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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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It saddens me to see people quit doing what they've always loved:
climbing, skiing, paragliding whatever ...
N.E.V.E.R. G.I.V.E. U.P.
You guys are an inspiration to me. I'm 50, and I feel because others around me keep climbing good and well into their 70s and 80s then I can too. You guys give me motivation. Thank you.
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BooYah
Social climber
Ely, Nv
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Exactly, sir.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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The mention of balance is a good point. The sense is typically lost with age. I always did various balancing things, so figured I was immune. Well, yes and no. I was shocked to discover that with my eyes closed, I've pretty much lost the ability to balance on one foot for more than a few seconds. My daughter, at 26, can balance on one foot with her eyes closed until she gets bored, and she never does anything balancy.
My balance is still excellent with my eyes open as long as I can focus on something, but it is dependent on vision now in a way I'm certain it was not when I was younger.
I discovered all this while rehabbing my reconstructed acl, since various balance exercises are part of recovering lost proprioception.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Solution to balance problems:
Walk a slack chain between short poles in the ground in the backward until you can do it time and time again. Problem solved.
Leave it up permanently for inspiration and training.
Great for climbing, skiing, life.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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That's interesting. I tried it and it's hard enough with eyes open - I feel like I'm on a slackline! When I close my eyes it goes to hell fast. I got a slackline for Xmas - better get it set up and I better get back on my unicyle - it's been almost 3 years. It sure is easy to let mother nature in to gobble us up! It's kind of easy to imagine the final ultimate surrender! Take me!
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Bad Climber
climber
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Funny you should mention slacklining. I just recently started to learn this, and it's freakin' hard! I'm slowly getting it, but I've no comparison to doing it at a younger age. I can stand pretty well on either leg, and when I'm doing well, I can traverse about 20 feet or so but have yet to walk the full 30 ft of line I have set between the trees in my backyard. I fall off A LOT, in fact mostly, and when I start each session, it's almost like starting from scratch--but not quite. I have a 21 yr old friend who's a damn wizard on the thing, but I think that's more than his youth, although it probably doesn't hurt. He's a super athlete, one of the more gifted souls I've had the pleasure to meet. So at, now, 51, I've started this totally new thing, and I'm a true bumbly at it. But, like climbing, it's a wonderful challenge, and I know it's good for my climbing and life energy generally, and I WILL walk that line! Grrrrr.... My fantasy is to be in 20 years that old Zen master type, a grizzled Donini walking the line, climbing the stone.
Cheerz and beerz,
BAd
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Did many of you see Todd Gordon's photos on FB of climbing with Vedauwoo Hardman emeritus Rob Kelman, 82? A young 82 it seems to me. I know some of you saw it, maybe he will grace this site with it!
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Bldrjac
Ice climber
Boulder
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As Jack said in BrassNuts' movie "Gray Hairs and Gravity", "The best thing about growing old is your memory starts to fade, and everything becomes a first ascent again!"
Isn't 60 the new 50 or even 40??? :-)
pam (a youngster at not quite 53...)
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Rob Kelman 82 years young...
Rob Kelman on Poon (5.10a)
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Quote Here Bad Climber - it may be easier to learn slacklining on something like a heavy chain or rope - something with less stretch and bounce. It may even be worth standing a long thin board on it's side to get the hang of it. Just get some of the balance elements down first.
40 years ago I learned to do it on a circus tight-wire. I was driving around Frisco one day down by the wharfs and an old guy had his circus routine set up - I did not leave till I had the wire walk down - seems like it was about 20 feet long and about 6 feet off the ground. Those wires are really tight though.
What Rgold said about eyes closed could have some value in practice. It's hard enough to stand on one foot with eyes closed that I think walking along a fat board with eyes closed could be very helpful and then progress to standing on one foot on a board with eyes closed and then put the other foot down and change feet and progress down the board like that - with eyes closed. I have played on climbing walls blind-folded in the past - it's all pretty fun and interesting.
I got to thinking about the board and remembered that exercise was in the scout manuals so I looked it up and found this;
http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Wolf_Cub_Scout
Look at feats of skill 1a)
Also on the page:
“ “A boy is not a sitting-down animal.” ”
— Robert Baden-Powell
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Solution to balance problems: Walk a slack chain between short poles in the ground in the backward until you can do it time and time again. Problem solved
If only that were so. I used to be able to walk a slack chain easily, many years before slacklining appeared, but now it is very hard, discouraging. I wonder, where did that balance go? I'm not sure that if I had kept at it religiously I would have the skill now. As Rich said, as you grow older balance seems to become more a visual thing, and that makes it a little iffy if you are climbing on wild terrain that can disorient, unlike the experience when younger.
Something for old climbers to keep in mind.
;>(
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Although I am sure we lose things as we get older, I also think that when we are young we are willing to take on challenges to learn new things and to 'prove' ourselves. Being older and having done these things, it's more difficult to care if you've been there and done that. These things like slack-lining have become so popular, people want to be able to do them without putting in the effort, and most of the time we forget just how much effort we put into learning skills many years ago. Slack-lining is not that easy - that's why it such a show-off thing to do.
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verticalbound
Trad climber
Anchorage
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Hell we went climbing with phil B. and he onsighted a mean .10b with an offwidth start that spit me out at 64 id say thats impressive & gives me hope for the rest of life lol.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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On the balance thing while vision is a component I think a bigger cause of deterioration is the
ageing effects on the inner ear. Those little 'hairs' in there get stiff and don't 'go with flow' like
they once did and give confusing or faulty data to the flight director which leads to departure
from straight and level flight.
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RDB
Social climber
wa
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 9, 2013 - 04:53pm PT
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Agree with Reilly on that one. The inner ear changes with age and not for the better. But you can train anything in the body to perform better.
Swimming is really rough on inner ear issues. But I suspect it is good taraining if you cna get through it without getting vertigo. Ear plugs do it for me. Riding a bike, any bike. Skiing. Trail and talus running are all really ways to get much of that balance up to par or better it.
It is easy to forget how much time we use to spend at these pursuits even if climbing was the major goal. Balance boards and balance exercises are all well worth the effort and time spent. Chains and slack lining? Gotta be able to walk before you can run.
Balance is one of the things I am sure is a "use it or loose it skill".
And it can take some work...and working through the fear of failure to get what you do have back.
Funny what I find interesting these days and a little frightening. Playing on vertical ground I seem to have forgotten just how decisive a mistep will be. Partly the reason I started the question. It all seems so natural to be clipped in or standing on vertical terrian. When I know it just isn't so. And while it is our chosen play ground, falling down there is a lot less forgiving. And likely result more than a scraped knee.
I seem to have found myself too comfortable there, unroped and seemingly secure. Anyone with half a brain knows that if Bachar and Roberts can take a dirt dive so can anyone of us, "youngsters".
It seems to pay, to pay attention :)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Mar 10, 2013 - 12:28pm PT
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A few months back I went to the Valley and old-farted around between Werner's place and the Lower Falls, breaking in brand new approach shoes. These were new to me, so as I made my way up the Sunnyside Bench gully (having finally found the thing after so long away was no mean feat for my memory, as well) I found that my joints were responding about as I had hoped. They did the job like unfairly-paid porters with an attitude, but they did their job. It's when I got to the ledges leading out to the open that I was REALLY CAREFUL with these new high-tech shoes. They needed to be heeded and my head responded well. Learning new balance points is awesome!
As I became accustomed to the slopes that I could handle safely unroped, I realized the edging was not there but their frictioning ablility, my God! Too much for me, who has never owned "sticky." It wasn't long before I was able to challenge the next level of the Bench, which was thrilling after having been away from the vertical plane for a long time. And especially after having had congestive heart failure. And having to take meds. And going to a greater altitude in a few hours (a big deal at this age). I down-climbed to the first ledge to soak in some rays and medicate.
You really need to take it slowly re-introducing yourself to technique or learning new ones when you are at death's door, I mean at an age where you get more crap from AARP than you have age spots.
Or
You sing along with the elevator music.
Or
Every time you suck in your gut, your ankles swell.
Or
If you've never smoked, you can start now and it won't have time to hurt you.
Or
People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
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stilltrying
Trad climber
washington indiana
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Mar 10, 2013 - 02:03pm PT
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I will be 61 in a few days. This picture was taken at Seneca this past October. Two young climbing friends helped me get to the summit. Having big heart issues for nearly 20 years now and living with a pacemaker/defbrillator for the past 6 years it has been difficult to stay with it. Still I have accomplished a few things and most of all I still get to be around all the wonderful young folks both in climbing and cycling. I admire guys like Donini and once I even got to meet John Gill, he is a very nice guy. I intend to keep riding and climbing when I can and it definitely is better than sitting on the couch. I just tell myself healthy people have to go all the way to Everest to get this kind of exhaustion - so I am lucky :0)
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kennyt
climber
Woodfords,California
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Mar 10, 2013 - 02:06pm PT
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Way to stick with it, stilltrying
EDIT: And the rest of you crazy ole dudes too!
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RDB
Social climber
wa
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2013 - 02:14pm PT
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There is some real inspriration, thanks StillTrying!!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Mar 10, 2013 - 05:51pm PT
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On the balance thing while vision is a component I think a bigger cause of deterioration is the ageing effects on the inner ear. Those little 'hairs' in there get stiff and don't 'go with flow' like
they once did and give confusing or faulty data to the flight director which leads to departure from straight and level flight.
I didn't say that vision is a "component" of balance loss. In fact, I basically asserted the opposite, which is that I've found I now need visual cues to compensate for balance loss. If indeed the cilia become less responsive with age, then that would actually explain why visual cues would be more important and why balancing with eyes closed, which relies exclusively on inner-ear data, becomes harder.
I do think that balance training is a good idea, but slacklining is surely an advanced specialty, and there is much a person can do that will be helpful that is not nearly as difficult to master as slacklining and does not entail the hazards of falling from a slackline either.
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