New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40

Daniel Shively wrote:

After 2 days of short walks in the rain, Etienne is happy for a dry and beautiful long walk as the storm begins to clear. 

Our efforts at ridding the desert of old and abandoned barbed wire fencing has resulted in the creation of a modern art installation. 

It’s good to not worry about Etienne and other beasts becoming entangled in the mess of old fences. 

Skis are waxed and ready to go for tomorrow’s first tour of the season. Ullr really came through with the blessing of snow. 

That's nasty work picking up rusty barbed wire...Thanks for doing that. Hopefully you got a tetanus booster for Christmas! 

Bill Z wrote:

That's nasty work picking up rusty barbed wire...Thanks for doing that. Hopefully you got a tetanus booster for Christmas! 

We are literally out there almost every day so it’s a work in progress. We have coiled up many big runs of the wire and add the short pieces to our sphere. I haven’t suffered any punctures but did get some new work gloves from Santa. Cheers!

philip bone wrote:

Hey what became of The Fossil? We're looking for the bodies on another thread. 

Colden as well?
I think that in each case they 'withdrew' after receiving considerable blowback from comments  each had made; that, while probably not in the 'best taste' , surely weren't 'disqualifying'. Hope they both return to add their very individualist perspectives.

Sam Findley wrote:

Just dropping in some more falconry photos. I was visiting family in vt and a cousin is an amateur photographer. What a difference a good photographer makes! So much better than my crappy iPhone pics.

How well did he travel to Vermont?

What was the set up?

And I had never heard of Nearis Green.  Thanks for that!  Cool history! 

^^ I suppose you're right Al Rubin. It does enrich the broth to have a variety of flavors. We get to compare perspectives and get a glimpse of other regions, a glimpse which is far more personal then simply searching online. 

Well, if their low profile is related to what blew up in the 'Sexy Singles-Gym' thread, not hard to understand why they'd fade back. Sheesh.

Watched All I Can Say last night. This film was just…fine. I’ve appreciated Blind Melon, but they were never in the bullseye of my musical taste. Looking more closely at the band and at Hoon, this film didn’t bring much clarity to me as to their brilliance, or why they were so hugely popular. Hoon just struck me as a young guy with modest talent who struck it big and whose substance use history got the best of him. The strongest feeling I had was for his daughter, girlfriend Lisa, and the other family in his life- they seemed to have a good connection with him, and would have been quite devastated by his death. (That dang 'No Rain' song has ear-wormed into my head ever since.)

Anybody a big Blind Melon fan out there? What worked for you about them?

I have not opened that sexy singles thread. I assumed it was going to be a shit show. 

Yes, Todd, too,--though I don't recall him posting anything that led to strong negative blowback. Undoubtedly others who would be good to have back around our campfire, even if we don't always see 'eye to eye'.

All those folks had already 'disappeared' before the 'sexy singles scene' thread materialized---though I'm sure they would have had some 'interesting' contributions!!!

Let the bodies hit the floor. 

Not much to add except that Denise and I plan to enjoy a bit of consensual pinch and tickle while bouldering together as long as our aging bodies can handle it. Lol

I hope that everyone is having a great holiday season. Peace to all. 

Jack Carbon wrote:

Question has that been skied? (Half Dome)

Yes. Link to an article from a few years ago 

https://ktla.com/news/california/2-men-become-first-skiers-to-descend-yosemites-half-dome/#:~:text=Jason%20Torlano%2C%2045%2C%20and%20Zach,a%20ranger%20in%20the%20park.

I know Todd is still bouldering around N Ca as he is still busy on YouTube. His videos pop up in my climbing/music/car repair home page.

"The" Fossil and Colden, hmmm

When the light is flat and the pow is blown out it’s time to boulder. 

Todd dropped me a note before he erased his profile here. He’s just a busy dad and veterinarian and felt he was spending too much time online, and wanted to spend more time present with his kids. I think you can find him on Instagram where you could send him a message. 

I don’t want to speak for fossil, but we have been in touch and I don’t think he ever planned to be a regular on this thread, but he sure is a nice guy and would make a great friend. Strange I don’t remember any harsh comments from him, but if they were directed at me I certainly wasn’t offended.

—-

I got out for a morning of climbing with Bob and so glad I did. I’m kind of calling this the end of my reentry to climbing. Period. End of 2025.  I have a long way to go to be fully “back”, but so glad for these beautiful days of working my muscles and especially my brain. 2026 will be a new year, new beginning.  

I’m learning to look at climbing in a fresh way—as a deepening of awareness (is that too woo woo?) rather than a numbers progression  Today I understood how to distribute my weight between toes and fingers more than ever on steep slab.

Bob launching up the same route…

Lori Milas wrote:

I’m learning to look at climbing in a fresh way—as a deepening of awareness (is that too woo woo?) rather than a numbers progression  Today I understood how to distribute my weight between toes and fingers more than ever on steep slab.

I love this! 

Ship T wrote:

Yes. Link to an article from a few years ago 

https://ktla.com/news/california/2-men-become-first-skiers-to-descend-yosemites-half-dome/#:~:text=Jason%20Torlano%2C%2045%2C%20and%20Zach,a%20ranger%20in%20the%20park.

Looks like they skied the cable route on the other side. I think skiing the Snake Dike route might be pretty rad, but I'm not much of a skier..

Quote from the article: "He said things quickly turned dangerous when he skied over part of one of the cables and lost control before he used an ice ax to stop his slide and was able to right himself. :

Lori Milas wrote:

Todd dropped me a note before he erased his profile here. He’s just a busy dad and veterinarian and felt he was spending too much time online, and wanted to spend more time present with his kids. I think you can find him on Instagram where you could send him a message. 

I don’t want to speak for fossil, but we have been in touch and I don’t think he ever planned to be a regular on this thread, but he sure is a nice guy and would make a great friend. Strange I don’t remember any harsh comments from him, but if they were directed at me I certainly wasn’t offended.

—-

I got out for a morning of climbing with Bob and so glad I did. I’m kind of calling this the end of my reentry to climbing. Period. End of 2025.  I have a long way to go to be fully “back”, but so glad for these beautiful days of working my muscles and especially my brain. 2026 will be a new year, new beginning.  

I’m learning to look at climbing in a fresh way—as a deepening of awareness (is that too woo woo?) rather than a numbers progression  Today I understood how to distribute my weight between toes and fingers more than ever on steep slab.

Bob launching up the same route…

I don’t remember anything harsh from Fossil either?

Hopefully, they make their way back here as did I.

It’s cool climbing, the title of this thread is cool! 

Kristian Solem wrote:

Looks like they skied the cable route on the other side. I think skiing the Snake Dike route might be pretty rad, but I'm not much of a skier..

Quote from the article: "He said things quickly turned dangerous when he skied over part of one of the cables and lost control before he used an ice ax to stop his slide and was able to right himself. :

I remember the one time I had to use an axe after my skiier friends dropped into an icy chute at Virginia Lakes. I could hear them scraping ice and all I had was a snowboard that hadn't ever had the edges sharpened cause I avoided ice typically. I made it halfway down before I lost my edge and started going really fast all the sudden. I had been apprehensive about boarding with an axe in my hands but HOLY SHIT AM I GLAD I DID! That might have been as close to death in the mountains as I have ever been...

Kristian Solem wrote:

Looks like they skied the cable route on the other side. I think skiing the Snake Dike route might be pretty rad, but I'm not much of a skier..

Quote from the article: "He said things quickly turned dangerous when he skied over part of one of the cables and lost control before he used an ice ax to stop his slide and was able to right himself. :

I went to a talk by Jim Zellers a few years ago where he talked about being the first person to snowboard the cables route on Half Dome. On his first attempt, he was at the base of the cables with his wife, Bonnie (who is also an accomplished snowboarder) and about to start climbing up where he intended to descend. Jim said Bonnie thought it looked extremely sketchy and said she was going to break up with him if he decided to continue. So he was in a dilemma, deciding what to do next and then the snow on the entire route slid off. He said Bonnie had very good instincts.

Jim said the critical factor in being able to ride Half Dome was incoming weather where the rock surface iced up and snow bonded onto the ice and accumulated. I’m not describing this nearly as well as he did. The necessary conditions happen very rarely and there’s an extremely narrow weather window to make a descent. Given the length and vertical of Snake Dike compared with the cables route, one would need a much longer cold period. Snake Dike looks like a very scary ski descent. I can’t imagine going out there and the commitment required. It would be pretty hard to turn back at a certain point.

On a separate note, Jason Turlano skied Cloud’s Rest, with an 800 foot rappel.

Lori Milas wrote:

it’s a beautiful morning here and a brisk 40° and I’m taking a gratitude walk today. Gratitude because it seems to be getting a little easier. So there’s a rock/Boulder I pass when I hike this trail and I thought I’d go explore it a little more. I think I should climb it but it’s pretty hard to even get to it. It has a patina face that would really be a challenge, but there is also a 5.10 something route on the side.

Looks like Herman Rock. Interesting route. Not quite as straight-forward as it appears from the bottom, but pretty good.
I don't recall it being much of a scramble to get up to the base.