)

I may have misread something.  Can I just check WHAT exactly are we putting our socks ON when standing on one leg?   

Good day yesterday, kind of forgot to close the eyes and stand on one foot up there though. 

fossilwrote:

Um, did you guys watch M Sprague's video?I think I will be skipping any training of this sort.

I was being ironic. But this is the only defense for: 

Summary:

John, thanks so much for taking the time to share. What is it about Mathematics and climbing?  It seems you and Rich are kindred spirits.  I love your video to see you then and now. Once an athlete, always an athlete.

I’ve been the only one on this thread really asking about aging, partly from the desire to know what’s ahead and partly from pure curiosity. What exactly causes us to age? I finally heard this discussion on a Dr. Peter Atilla podcast last week “A New Era of Longevity Science: Models of Aging…”. He was getting deep into the weeds with an expert who is currently doing a lot of research on aging in Singapore.  I liked what they finally came up with which is the fundamental quality of longevity is resilience… The ability to maintain homeostasis in the face of injury and illness.  

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1SG8rFE8tUXYkezEO6g3BQ?si=kTDQIuYhTfq-kMfeypvcUQ

Perhaps I just have a bad cross-section of friends and family, but I feel a little overwhelmed with people who seem resigned and giving up. A lady I have dinner with every week tells me she’s done. I believe there is a time when we know that we are done, but I also know that loneliness, depression and the modern medical model of “health” pushes that timeline a lot.

Meanwhile, has anyone seen the most recent Bruce Springsteen documentary Road Diary?  It was very cool to see that Bruce is 75 and Little Stevie is 74 and Patti Sciafla is 72.  They are not trying to be 20 again. They are gloriously their own age and that much more visionary as artists. 

Tim Brattenwrote:

I was being ironic. But this is the only defense for: 

I obviously brought the tone down    Happens when out of polite society too long and one's internal dialog is reduced to 3 word exclamations or less, mostly WTF.

I have no special insights about aging, but my sense about life in general is that it is best not to have all your eggs in one basket, because circumstances can restrict or completely take things away from you. It is a good thing to have other passions to turn to if that happens.  I ended up with a PhD in math because an attack of (probably) Guillain-Barré left me paralyzed from the waist down for a while. It didn't seem as if climbing was something I'd ever be doing again (that turned out not to be true), but my brain was functional, so I figured maybe I should try making a life around that. Now in retirement, I still spend a few hours a day on mathematical questions.  I also have had a very long-term interest in photography, which is engrossing in a different way, and was my original interest well before I discovered climbing at 14.  So there are plans B and C as it were, in case plan A is no longer a good option.

I did some boardsailing for a while. It was very interesting to be a beginner at something at a time when I was pretty much an expert at all the other things.  People who are, in some way, in the teaching business can easily lose track of what it is like to struggle with new things.  Sucking at boardsailing helped me get back in touch with what many of my students experienced on a daily basis.

M Spraguewrote:

I obviously brought the tone down    Happens when out of polite society too long and one's internal dialog is reduced to 3 word exclamations or less, mostly WTF.

or the universally accepted 4 word response.... "that was she said"  same overall effect