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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Apr 17, 2018 - 06:50am PT
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I am on the cusp of 75 and I still climb actively. The piece of rock architecture that I choose to puzzle out has no idea of the arbitrary number attached to it. Enjoy the movement and the beauty of where you are...leave the arithmetic at home.
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Apr 17, 2018 - 07:27am PT
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Yes to Mr. D. Never have been Joe 5.11. I don't have the world's greatest connective tissue, and whenever I'd start to break into 11's, I'd pull something that would set me back. I'd say that 5.10 is pretty dang hard, too, and I think there are very few TRUE 5.10 climbers, that is folks who can send all styles at that grade--slab, face, fingers, hands, OW, chimney, the whole bucket load of styles. I had a good day in the Gorge a couple of weeks ago and sent a 10d proud and clean. I'd TR'd it once over a year ago, so can't claim an on-sight, but I'm hoping to on-sight some sport climbs in that range this year. Since I'm privileged to live in Bishop, for the first time in my life, I've got regular access to good climbing, which is helping a lot. Mostly, I'm just really, really happy to get out, tie in, and move up some steep, beautiful rock.
BAd
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Apr 17, 2018 - 07:31am PT
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I mean this in the nicest possible way,
But, Greg, you're naivety is at times, astounding.
At 61, that you are even entertaining this quandary is a testament to the fact that you're doing pretty goddamn well in the genetic lottery.
While some of us are riddled with tendinitis and arthritis and can't write with a pen or pencil without paying serious fines, who enjoy the ability just to walk for half an hour at a crack every few days, for whom 5.6 is a once a year, or once every three years, highly sentimental kind of error, and for whom rock shoes are a serious no-no ... WTF, over!
Cripes!
... Engage in a little caloric restriction, peel back on the beer intake, clue into an aerobic fitness program, say bye-bye to some of those extra pounds, like dandelion seeds in the wind, and start floating back up that 5.11 sh#t to your heart’s content! You got this!!!
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Apr 17, 2018 - 07:44am PT
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You can still be 5.11!!!! for almost the rest of your life
All you have to do is do something you love at the same level, grade 5.11
I do 5.11d cactus and succulents, and 5.11b mineral collecting
You got to keep the passion of adventure and expertise alive just like when you climbed during your best days
why not?
It's all in your head, it's just a mental state that extreme physical feats were able to provide
you can have those same mental states with out flexing a muscle
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WBraun
climber
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Apr 17, 2018 - 07:57am PT
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^^^^ Just see the crazy cult of climbers grading their own mental speculations ..... ^^^^
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Apr 17, 2018 - 08:01am PT
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This thread could link up with PTPP’s recent lament about the state of ST (“no longer about hard climbing” or hard climbers).
eeyonkee: For my entire adult life, I have identified with being a 5.11 climber.
I would say that you’re undoubtably much much more than that. The sins of your confession lie in thinking that you are this or that. I should assume you are multitudes.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Apr 17, 2018 - 08:56am PT
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I was barely leading 5.11s back in the early 1980s, when I was at my peak athletically, and before I got hurt. 5.11 was really f-ing hard.
I never understood how other people could just leisurely fly up 5.11s without even breathing hard, when I had to struggle so much. And I was climbing every day.
To this day, it still makes me feel inferior. I never got over it.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Apr 17, 2018 - 10:10am PT
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Was out at Josh recently and climbed an easy .10 - on a top rope - and it felt like 5.11. Took me 40 years to realize the biggest thrill was just to be out there at all, where "the lone and level sands stretch far away."
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rbolton
Social climber
The home.
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Apr 17, 2018 - 10:17am PT
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The big question is are you having fun?
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wbw
Trad climber
'cross the great divide
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Apr 17, 2018 - 10:23am PT
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I am 57 years old today. The way I see it, any day out in a beautiful place, (that excludes gyms) with a fun partner is a gift.
I recently enjoyed a day out with an old pal who is undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cancer. Just to be out in the sun and off the deck a few hundred feet looking over Eldo was an especially fine gift that will be one of the best climbing days for me ever.
Thirty years ago, I had no idea that I would ever say that about a 5.8 route.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 17, 2018 - 10:58am PT
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I don't mind not getting up other people's routes; kind of hate not getting up my own.
Have kept my weight down this winter, but am not very strong and so on getting out for the second time this spring I whipped twice on a 10b of mine which I have blindfold-wired down to the millimeter and never fallen on. That was certainly sobering enough. Both times I'd done the dyno to a saddlehorn-like feature and then couldn't do a damn thing with it either time, not another frigging inch. Went out the following week and it was casual again, must have been first time out nerves or something. Kind of a wake-up call either way for sure and just happy to be getting out whenever I can, which isn't very often due to work.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 17, 2018 - 11:11am PT
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Don't get me wrong. I'm not crying about this. Fact is, I never really wanted to climb harder than 5.11 either, so I was not a numbers chaser. I just always figured that 5.11 (including some 5.11+) was the grade you needed to be at to do many of the great all-day routes in the Valley and particularly in the Black Canyon. I'll still be doing 5.11s in the Black Canyon. I just may not be doing them in the style I'd like to.
I gotta say, 5.11 in Eldorado Canyon has been my nemesis of late.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Apr 17, 2018 - 11:32am PT
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...this spring I whipped twice on a 10b of mine which I have blindfold-wired down to the millimeter and never fallen on.
Reminds me of a day at Indian Rock in Berkeley a while back. I was climbing there with Al Steck -- my first visit to the crag and his ten-thousandth. We strung a top rope on something and Allen, who was probably approaching 80 at the time, took off upwards, totally in cruise-control mode. And then suddenly he was flying.
After a bit of cussing, he jumped back on and immediately came flying off at the same point.
No cussing this time, but instead he's hanging in mid-air looking up thoughtfully and wondering aloud why he can't reach that hold. Then finally... "Oh, right. I used to be taller."
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 17, 2018 - 11:35am PT
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Good one, that place is a monument unto itself.
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i-b-goB
Social climber
Wise Acres
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Apr 17, 2018 - 11:45am PT
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Apr 17, 2018 - 03:40pm PT
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Why even bother? Time and talent have passed us by significantly. Just scramble up any old rock and forget ratings.
https://vimeo.com/6349049
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Apr 17, 2018 - 03:48pm PT
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^^^^^^^^
Hey, she's going to Hueco! I heard they have like 500 problems in the V0 to V4 range. Sounds good to me.
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Trump
climber
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Apr 17, 2018 - 06:35pm PT
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Dayenu.
61? Nicely done! What’s 5.11 anyway, 5.10b old skooll?
Might be getting time to redefine your identity, and you might find that harder than climbing 5.11. Thanks for your post, and best wishes regardless!
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goatboy smellz
climber
लघिमा
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Apr 17, 2018 - 07:12pm PT
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Well if it makes you feel any better you were not a 5.11 climber when you started so you shouldn't expect to be one when you finished.
Have you considered a new hobby?
Maybe you could set your goals higher in your old age, you could be a 5.11 gardener or a 5.11 dancer, the world is your 5.11 oyster.
Stop bitching about what you were and start living again with new goals.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Apr 18, 2018 - 01:19pm PT
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Greg,
If it’s any consolation, neither am I.
Although I still like to climb, how well I do or don’t climb no longer defines who I think I am.
There is more to life than climbing.
PB
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