Success after 50?

Reading througn the forum posts over the last few weeks has made me feel like life (at least as a serious climber) is over after 50.  I'd like to add a different perspective on aging as a climber.  This is not me trying to toot my own horn (although I'll probably get some replies saying as much), but wanting to maybe give people another take on what it means to be an old fart.

I climbed my hardest boulder at age 48, it was a bit of a high ball with an okay but possibly ankle breaking landing.  I did rehearse the final moves on top rope, but on the send did not hesitate at all.  I never took the fall, but did fall innumerable times on the lower section of that boulder.  Falls are definitely a bit more of an issue, but with proper padding I've yet to have a serious injury from a bouldering fall.  Not sure if I'll climb that grade again, but that's mostly due to being more of a sport climber than a boulderer.

I equaled my hardest sport grade last year at 51.  I bolted a new route right after sending that one.  It's probably a letter grade harder.  I'm actively projecting it now and it's going to be a battle.  I think I can do it, although it's freaking hard.

I've been climbing for 32 years.  I am definitely not as snappy as I was in my twenties.  However, I have continually improved in regards to technique and foot work.  I've always tried to place priority on movement and climbing outside verses training in the gym, although I do a fair bit of that too.  I've progressed through the grades slowly and always taken the long view when it comes to achieving goals.

I do a lot of yoga and power lift once a week.  I think flexibilty and maintaining core strength are really important as we age.

I have chronic back pain and my left shoulder has 7 different problems going on in a recent MRI.  Yoga helps the back.  PT and stubbornness help the shoulder.

I'd be psyched to hear from some other aging climbers that are still getting after it and haven't thrown in the towel.  It's not over for me yet!

Gives me the warm & fuzzies reading your post. I turned 50 earlier this year in Apr but my climbing age is only 5. I RPd my hardest grade 1.5y ago & currently working on trying to equal it. I know the clock is not on my side but I try to draw inspiration from my climbing mentor (he was 70y young when I met him). He was doing moves I could only dream of when I started.

I know grade chasing is pointless but I still do it to challenge myself & just enjoy projecting for whatever masochistic reason. Both my kids are stronger than me now but I guess i also do it to try to keep up with them. I started bouldering in the gym a few months ago because that was the only climbing available when I went to visit my family. I wanna say I got stronger, it'll be interesting to see if that's true when I get back on the project in a few months. 

My chronic back pain predates my climbing journey but I think that'll be the price I pay for the innumerable experiences & friendships I've picked up along the way. Good luck to all the golden boys & girls out there. Remember, safety third!

A local climber who is at or above the 80-year mark talks of “back when I was a young man of 60…”.

I believe success is merely to keep going with a love for it still in our heart. That’s serious climbing.

Hi all, very cool you are still climbing and motivated to train and getting out there and climbing. I am getting close to 70 and been climbing for over 55 years and still am super psyched to climb! I am luckier than most I have super fun bouldering in my backyard with ghetto campus board pull up bars and a slack line and live mins away from Fresno Dome, Shuteye and The Balls. I boulder and climb at least 4 days a week. Try to eat right and sleep well but being older put on a few pounds because I still drink beer but still can pull off a 5.11 route and do a V 4 if I work them. If I would give up drinking beer I would send way harder but climbing 5.13 these days is not as important as just having fun climbing so beer is for how part of my training lol!! It’s very cool to read about old climbers still being super psyched about climbing and staying in shape to send and being a demolisher on indoor and outdoor climbing, keep up the hard work stay focused on climbing and the fun factor happy climbing Mike A.

Success? Different strokes and all. If somone wants to quit as soon as they pass their peak performance years, fine. It's their life. I can see how it might be so for some who are highly tuned to achieving peak performance. 

I was never hampered by such goals, personally. For me, part of climbing is pushing against my boundaries, but even that has changed over time. I like cruising on thing well below whatever limitations I may have, as well. As I've aged, my interests, limits and stoke for the hard pushes has also changed. Nothing thoughtful about it. I never even gave it much thought. Climbing was and remains more about personal adventure and fun and never about some peak athletic performance.

For me, that is. Climbing also remains intensely personal in that respect, and I have major respect for those top athletes who do push human limits, regardless of when they choose or are forced to retire. Frankly the things top climbers can do blows me away and always did, going back to looking at photos of Hot Henry and going wtf how does anyone DO THAT???   

Cherokee Nuneswrote:

Frankly the things top climbers can do blows me away and always did, going back to looking at photos of Hot Henry and going wtf how does anyone DO THAT???   

I too have a stash of Hot Henry photos which remain a source of inspiration. To think that for all these years I never knew he was a rock climber! 

Hey, I am 65 and still feel like I am hanging in there. 

I just summited the Matterhorn in Switzerland this month, August 8, so I guess that counts!

Everyone is different, so keep up what you enjoy.

I take a lot of strength and drive from having younger climbers at the gym give me their contact info because they are looking for a partner for outdoor trad or want to learn from on of the resident trad dads.

I'm also the first one to harass them when I hear a 20 something complain about being sore or having a hard time getting out of bed. "talk to me after you've jumped out of airplanes 20yrs kid"

a top Laurel Knob (tallest granite cliff line east of Mississippi) with one of my 20 y/o trad padawans.  different age same attitude

Just turned 60.  Feel the impending decline and have made my peace with it..... but doesn't have to start yet!  Sent my hardest route not long ago and got quite a few lined up that I know I can do up to 2 maybe 3 grades harder.  Don't really boulder anymore except at home where I have vast quantities of mattresses and pads to splash into.  Still throwing myself at a 2016 moonboard I got 18 months ago and .... well making some progress.  Tom, I see you live in Lander, where Steve Bechtel of Climbstrong is based.  He penned a great article a few years ago "Not Dark Yet".  Went to the Climbstrong "training camp" 5 years ago and there were couple of guys quite a bit older than me there, still getting after it.  I have back and knee issues, don't take real bouldering falls or run anymore and shoulders are on borrowed time but I can't stop.  Love pushing the envelope and yes some grade chasing.  And find I'm getting better if not really any stronger.

I turned 55 this year. Sent my hardest sport route last year. Projecting a harder route this year. Entered a bouldering comp recently, though I'm not much of a boulderer. Came in fourth out of eighteen in the advanced division. Not too bad considering i was probably twenty years older than the next youngest competitor. A lot of the dynamic/coordination problems i just could not do. But i tried them all, and i got better (and some i could do).

I also deal with a lot of chronic problems (knees, elbows, back, shoulders, sciatica, etc).  PT keeps them manageable... for now. 

I have friends who are older and are on the decline. They handle it well and are still climbing. I hope to be in their camp. It's just a matter of time. 

The over 50 climber's thread is my favorite hangout here on MP.

GO

“If I had a message to my contemporaries it is surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success . . . If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted.”  --Thomas Merton

Tom Rangitschwrote:

 has made me feel like life (at least as a serious climber) is over after 50. 

I'd be psyched to hear from some other aging climbers that are still getting after it and haven't thrown in the towel.  It's not over for me yet!

I'm very happy for you, that you are happy with where you are at as a climber.  

But recognize that a lot of climbers do not share your perspective or your definitions - definitions of success (vs "failure"?),  of being a "serious climber", of what it looks like to "throw in the towel". I celebrated my 45th year of climbing at the beginning of this month. Although the difficulty grades that I climb have varied over the years, the unwavering experience has been of adventure, challenge, fun, and friendship, Nothing has changed just because I can no longer onsight outside at my previous hardest level.  I have just as much fun and get just as much satisfaction out of a day of climbing now as before.  In fact, as my journey as a climber has evolved, I have become less and less interested in even climbing at the hardest level that I am capable. I'm finding it more and more fun to do a day of pitches of 5.7-easy ten and will pass up the opportunity to climb harder routes. (I still will do 11s in the gym as part of my training routine, because this gives me the info of what my margin is for outside, onsight, safety.). Is that "throwing in the towel"? In my view, it's just doing I want to be doing. Having fun. This to me, is what "success" as a climber is. 

Oh, and by the way, at 52, you're barely over a threshold of aging.  I just turned 73.

Some of you in your 70s moaning about being past your prime...cut it out! At 84 I’m climbing stronger than ever. Just sent my first 5.10 without a hang. Divorce was the best training plan I ever stumbled into, and TRT plus a pair of new hips doesn’t hurt either. If you’ve still got original joints, you’re basically cheating.

I posted the "midlife bouldering crisis" thread likely referred to by the OP here. To keep the conversation going, I wasn't implying that myself or other people get weak around 50. I wasn't lamenting any loss of stoke. Just identifying a shift in motivation.   I can still climb about 90% as hard as I ever could. Especially on a toprope, which was my point, that my body is able but my drive to grade chase or constantly climb at my limit on lead is steadily going away. And I'm trying to gracefully lean into  that feeling.

So no disrespect to the OP here. If you enjoy grade chasing and constantly pushing your limits, that's great. Most of my partners are in their 30s and I'm competitive as hell about keeping up with them physically, it's just that on the very hardest routes I might be satisfied to get a route clean on toprope. I know, I know, it doesn't count, I know the rules.  But the redpoint ego stroke has become diminishing returns. 

Honestly I love knowing I put up the FAs of a couple 11d/12a routes when I was over 45, as that's about as hard as I ever climbed  But now I usually just TR them after my younger partners lead them, and recall the experience of putting them up. I love reading all the.reasons we climb as we age, they are all valid and inspiring.

Colonel Mustardwrote:

A local climber who is at or above the 80-year mark talks of “back when I was a young man of 60…”.

My parents, both in their 80’s, always complain about younger folks they’re mentoring … who are in their 60’s haha.

I turned 50 this year and just got a hip replacement a month ago. I love it! My wife and I keep calling this period of life “second puberty” as we rediscover these bodies once again.

53, no aches or pains, except a back that acts up every few years. Started climbing late, around 40, and onsighted my hardest sport route at 51. But my redpoint grade is over a number higher, so I had hoped to push both onsight a little higher, and project 5.13 this year.

That plan has been put on hold, after I tore my hamstring in the gym. I‘ve always hated heel hooks, and now I know why.

Now 3 months out from surgical repair, able to walk without crutches only a couple weeks, am hoping to start back climbing next month.

Gonna be interesting to see how it goes. Though I’d always known harder climbing had a shelf life, the most disconcerting part of my injury is it occurred well below my limit, during a fluid, controlled motion. The good news is, no real pain post repair, so fingers crossed I can still meet my goals.

Some of you may know an electrician named Dave B. He was a regular at Jtree for Xmas, and Vantage in the winter. He told me an amusing tale about aging:

"I used to get so scared on elevens and twelves that I would pray for deliverance. I'd promise to go to church every Sunday from now on if he would just help me survive this move. Now, I have the same religious experience, but on 5.8's." - Dave B.

How do you define success? Is it just having fun climbing? If that's true, this is a great sport to grow old with. 

I discovered Indian Creek when I was 63. Eight years later I'm still head over heels in love with those splitters. Most Aprils and Novembers I can be found down there hauling my 10 yellows and 10 blues around. Last year I led The Incredible Handcrack (10a) clean again using all of my yellows.

I'm still all original equipment though some of it is way past its' sell by date. I've developed a fondness for offwidth, especially the double fist variety. I think some of my best leads may still be in my future.

Most of my partners are much younger and tell me I'm an outlier. They say normal people my age have all stopped climbing. This has been my observation also. I feel very fortunate to still have a functioning body in retirement.  

Secrets to my success:

• Three on, one off is smart.
• Never turn down a good nap.
• Carry a big rack. Screw those youngsters with their rack of doubles.
• 1 shot of whiskey every night.
• Maintain some active city sports to keep the weight off: ping pong, rollerblading, 10 speed bicycle, hike with the grandkids.

Carpe Diem!

Racked up to lead 4AM crack last April.

56 years young, got diagnosed with throat cancer almost exactly one year ago. Last September to December was surgery, radiation, and a touch of chemo. This spring sent my hardest route ever and trying to extend my best run of climbing so far. Took climbing up at 40. Had plateaued. Cancer taught me to get after it now, not later. Days outside with friends. That is the thing. 

56 here and climbing right at my hardest ever grades, even after ripping my bicep off my elbow three years ago and the heinous surgery that followed (was complicated by Covid).   Was doing 12d/13a bitd and I’m sending the same grades now.   Having a world class training facility and a large community of over 50 crushers (climbing way harder than me) has been invaluable.  

Love seeing this thread.   52 here and started back with climbing after taking a 15 year break due to kids, work and other hobbies.  Started back exactly two years ago and I’m about three letter grades away from my hardest route ever.  It’s a different mentality now that requires dedication and precision for training.  
If I overdo it, my elbows are barking at me for a week so I have to train smarter but it’s fun trying to figure out where my limit may be in a few years. 

66 , been climbing off and on, mostly on, for 53 years.  I got caught up for a little bit in chasing numbers early on. For me, that was not as much fun as staying in the “ fun zone”, which of course depends on your skills at the moment.  I define the fun zone as climbs you can do on sight, that take some effort and concentration and allow you to enter the zone, without painful or desperate pulling or going beyond my mental fortitude.
That zone has varied between 5.8 and 12a. Right now the zone is between 5.9 and 10+, maybe 11a.
Occasionally I will climber harder just to see if I can, but don’t enjoy projecting, it feels like a recipe for injury.  Everyone is different, find your own fun zone.