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New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40
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I've been pretty damned close to mt. lions--worked on a lion project 1980-81 in southern Utah. This photo was taken while I was in the tree with it while darting it. I have a closer pic I can't find right now (head shot--my minimum focusing distance for the lens was 6.5 feet, and I had to lean back to get it in focus!). Fun times. Some neat stories.  |
Ward Smith wrote: Both the sighting made by my wife and daughter and the track that I saw were in the hills that border to the west the Quabbin Reservoir area that Ward mentioned. The sense of 'being watched' mentioned by several on here is such a common phenomenon that it likely has a physiological basis. Most likely our brains get 'messages' , probably from sounds or smells, that themselves don't reach us on the 'conscious level', but are sufficient to put us on alert. That surely makes sense in terms of evolutionary survival mechanisms. |
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Big cat story. Rejean and I were biking back up to Rossland on the old rail grade. As we passed through a rock cut there was signs of a struggle and fresh blood. So fresh that it was running down the trail. A big cat must have jumped off the rock cut onto a deer(?). We didn't stop to investigate. In Rossland we have bears in town frequenty, sometimes as close to a meter or two from our back door. We keep thinking about taking down our apple and cherry tree, but don't bears have to eat? |
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This was my last bear encounter… I only posted it today, so the date is incorrect. This was last year sometime?
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Lori Milas wrote: 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? … This is probably the video you are talking about: Inertia 2: focus |
Ship T wrote: Oh, wow. Thank you so much, Ship! I searched and searched and I thought I might never see it again. This is really special. That’s really thoughtful. After watching Randy on Book of Hate I was really captivated by the amount of exertion and focus he needed to send that route. So when I was working on a new stemming route with Bob and it was taking all my energy I was really, seriously wanting to know if it was OK for an old person (me) to work that hard, ie racing heart, breathlessness. The truth is, nobody knows, but you can’t do less. I have a friend who is working on a 5.13 face climb and he said “the climbing is really delicate. Your fingers get tired and the footwork is down to millimeters.” And I thought well my route is down to centimeters but there’s something we have in common. It’s that full body experience of being all in and whatever that grade may be I think it’s the same rewards . |
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I still love the “quiet, please” request. |
Ward Smith wrote: Ward, I cannot decide if you are a candidate for aging men's gymnastics or Dancing with the Stars. I envy the flexibility. |
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John, decades ago I read a biography or autobiography about you (I forget which.) If I remember correctly you were given a Ford car with "For John Gill" engraved somewhere in it. Did this happen or did I dream it up? If it did what were the circumstances that lead to this? Thanks |
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Ok, here's a sorta rando question for this group: Do you any of you maintain AAA memberships anymore? I've had mine for decades...used it a fair amount as a young adult with less reliable cars, but in recent years (decades), not really at all. Except for maybe hotel discounts (that they never actually look at the card for). I had an incident last year where I ran out of gas (just not paying attention), and communicating with AAA's system was ridiculously ineffective, and an overly-long response time (it happened at the I-5 & 205 split south of Portland). Got me to thinking....maybe this system just isn't effective any longer, and it's time to part ways. Or is it? Anybody still have one, and found it recently useful on a road trip somewhere? |
5.13 face in Josh? I'm just curious which route. Those things don't get a lot of ascents, it's good to hear about someone getting after it... |
Daniel Shively wrote: Interesting! We dumped AAA a few months ago for Progressive, as their insurance price for a new vehicle (identical coverage) was going to be literally 2.5 times more. AAA refused to negotiate. I also switched to Good Sam roadside protection and dropped AAA for the 1st time in close to 50 years. |
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Terry E wrote: I also switched to Good Sam roadside protection and dropped AAA for the 1st time in close to 50 years. Been with State Farm for vehicle for many years- get a homeowners discount because of combined coverage, but given that my homeowners policy has (literally) quadrupled in the last few years, even if the vehicle policy is competitive, they are getting me good with the HO policy. Likewise, had this AAA membership close to 50 years. My newer car has a roadside assistance policy that goes along with it...tempted to just go with that, and drop AAA (esp since the less-than-impressive experience I had with them last year). Have you used the Good Sam program yet? Cost? |
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AAA used to be really good but I now have my doubts. Wait time seems like forever. I did ask a local tow guy if he was AAA and he said hell no. They don't pay enough. That pretty much answers the question for why response time is so long. Next year I think I will investigate what my other options are. Including simply asking my insurance company how much their towing coverage is and if using their towing coverage affects my rate. |
Daniel Shively wrote: Wow! So weird! We used to have an excellent AAA agent, who unfortunately passed on. The AAA agents we spoke with recently seemed incompetent. We ended up going with Progressive as we have several friends in the Bay Area who have gotten very high rates with AAA and much less with Progressive. Might be area specific. |
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We have AAA and have been very happy with it. I needed a new battery a few weeks ago and they came to my house in under a 1/2 hour wait time and efficiently installed a new one--had a nice chat with the road service guy as well!!! Now being retired, we are trying to get as much as we can out of our current cars, so having AAA backup is reassuring. |
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I usually have a fleet of old rigs and triple A has been really good over the years with several years when I used All 4 of my premium tows. It's just in the last few years that response time has gotten really slow. It's possible it's an NEK thing? The last time I used them the guy came All the way from NH. Seems like none of the local tow trucks are triple A. The explanation I got from several drivers is they don't pay enough. |
T Duffy wrote: 1970-71 I had pretty much finished my grad work and elected to stay on another year at CSU. At that time there was a Bell Lab in north Denver, and they had contacted the math department to hire someone to drive down once or twice a week to talk with senior engineers about the math they might be forgetting. I had very little to do, having breezed through my research. The stately old chemistry building next to the math building was controlled by the math faculty after the chemists had moved out, and it was necessary for there to be a math presence there, so I was asked to serve that purpose. I would drive in to campus about noon and greet the chemistry secretary, who was still there, and settle in the lovely oak-lined conference room with my typewriter, typing up my research, one page a day. Once or twice a week, in the afternoons I would drive down to Bell labs. At the end of that job I needed a new car to take my family down the southern Colorado, where I had been hired by the department chair of a small college. I visited the Ford dealer in Ft Collins, and arranged for Ford to build me a very simple, no frills station wagon. When it arrived the salesmen were excited and showed me the car, It had a beautiful bronze plaque attached to the glove compartment with engraved, "Made for John Gill". A year or so later Jim Holloway visited me and we drove out to several of my bouldering areas. He was very impressed with the plaque. Incidentally, Jim made the largest leap in difficulty in the history of modern bouldering.  |
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Been a while since I checked in. I’ll just leave this here. Gonna have to keep an eye out for this one. |
Victor K wrote: Victor, I communicated with the Verm last February, asking about Midnight Lightning. His reply was "After four season-ending injuries four years in a row I called it quits ". He is living in Kentucky and is engaged to a lady who lives on a beautiful horse ranch. He may do some climbing there when he is fully healed. |
