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New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40
Alan Rubin wrote: Thanks Alan, my efforts are a work in progress. I was fortunate the this lion came back during the daytime. Many photos end up as grainy, night vision captures. The following photos are of the lion that we walked up on and got within 10’ before she bounded away. This was a cool situation because later that night she and her juvenile cub both returned. The mother cat has been captured previously and wears a tracking collar.    Thanks for the kind words James and for keeping this thread on track. I enjoy all of your contributions too. |
Li Hu wrote: 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? 
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. |
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"My grandma is rad!" "She is such an inspiration!" |
Lori Milas wrote: 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: 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)
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: 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. 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
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Last day of the trip, hoping for something climbable despite several days of rain and snow. Lol.   |
C Miller wrote: Temps were actually cold but OK, it was the water running down the overhanging boulder that was the deal breaker. We were prepared to clear snow off the top but not going to be enough to make it climbable today. I was prepared to go home empty handed but I got so close and then the weather crapped out. Back to the east and training! |
Ward Smith wrote: Enough snowfall, and not only won’t you need pads, but you may get a much higher sit down start! |
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Still can’t do a split but I’m working on it.  |
Guy Keesee wrote: Not exactly. But routes there are shorter (50-70 ft?) than routes at the Gunks, and the Trapps cliffs are so close by (5 minutes away), so maybe that's why it gets less respect. Like, why climb a single-pitch 70 ft route when you could go climb 3 pitches of 100 ft each? Some people think of Peterskill as more of a TR/kiddie area. I think that's because a lot of guides take groups of kids there in the summer. There are some appealing aspects: Access to most of the cliff is very short and easy from the parking lot, which is adjacent to restrooms with actual running water. It's all trad or TR, some of it quite hard, some really easy. There are no bolts that I know of, except for bolted anchors on some of the routes. |
dragons wrote: Thank you for the answer. It sounds wonderful. Same sort of stone as the Gunk’s? |
Guy Keesee wrote: Yes the same Gunks conglomerate. The Peterskill 'not getting any respect" thing is pretty funny. I agree with dragons' comments, but the funny thing is that a lot of folks who climb in the Gunks, and dismiss Peterskill, often only climb the first pitches of many of the routes at the main Gunks cliffs and then rap off convenient bolted anchors---and many of those pitches are no longer--and less steep and continuous, than many of the routes at Peterskill!!! As you can guess, I am a Peterskill fan, even though I haven't climbed there that frequently. But, sure, if you want to, you clearly can get much higher on the main Gunks crags. |
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Rich Romano on a 5.9 at the Peterskill cliff, circa 1979.  The parking lot there was built for a skiing operation run by the Minnewaska Hotel called Ski-Minne. The building is no longer there and was destroyed by fire.  |
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I gave up on ice climbing today and skinned up the ski mountain that is not yet open for business. I was about 4 days late.. Monday was the real powder day and Tuesday was probably also killer. The locals have been getting after it pretty hard and it's all chopped up now.    2150ft vertical rise was a bit of work for me. the arthritic feet are talking... they are supposed to open for turkey day  the ski down was fun but also pretty hard for me. choppy and also lots of frozen water bars down lower. legs are not strong enough yet.. Isa's front yard.. She is in Maine playing Grandma  I really needed the sauna and cold plunge. The pond is finally almost full to where it's supposed to be.  2 inches of fresh ice . PINTA to chop through.. I should smarten up and find a piece of High R rigid insulation to cover my hole with... sounds good on paper but more than likly it will freeze into the ice and cause a mess. |
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My only big kitty encounter. On the hike back OUT. It wasn't there hiking in, and only this single track on the muddy "road". Posted before, probably, but still a favorite.  |
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'Big kitty's' are 'officially' extinct in Massachusetts. However, years ago my wife and daughter, then around 8 and, as always, 'Eagle-eyed', were driving home fairly late in the evening through a heavily forested area in the hills not too far from home, when they spotted what they have no doubt was one eating kill close to the road. They even doubled back for a second look as the cat was too focused on the kill to run off. Neither my wife nor daughter are ones to make things up or exaggerate, and are quite familiar with identifying animals---it was much too big be a bobcat or any other potential alternatives--and had that 'lion' head. No phone cameras back then for photos. Not too long after, a couple of weeks maybe, on the day after a heavy rain, I was in the same range of hills, though about 15 miles north ( not far from where Ward lives), wandering on old dirt roads on a 'new rock hunt'. About a mile or so in I encountered a semi-dry 'mud puddle' and in it was a foot print, just like the one OLH posted above. We had house cats at the time, so I recognized it as a cat print, but it was many times bigger than that of any house cat, including our good-sized Maine Coon. Given that it was in semi-dry mud it was clearly relatively fresh. I immediately decided that I'd done enough exploring for the day!!! A few years later a mountain lion was found dead as road kill in Connecticut, where they are also claimed to be extinct. They aren't!!!! |
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Helen, I had a similar experience. For some reason I decided a 20 mile mountain hike in the rain would be a good idea. I was sure alone as I could be. I didn't tell anyone where I was going, either. 5 miles in, up on a ridge, the rain was coming down steady. Everything was saturated. I'm diddy bopping along when I saw them, unmistakable, lion tracks in the mud of the trail. They were going the same direction as me. I kept going. When I first encountered the tracks, they were filled with water. As I walked, I started to notice the tracks looking a little fresher, with a little less water cupped in the prints. I came around another bend and there the tracks had very little water in them. 10 more of my steps and the cat tracks veered off into the brush and disappeared. OK that was sort of freaky. The way I read it, the cat had been walking slowly on the the trail. I came up from behind, the rain serving to muffle any noise I was making. I think I actually caught up to it and scared it away. Standing there in the driving rain, looking into the chaparral, I had this tingling feeling on the back of my neck. Some deep, animal part of my brain knew I was being watched. I stood there knowing that cat was close by and watching me intently. I could really feel those eyes but I couldn't see them. Deep instinct was at work, automated firmware had kicked in. I took the decision to continue my hike! The next few miles followed the ridge before finally descending to a creek in the canyon below. Many, many miles still to go from the creek but at least more sheltered in the canyon. All along the ridge my spidey sense was on high alert. It felt as though curious cat followed me for some time. But eventually that feeling started to fade, which I interpreted to mean the cat was no longer following me. It did not descend to the creek. Once there I felt alone again. Was it hunting me? When I left the spot where the tracks veered off the trail and continued on, I stopped frequently and suddenly turned around, like I heard something, even though I didn't. I continued this behavior until my neck stopped tingling. I wanted the lion to know I knew it was there and I was ready. But no, I don't think it it was hunting me. Just probably blown away to see a human up there in such bad weather. It was curious, where in the hell is that human going??? Then it got bored and left. The rain was coming and going during the afternoon, but as it got dark it returned with a vengeance. I'd been out in it for hours and hours and even with goretex and a good umbrella, my legs were soaked. I knew I had to keep moving. The last few miles back to the truck were through slick and sticky coast range mud. It was exhausting and I could feel the cold seeping in. I knew if I did not get back to the truck, I was in serious jeopardy from hypothermia. I was shivering uncontrollably when opened the door to my truck, started it and got the heater going. 20-mile day in the rain, tracked by a mountain lion, overwhelmed by mud, onset of hypothermia, and then I was driving home listening to music and trying to dry my pants and socks off. Ever since then I'm far more aware of mountain lion territory, habitat, and habits; dawn and dusk, solo hiking or running, in the trees along an embankment or ridge, where a cat could pounce me from behind, I get very wary. I start doing that sudden turning thing, frequently staring off into the foliage, listening, looking, like Dutch in Predator. |
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For the record, I really like Peterskill (lest anyone think my question above was meant to denigrate the place). And I had one of those cat-aware days hiking alone in Zion once in the winter -- that "tingling feeling in the back of my neck" as Cherokee describes. |
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Allan, I am quite certain that the road kill kitty in CT was a collared male on walkabout from out west. I am also quite certain that we do not have a breeding population here in the north east. we do have occasional nomads passing through. |
