New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

BINTD I kept a climbing journal and my best year for volume was the year I quit the martial arts academy. teaching class on your days off really limits how big a climbing day you will have and where it will be...  that year that I quit I hit 190 days. I would be rather delinquent at work and bounce out of there with any excuse and drive from Killington ski area where I was a mountain photographer to bristol VT and solo a 280ft tall frozen waterfall... 

Nick, what years were you at Killington?  That was my ski area when I lived in the east.  One year a photo of me passing a race gate on DreamMaker was used as a promo and displayed in the Bear Mountain and K Base lodges.  Unfortunately I had my tongue sticking out and my friends started calling me "nice tongue Bob".

PS:  Did you know Jon Lamb when he was an instructor there  He passed recently.

I grew up in Killington so was there from 1964 through the early 2000s  I did Mtn photography from 97 to 2001 at Killington though I suspect Bob Perry took your photo.  I worked at the Back Behind saloon from about 1976 to  1997 with the exception of the summer of 81 and winter of 82 when I was line cook  at  Snow king and then Alpenhoff out in teton Village. Starting as dishwasher and finishing as Chef. 

As A former ski race photographer the toung sticking out thing is not uncommon. 

Lori, I got 6 laps on Betty today! I need 19 more pitches to beat my personal record for the year.
What a beautiful day! Couldn't ask for better weather at this time of the year.
I actually got hot while climbing!

And here's my WHOOP report during the session.
This includes the hike up and down the Stairmaster, before and after.

I take it with a grain of salt. I'm a mobile app developer, and that was partly why I got the device in 2023. I also like tracking and analyzing my stats.

However, I don't find the WHOOP on my wrist matches my Polar HR monitor on my chest, and my understanding is that the Polar chest strap is the gold standard.

I don't find the WHOOP's red/yellow/green recovery info to be helpful. It doesn't generally track how I feel. I may wake up feeling crap and it says I'm in the green and ready for a big effort, or I wake up feeling great and it says I should take a recovery day. It's also not actionable unless you're a pro athlete. Am I really going to wait for WHOOP to tell me I'm in the green before doing a heavy day of climbing? I climb when I can, not when I'm at peak performance according to some device!

I did find that WHOOP accurately detects when I'm ill. The few times I've been severely ill, it put me in the red. But it didn't tell me something I didn't already know.

Anyways, it's kind of interesting, but I don't take it very seriously. I'd like to see how my stats change as I age. They've changed their algorithms a couple times since I got the device, already, so I don't know whether any changes over time will be meaningful.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I grew up in Killington so was there from 1964 through the early 2000s  I did Mtn photography from 97 to 2001 at Killington though I suspect Bob Perry took your photo.  I worked at the Back Behind saloon from about 1976 to  1997 with the exception of the summer of 81 and winter of 82 when I was line cook  at  Snow king and then Alpenhoff out in teton Village. Starting as dishwasher and finishing as Chef. 

As A former ski race photographer the toung sticking out thing is not uncommon. 

My first visit to Killington was March 1958.  I was working as a part time ski instructor at Mohawk Mountain in Connecticut.  Frank Tarkington ran the ski school and did the weekly ski reports on ABC radio from NYC.  Back then the ski season at Mohawk lasted into mid-March on natural snow.  Frank, wrote a letter of introduction for myself and Gerry Woodard (still a good friend) to Pres Smith, founder and CEO of Killington and Gerry and I ventured north after Mohawk closed. We got free skiing but no instruction opportunities.  Remember the mid-station on the K-chair?  Gerry and I used to hop off there and tuck down the lift line as far as we dared.  Years later Sheree and I met in K Base before lift opening. Rode the chair together and after 32 years are still together.  Killington played a most important role in my life.

Nick, do you know Marc Adami?  BITD he owned the Forerunner Ski Shop on the access road.

Yury wrote:

I apologize for sharing definition by American Psychiatric Association with you.
Apparently asking "to trust the science" is too much for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5

Technically still a Pedophile.

That group was engaged in sex with 12 and 13 year old girls. That’s why some Republican states are trying to update age of consent to 12. That’s pretty bad no matter how you define it.

“A person who has a sexual attraction to young girls aged 12-13 is referred to by clinical terms such as a pedophile or hebephile, “

For practical purposes, such distinctions only matter to a prosecuting attorney, or to someone trying to rationalize their actions with a young person. Otherwise, how much does it really matter in the case of Epstein?

Just getting caught up with the goings on here. On this end it's springtime in Balcarce (taken on the 3rd of November): 

I do not remember Mark.   I grew up In Mission Farm ( the red house next to the stone church) right across the valley from the base of the Killington Gondola. It was a real farm back then.  we watched them build the Gondola (orange death pumpkins) in 1969. My dad was pissed at Press Smith because the helicopter piolets were Viet Nam Vets and real hot dogs and when they buzzed our farm it scared the cows and horses.  I loved it!  <Me, my dad and my sister on the Killington summit chair late 60's.

me bouldering on the church as a young adult. My dad was the Episcopal priest at Mission Farm.

Daniel Shively wrote:

There are a multitude of issues to criticize republicans for but implying that some states are trying to lower the age of consent to twelve is ludicrous. When I read this, I took a few minutes to try to verify this and if anything every state has raised the age of consent and strengthened existing laws. Also, I’m generally not a supporter of the death penalty, but I’ll gladly make exceptions for anyone who is found guilty of abusing children. 

True, the ages were amended in 2018 from 14 to 16. It was never 12 in this century.

Li Hu wrote:

True, the ages were amended in 2018 from 14 to 16. It was never 12 in this century.

Don't want to carry this discussion much further, but want to clarify that the age of consent varies from state to state, but usually ( maybe everywhere now) in the 16-18 range. Though some states--don't remember which ones, allow marriage at even younger ages with parental consent---and sometimes that can cross the line into pedophilia. Look what was going on in some of those 'Mormon fundamentalist' communities that Krakauer wrote about in Under the Banner of Heaven.

One other factor in the definition of a pedophile, is the age differentiatial--which also is a factor in some state's laws. For instance, a 17 year old 'interested in' a 15 year old, wouldn't normally be considered to be a pedophile, but a 30 year old, for instance...... No question about significant age differentials when looking at the proclivities of Epstein and his cronies!!!

Two days in a row I got skunked by too much snow and not enough ice.. yesterday I skied up the mountain 

And wallowed through chest deep snow to find this 

Didn't bother swimming through the last 50ft of neck deep snow to try to get to a little bit of ice. Today I skied up again 

and wallowed again.

At first glance the ice looked good 

And I was stoked but once I got 50ft up past a move I didn't want to reverse the ice turned to Total crap.

The kid that went up ahead of me had kicked most of it off..  so for the 3rd time this season I bailed..  should have bought my telle gear and just gone skiing like a smart person...

James Harvey wrote:

Sunset before some local NHL action last night.

Beautiful!

Sorry, agreed about the bad stuff.

On the climbing front, finally starting to lead 5.12a/b at the gym. One 5.11d is on my todo list for tomorrow. My 25 year old climbing partner fell off the 5.11c that I had nearly finished two days ago, and he fell lower down twice. This was the one that he claimed that if I had made it up he’d somewhat respect me.

I didn’t know whether to empathise with him or to smile. That smile was an involuntary ear to ear smugly satisfying look, I’m sure…

I’m so immature, I know.   

Too bad, not an alien spacecraft nudges just over the “not alien life”  decision line…
Astrophotographer captures 3I/ATLAS passing by galaxy
https://share.google/l2F8CsZd70nWqSqeW

Your pictures are always great, Daniel, but those lion ones are really fantastic. You clearly had your remote camera placed in the ideal position. 

Li Hu wrote:

Beautiful!

Sorry, agreed about the bad stuff.

On the climbing front, finally starting to lead 5.12a/b at the gym. One 5.11d is on my todo list for tomorrow. My 25 year old climbing partner fell off the 5.11c that I had nearly finished two days ago, and he fell lower down twice. This was the one that he claimed that if I had made it up he’d somewhat respect me.

I didn’t know whether to empathise with him or to smile. That smile was an involuntary ear to ear smugly satisfying look, I’m sure…

I’m so immature, I know.   

This Represents a lot of hard work, Marc (Mark?), and you’ve been writing about this since you first signed on this thread.  I don’t know if your journey has been fully appreciated.  This thread moves so quickly and it’s hard to focus on one person, but gosh, we watch in almost real time, all the efforts and successes of climbers here.

I listened to the whole interview with Randy Leavitt yesterday while I was out roaming.  One of the most inspiring videos I’ve ever seen is of Randy climbing the Book of Hate and now I cannot find it on YouTube anywhere.  If anyone knows where it is, would you let me know?

So thinking about Randy‘s life right up to the present I was also thinking about purpose and meaning as an older person. I always thought “retirement“ meant you are done with everything, grab the fishing poles, AND you help your kids keep all their balls in the air.

Yesterday was the birthdays of two of my seven grandchildren and I wasn’t there. I wanted to send them birthday present that would mean something – – mom said they like building Lego cars so I spent several hours sorting through all the various cars on Amazon. I picked the Bugatti and Lamborghini even though Tony said “they’re not gonna like that. They like monster trucks.“ But I should know this, right?

All the other grandparents are dead. They spent their last year’s reading Dr. Seuss and racing around the yard on big wheels with the kids.

I knew when I sold my home and packed my bags to head for Joshua Tree there would be some hard times, but I had such a sense of calling. I still do.  How important is it that I hobble up a 5.8 route versus maybe lending a hand with the grandkids?. Yet everyone seems to know “it’s climbing season and grams is busy.“

It’ll never be a book of hate (but it could be Touch and Go.) . So I don’t know what value I can lend to my five granddaughters.  My oldest granddaughter FaceTime me all the time to show me her latest swimsuit or artwork.  Will that be enough?

I was really impressed listening to Randy talk about trade-offs and some of the concessions he made – – he wanted to be an Alpine mountaineer.  But also he needed to establish a career for himself.  So his compromise was big wall climbing.  

"My grandma is rad!"

"She is such an inspiration!"

Lori Milas wrote:

All the other grandparents are dead. They spent their last year’s reading Dr. Seuss and racing around the yard on big wheels with the kids.

I knew when I sold my home and packed my bags to head for Joshua Tree there would be some hard times, but I had such a sense of calling. I still do.  How important is it that I hobble up a 5.8 route versus maybe lending a hand with the grandkids?. Yet everyone seems to know “it’s climbing season and grams is busy.“

It’ll never be a book of hate (but it could be Touch and Go.) . So I don’t know what value I can lend to my five granddaughters.  My oldest granddaughter FaceTime me all the time to show me her latest swimsuit or artwork.  Will that be enough?

I was really impressed listening to Randy talk about trade-offs and some of the concessions he made – – he wanted to be an Alpine mountaineer.  But also he needed to establish a career for himself.  So his compromise was big wall climbing.  

This is such a personal post and brave of you to open up about your thoughts on this idea.

I think that this is very individual to who you are and what you value most and will be different for each person.

For me, family is 100% the priority, no question.  Nothing comes close.

But that may be b/c I was in Iraq and Afghanistan for literal years of time while my children were really young and growing. I missed multiple birthdays and it hurt so much not to be there.  While this was a choice as I voluntarily joined the Army, it was not a choice at the time b/c they were lawful orders that I had to obey and deploy.

I would skip climbing any day to be with my kids or, hopefully, future grandkids. But better yet would be (and is!) taking them climbing with me!

I know that one set of my children's grandparents were very present, always coming to see us no matter where we lived in the world, always engaging with them, etc. and the other set was not all at engaged and never visited us.  We would go to them occasionally on holidays, etc. but they never interacted with my children like the other set. 

Well, now that my children are all older (youngest is 17) they really do not even remember anything personal about the ones that never visited (those two have passed away).  They have no real memories of them. The other set of grandparents are still alive and still weekly involved in their lives and my kiddos think of them and speak to them all the time and love them.

I hope to be very, very involved with any future grandchildren that I might have but everyone is different and this is not a judgment on any one, just my thoughts.

Lori Milas wrote:

This Represents a lot of hard work, Marc, and you’ve been writing about this since you first signed on this thread.  I don’t know if your journey has been fully appreciated.  This thread moves so quickly and it’s hard to focus on one person, but gosh, we watch in almost real time, all the efforts and successes of climbers here.

I was mainly inspired by your own progress! Enjoy reading about Ward, Nick, everyone here. Cool set of folks on their climbing journeys especially over 50 (60 or more mostly)

My partner stated that “You’re reliving some of your youth”, and he’s correct! And plan to continue to lead 5.11 on gear down here, and work 5.12s in the gym and possibly do some sport routes! Love cracks and working on those in the gym as well as Joshua Tree. The vibe at Josh is just so great! 

I was really impressed listening to Randy talk about trade-offs and some of the concessions he made – – he wanted to be an Alpine mountaineer.  But also he needed to establish a career for himself.  So his compromise was big wall climbing.  

He’s impressive!

dragons wrote:

PTR, Peterskill is not cheating. All outdoor pitches, including TR or follow, are included in the count. MP doesn't have any way to distinguish the pitch counts. Gym climbing doesn't count though. I don't record gym climbs in MP, in any case.

Alan, Last time I checked, Peterskill closes Dec 15, "weather permitting". So there's still time. I was just there last weekend with a group. It was pretty gray and cold!

Buck, A couple years ago, I climbed Three Pines on December 31st (I even led a pitch of it!). So, we'll see!   

Morning all….. 

First off -C. Miller    Thanks for the video. It sort of encapsulates this thread. Looking backwards, US lifers, have certainly seen a huge change in the “sport”.  It’s actually pretty mind blowing when you get right down to it.

Dragons- You go get it! I really love the fact that you DON’T COUNT THE INDOOR STUFF. I really hope you shatter your goal.

Question. This Peterskill place. The way some of you guys speak about it is kinda derisive. Is it Short and Overprotected?  We have several places like that scattered around. To big to boulder, much to short for roped climbing. Then suddenly I hear about a new hot spot - “MegaLand” - ….. and I go visit and find out that it’s the collection of little rocks you can see from the highway. But now they are covered, grid style, with bolts and roots.  
Things change I reckon.

NICK….. everything you do looks freeing!!!! Enjoy 

Lori…. Good luck “restarting” . TBH if you never stop you never need to “restart”. Let US know how it goes. Good luck.

Daniel… please keep the photos coming! I like them.

Everyone else…. Keep the cards n letters coming.

Later all 

 

Last day of the trip, hoping for something climbable despite several days of rain and snow.  Lol.