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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Oct 23, 2016 - 06:26pm PT
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I only ever quit because of injuries.
I was hoping to be able to do easy alpine and backpacking in my old age but bad knees and back make that unlikely.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Oct 23, 2016 - 06:33pm PT
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Jgill, thanks for inspiration on the ability to come back at any age!
This morning at 10:30am I quit after the first 4 pitches (which should only count for 2.5 pitches) of Dark Shadows on Mescalito at Red Rocks. I didn't want to deal with wet sandstone in a rainstorm and the thought of chillin' at home with wifey was more inspiring in the moment of deciding whether to keep moving up or bail at the common rap point.
Maybe it has happened before, but this was the first time I remember being the one to pull the plug on any adventure. Lots of second-guessing and wondering if I'm over the hill. And while we got a few rain spatters hours earlier than expected, I'll bet the rain wouldn't have come down hard until after we would have been off. Only a few spots of heavy showers on the drive from Vegas back to Los Angeles. Oh well.
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pb
Sport climber
Sonora Ca
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Oct 23, 2016 - 06:41pm PT
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20 minutes ago, it got dark
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Lorenzo
Trad climber
Portland Oregon
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Oct 23, 2016 - 06:51pm PT
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as Gill has emphasized you never know what is around the next bend in life, and once you get old enough every pullup could be your last.
Pullup?
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Moof
Big Wall climber
Orygun
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Oct 23, 2016 - 06:58pm PT
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Never stopped, but about a 90% reduction due to wife and kid. Kid is getting more independent so I expect climbing to gradually return. Hope is to stop working in another ~8 years and redouble my efforts then. Managed to get back in decent shape over the last couple years, but mostly by running more, biking to work, etc. I can now run the 7.5 miles home from work after biking in, and the resting heart rate was 44 bpm yesterday. Goal is to crush the next El Cap route in spring, which might be the next time I climb outside a gym.
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couchmaster
climber
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Oct 23, 2016 - 07:20pm PT
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I stopped climbing at @ noon yesterday and bailed for the ground. My buddies kept at it for 2 more pitches before they also stopped about 2pm and came down cold, wet, disgusted and tired. By that time I'd piled 5 layers on and had been napping on a flat rock at the base for a half hour. Snoring they said.
I had earlier slowed down when the kids popped out @ 30 years back, still slow down in the winters cause it's total sh#t weather around here and also time to ski. Some days when skiing with my climbing buddy in the spring we are able to ski in the am and climb in the afternoon once the snow gets too warm. Otherwise, wut the heck man. Too wet and cold around here all winter although you can squeegee a few sweet days in here and there. I don't get folks who walk away unless there is some pain involved, and I've seen many in my 40 plus years at it.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Oct 23, 2016 - 07:22pm PT
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I was full on until Memorial Day 2007, age 54. Then, up at Church Dome I had a knock down drag out convulsive seizure. Yikes, thought I was dying when it happened. MRI found a birth defect in my brain, a topic my friends have since exploited in our tradition of mutual slander. Doc's killed the thing with a trick called stereotactic radio surgery, and since then I've had ups and downs. Less than a year after the treatment I was leading .11's at Josh. Considering everything, this was very satisfying.
Since then I've had more seizures. There were times where my balance was bad, my hand was weak, I was seeing and hearing things which weren't there, all the usual effects of seizure meds. Working over time with a great neurologist I'm now on a med which is mostly transparent, and I have begun the process of becoming a climber yet again. A month ago I took stock of my situation and concluded that I had to drop 15 pounds and train to have a workable strength to weight ratio. I'm down five and dropping, so we'll see. Since I hate going climbing and sucking at it I have to get this first phase done first.
I want to climb more than just about anything else I can think of right now. Anyone who knows me can understand that I feel like a caged animal. In another couple of months I expect to be in pretty good shape from the neck down.... :-) I'll be looking for a rope gun, at least to get started.
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Dingus McGee
Social climber
Where Safety trumps Leaving No Trace
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Oct 24, 2016 - 04:54am PT
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Pneumonia along with exotic lung bugs, unbenounced to me, haunted me for 2 months during the earlier wet, foggy [snow] Spring -- finally some good drugs and Ox. In May the curtain rose, friends and I put up a 4 pitch 300' sport route that we used electric bikes to get to it's summit.
And recently I was out of rock stock -- you know the raw material you find to RAP BOLT. Well my consolation is the kind of rock stock I could hike to and upon getting there would feel like cleaning the loose etc rather than resting my tired ankles. There is likely always going to be some rock stock out of hiking range? maybe for smoking sport climbers?
Getting to and finding/developing rock stock has become much easier for me even though 70 is on the horizon. I have converted 3 homebuilt ebikes to true e-dirt-bikes. Nimble they are: These 41" wheelbase machines make the enduro like bikes seem like buses on a back road.
The climbing partners I seek nowadays, need in addition to climbing skills, ebike off road skills and leanness so the ebike can carry their asses up some of the hillsides -- about 50% grade is what you occasionally get on and you have to keep the front end down.
I must confess the August rock stock was given to me from Anne Yeagle's discovery of a slightly overhanging Reese Granite cliff where I got 10 new routes. There were 5 vacant sets of ram horns for Freddie and Anne's return to the cliff on Labor Day. They were able to stamp routes on 2 of these so 3 sets remain for the general public?
In the Fall, during the search for rock stock, I quit climbing for a short duration but using these e-machines soon yielded 4 new outcrops, 3 of which are more suited for summer as they are near 8000' and 2 of them are north facing.
BTW: I pass up cracks. I told a tradster of the 60' OW with 10' of overhang in that span. He is working on it and has offroad skills so we belay each other on our projects.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Oct 24, 2016 - 06:26am PT
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Of the "Garblebase"...
I really do need to get myself a decoder ring...
lol... Gotta love the Gnome.
But I do think I might have had a stroke every time I read on of his posts... gotta check myself.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
Boise, ID
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Oct 24, 2016 - 06:42am PT
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I've been on the sidelines since April, when I broke my neck. We'll see if and when I get back to it. I plan to .
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10b4me
Mountain climber
Retired
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Oct 24, 2016 - 07:10am PT
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Suffered a knee injury in 1994. My mobility severely limited what I could climb, but I had fun at what I did climb. In 2008' I injured my good knee so I decided to have surgery. Surgery can't fix arthritis though. Climbing became less fun, so I stopped in 2014(I climbed for thirty five years).
I decided that life is too short, and that I decided to explore other means of enjoying the outdoors. I 've gotten pretty heavily into photography, and birdwatching.
To be honest, I really don't miss climbing.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Oct 24, 2016 - 08:02am PT
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who you calling a has been?
Only a couple sidelining issues:
appendicitis as a 14year old.
twisted ankle (not climbing related).
tendonitis (teenager climbing on glue on tiles at Hart Park)
gaining extra weight (school and work caused)
elbow tendons (short term off climbing for weeks at a time)
This last year shoulder impingement/bursitis. First substantial sideline for months. Fortunately over the winter.
Now climbing again. Establishing moderate slab and steeper edging routes, but hand drilling beats up your hands. May shift to climbing in Yosemite and doing cracks and sport climping at Table mtn.
Every day is a gift.
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Phil_B
Social climber
CHC, en zed
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Oct 24, 2016 - 08:29am PT
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In 1992, I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. I felt like the tin man because it took so long to get my joints moving. Climbing just made everything hurt too much so I slowed down and stopped.
This led to a decade of semi-depression, as I'd always pictured myself as a climber and didn't know what to replace it with. Kayaking helped, but I didn't have real joy in life anymore.
After getting divorced, my son talked me into taking him to the climbing gym where I'd met his mom. To my surprise, I still had the skills and the meds that control my arthritis work! More importantly, I found that regular exercise and sleep controlled my mood to a great extent.
I now climb again and have joy in it. My son, at 22, is a much stronger boulderer than I ever was. I still have him on the longer moderate climbs though, as he isn't too into getting high off the ground.
That reminds me, time to get back to the gym, sans mutt.
It'll be nice when Cleo is done with her Prof Engr. exams so we can go climbing again.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Oct 24, 2016 - 09:00am PT
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^^^ amen to modern psoriatic arthritis meds
I forgot that I stopped climbing for a brief bit around Y2K, when I had these weird red bulges on my finger joints and it was excruciating pain to touch it to the rock let alone hang on a finger lock. It stopped me from playing guitar for a while too and that really bummed me out.
Combination of more physical movement, less emotional stress, different diet, and good drugs have made it a non-issue for me now. Thanks for reminding me that I should appreciate that more!
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Oct 24, 2016 - 09:49am PT
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A month ago I took stock of my situation and concluded that I had to drop 15 pounds...
Are you going to cut off an arm? It's not like you got a beer gut, Kris.
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Oct 24, 2016 - 10:40am PT
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Boy, great news from John about coming back at 80. Never give up, folks.
Edge, thanks for your story. I'm so glad you found what matters in life and pulled through. This line killed me, though. Well played:
I took the better part of a decade off to explore professional alcoholism, but decided climbing was safer.
I'm closing in on 40 years as a climber. Seems like I want it more every year. I've had some lay-offs, mostly due to injuries--tendon pulls, etc., and there was a big slow-down for a bunch of years while my wife and I explored long-distance cycle touring, which is freaking awesome. But the Sirens on the rocks keep singing, and I keep returning. Moving to Bishop next year to get my dose for as long as I'm able with my super-enthusiastic wife and life partner by my side: BAd Wife!
BAd
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Oct 24, 2016 - 03:37pm PT
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Interesting how some of the politards really don't climb.... still manageing to climb a fair bit. 79 days last year, 73 so far this year. weather and age related injuries slow me down a fair bit.
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Oct 24, 2016 - 04:22pm PT
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I stopped climbing around 1998 after taking up steep creeping kayaking pretty heavily. Around 2001 or so I ruptured a few discs in my low back and that put a stop to everything. After back surgery it was several years before I started climbing again. Around 2013 I started climbing again, getting into big walls and slowly working my way back up the grades free climbing. I'm still stuck around easy 5.11 but happy to be outside climbing again. I'll be retiring in the next few months and plan on increasing the days per week of climbing. If anyone is in the Los Angeles area and wants to climb let me know.
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Edge
Trad climber
Betwixt and Between Nederland & Boulder, CO
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Oct 24, 2016 - 04:59pm PT
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Edge, thanks for your story. I'm so glad you found what matters in life and pulled through. This line killed me, though. Well played:
I took the better part of a decade off to explore professional alcoholism, but decided climbing was safer.
Thanks, bAd, but I credit any cleverness to post-concussion induced vertigo coupled with a flu that has had me laid up in the fetal position on the couch for the last 4 days.
On the plus side, I dropped another 8 lbs in that time, so if anyone wants to add a letter grade or two, for travel expenses and a waiver I'll come hit you in the temple with a baseball bat and kiss you on the lips while you can't remember it.
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