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oldguy53
Oct 18, 2012, 2:51 AM
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Not ready to hang it up yet?? One or two more years of climbing before giving away the gear. Now I got more time than muscle and looking for partners. bobo
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photonicgirl
Oct 18, 2012, 12:59 PM
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I'm keeping my gear, not too old to climb, just too old to climb with kids who don't believe in safety. Too bad you are in Indiana!
Jules
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gblauer
Moderator
Oct 18, 2012, 4:33 PM
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I am old and I started climbing late in life. I am training hard to keep improving. I don't intend to quit until I lose interest. I climb with three gentlemen; two in their 70's and one who is in his 80's.
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marc801
Oct 18, 2012, 5:05 PM
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gblauer wrote: I am old and I started climbing late in life.
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njrox
Oct 18, 2012, 5:17 PM
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gblauer wrote: I climb with three gentlemen; two in their 70's and one who is in his 80's.
That's awesome! I climbed with a guy in his 50s a couple of times. Cool dude with awesome stories and he was in tremendous shape.
I don't mind the youngsters. I'm 33 and a Father so I kinda prefer climbers my age, or at least climbers who are parents so they can understand the demands of having kids.
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dan2see
Oct 18, 2012, 6:06 PM
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marc801 wrote: gblauer wrote: I am old and I started climbing late in life. Define "old" and "late in life" please!
Fortunately for me, I don't know anybody who is "old" or "late in life".
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JimTitt
Oct 18, 2012, 6:08 PM
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gblauer wrote: I am old and I started climbing late in life. I am training hard to keep improving. I don't intend to quit until I lose interest. I climb with three gentlemen; two in their 70's and one who is in his 80's.
I´d have stretched to "early mature" in your case!
Old is the generation that started climbing before mine.
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gblauer
Moderator
Oct 18, 2012, 6:27 PM
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Oh...do I have to?
Let's put it this way, I am well into my 50's! I started in my mid forties.
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marc801
Oct 18, 2012, 8:26 PM
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I started in college at 17. I'll turn 58 in December.
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stoneguy
Oct 19, 2012, 12:02 AM
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I hate the age question.. at least publicly.
I was passing for early fifties for a while, but pretty sure I'm older than you guys, and I just started climbing last year. Started leading trad in January. Was forced to do tread-mill cardio after a small heart attack so took this up instead.
Eat healthy is my suggestion (and climb of course) and hang in there.
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louBlissab
Oct 19, 2012, 12:25 AM
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There is no good reason to ever give-up climbing. There are many good reasons to continue climbing until the end.
Just have to eat correctly (advantage to vegetarians), live simply, do yoga, go the the gym and just get out there and climb.
One can always find reasons not to climb...work, family, health, weather, the list goes on and on. You have to fight hard to find the reasons to climb and they will out-weigh everything else.
A good day climbing trumps every other endeavor.
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naitch
Oct 19, 2012, 12:51 AM
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I've posted it before but my T-shirt says it all: "We don't stop climbing because we get old - we get old because we stop climbing.
61 and still improving
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louBlissab
Oct 19, 2012, 12:55 AM
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naitch wrote: "we get old because we stop climbing"
Nothing more needs to be said!
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guangzhou
Oct 19, 2012, 2:38 AM
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I know a couple of climbers in their 50s who climb 5.14 regularly. Pretty Sure Jim Donini is in his late 60s now. Still putting up FA in Patagonia. Climbs pretty hard too.
When I was in my 20s, people said you'll see when you're in your 30's, when I was in my 30's, they said wait till you're in your 40's, now in my 40s, people tell me to wait till I'm in my 50s.
Eat healthy, workout moderately not excessively, relax every now and than, and climb when ever yu get a chance.
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moose_droppings
Oct 19, 2012, 2:44 AM
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60 is so...
so..
so...
so close, only a couple weeks away.
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wivanoff
Oct 19, 2012, 12:22 PM
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59 here.
Next October will be the 40th anniversary of my first lead at the Gunks. Belly Roll - LOL. I should lead it again on the same date
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Dip
Oct 19, 2012, 12:55 PM
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curt wrote: njrox wrote: That's awesome! I climbed with a guy in his 50s a couple of times. Cool dude with awesome stories and he was in tremendous shape... Really? That old eh? Did he park his walker at the base of the crag or just clip it to his swami?  Curt
Seriously. Did you have to check him out of the old folks home or was he given permission to leave on his own?
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njrox
Oct 19, 2012, 1:34 PM
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Dip wrote: curt wrote: njrox wrote: That's awesome! I climbed with a guy in his 50s a couple of times. Cool dude with awesome stories and he was in tremendous shape... Really? That old eh? Did he park his walker at the base of the crag or just clip it to his swami? Curt Seriously. Did you have to check him out of the old folks home or was he given permission to leave on his own?
No, I picked him up from his house. But our start was delayed because he lost his bifocals and had trouble putting his dentures in.
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troutboy
Oct 19, 2012, 4:04 PM
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njrox wrote: Dip wrote: curt wrote: njrox wrote: That's awesome! I climbed with a guy in his 50s a couple of times. Cool dude with awesome stories and he was in tremendous shape... Really? That old eh? Did he park his walker at the base of the crag or just clip it to his swami? Curt Seriously. Did you have to check him out of the old folks home or was he given permission to leave on his own? No, I picked him up from his house. But our start was delayed because he lost his bifocals and had trouble putting his dentures in.
Well played! Now nwhere are my reading glasses....?
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rgold
Oct 20, 2012, 7:43 AM
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I've forgotten how many times I concluded I was "old." I think the first time when I was 30, because that was the age when my generation had proclaimed you were no longer trustworthy. I'm now more than double that original milestone, which means, I suppose, that the last shreds of trustworthiness have now doubly vanished. I can report, from the other side, that trustworthiness is not all its cracked up to be, and in many ways it is a relief to be rid of it.
I've just finished my 55th year of climbing. I'm a month shy of 69, the same age as Donini, without, however, anything even close to his accomplishments. Still, I've been at it a long time, going back to a guided ascent of the Grand in 1957.
My latest evidence for getting old is that last February I had the first climbing injury that actually stopped me from climbing---a ruptured ACL (and torn meniscus) that required an operation and initiated a year-long rehab process that has kept me away from climbing for seven months, my longest layoff ever.
There are other hints that I am no longer twenty; both time and space prevent me from enumerating them here, I'm sure to the relief of whatever audience there is for such dour musings. So I'll just mention one thing.
I've been a long-time Gunks local, and although I try to keep things fresh by doing routes I haven't done before (the Gunks, meaning the entire region and not just the Trapps, is vast) it is inevitable that I repeat some routes. Every now and then when I do this, I'll touch a hold and feel an intense sense of déja vue. The hold, which is just the same as it was fifty years ago, brings back a flood of memories and sensations, a momentary time-machine transport back to another era for me and the world.
The sensation lasts but an instant, but is invariably followed by a much longer-lasting sense of connection, to something that is timeless, that was there long before me and will be there long after me, but which has received and in some way reciprocated my presence, and in which I feel some aspect of my spirit will reside forever.
This is part of what it means to be an old climber, and by old I mean old enough to be able to look down the road and realize that the end is no longer unimaginably far away. Climbing becomes a lot more than tick lists and route difficulties, important as they may have been in their time. It becomes part of a connection to the world and an integration with those parts of it that are permanent. Young people do not think of such things, and I suppose plenty of old people do not either. But I feel fortunate to have come all this way and still get grab that little crimp---the same little crimp---I seized with such naive enthusiasm so many years ago.
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naitch
Oct 20, 2012, 10:46 AM
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^^^^^ +1
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oldguy53
Oct 20, 2012, 12:41 PM
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ELOQUENT and ELUCIDATE. A mear pup I am at 61. The recent motorcycle/auto accident and operations have lower my chi . Sing and dance as long as I can , then play an instrument. Gracefully surrender the things of youth.
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satch
Oct 22, 2012, 5:20 PM
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Well said Rich. The only thing I would disagree with you on is the "integration with those parts of it that are permanent". With age, I have just gotten more comfortable with the impermanence of things.
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climbingaggie03
Oct 22, 2012, 6:10 PM
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I'm 31 and I can still climb 5.9, I know it won't last forever, but maybe for another couple of years I'll be able to enjoy it.
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