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briham89
Big Wall climber
san jose, ca
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Dec 13, 2012 - 02:52pm PT
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eKat has spoken!!!!! GO NOW, INTO THE CAVE BEHIND CAMP 4!!!! haha
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Dec 13, 2012 - 02:56pm PT
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If I was to be a dirtbag Yosemite Park Bum again, I would also want to be young again.
Oh, yeah, and I'd want my hair back.
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rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Dec 13, 2012 - 03:03pm PT
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when I was in my 20s, I was fit as the devil, had unlimited free time, but no money to buy new EBs, even when my toe was hanging out the worn out tip. What to speak of gas, warm clothes and ropes, et al. In my 40s I could have bought a whole shop full of gear, but no time to climb. Now in my late 50s I've got tons of time, no money again(though my selves are pretty well stocked), but 30 extra lbs of belly fat. damn. Will I ever get this right? lol
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Dec 13, 2012 - 03:04pm PT
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GO BE A MAGGOT, NOW!
Almost spit my soup right there.
Oh yeah, Mr. Haan has a great point also. Some of us are digging the ditches for a good time in whatever way our life allows.
Will I ever get this right? lol You and me both bro. You wanna go climbing?
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Fletcher
Trad climber
The rock doesn't care what I think
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Dec 13, 2012 - 03:24pm PT
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Yes, don't miss your twenties. I agree that's good advice. Whether you go to college or do something different right out of high school, there is a lot of growth and self-discovery that can happen during that decade. Now, it can take many forms. For a while I thought I'd missed my twenties since I married when I was 23 and had a kid when I was 27. But I made up for it when I was in my thirties and forties, maybe in different ways from pure dirtbagging (whatever that precisely is!). I up and moved to another continent, cold, without a job to speak of and dropped into a completely foreign culture. The kind of down and dirty, gritty experience where you start to appreciate Nescafe. Because it's better than nothing!
But I don't have any regrets. I gave up a lot in terms of outdoor stuff to be a father. But I gained a lot too in that role. Heck, I didn't even start backpacking, let alone climbing, until after I had kids. So did I really give anything up? I only gained, really, as I added outdoor pursuits.
Now I've got four of my own little dirtbags. Well, one is not so little (she's 23)! They all like to do outdoors stuff with me. And there's only more of that to come. I really am looking forward to it.
Eric
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Fletcher
Trad climber
The rock doesn't care what I think
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Dec 13, 2012 - 03:26pm PT
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I would add: don't miss your sixties wishing for your twenties.
I second that motion! Right on!
I see too many people missing their twenties wishing for their twenties (or pick any decade you like)!
Eric
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Dec 13, 2012 - 03:35pm PT
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What are you guys? Attached to this life? You work with what you got when you have the chance! Do n't squander Any opportunities @ any time in your life! As a 56 yr old, employed climber who has been going at it pretty hard and living in the sand much of this last year, the last 100 days especially, Ive come to know that some things are their own reward!
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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Dec 13, 2012 - 03:38pm PT
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I did miss my twenties; the early portion due to being stoned 24/7/365, and the latter part due to moving to NYC to make a career in fashion design. I was never good at multitasking - much better at focusing one a sole objective(hence, a fully stoned life and then later a workaholic who ate, slept and dreamed stupid ways to make a cheap handbag appealing to a store buyer).
Totally sped past the whole married and kids exits on the highway of life, but what can I do.
Now I am in my fifties, and I guess I might be a dirtbag. I dream of a Sprinter, but make do with my hightop conversion van Ford E150.
As for "fundraisers for those who played instead of toeing the party line" - starting to look like one false move and that carefully planned and tended to life gets blown up just the same. Why not accept that each person has a path they will follow - and neither is wrong?
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Dec 13, 2012 - 04:01pm PT
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JHB amen my the best days in the mountains are ahead! I'm coming around full circle and can see a whole lot of time in the open sooner than later, I don't care much for a night on the ground anymore so buy that Sprinter van while you're still working, they're expensive.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Dec 13, 2012 - 04:22pm PT
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Everyone should spend at least one season dirtbaggin and traveling in their 20's. Perhaps a few years. Hopefully you will find your passion and a way to make a decent enough living with it. That is success.
I'm off in the next few days for a week or so road ski/climbing trip with my long time buddy from my dirtbaggin years. Some of the folks you meet and adventure with will be brothers for life.
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Dec 13, 2012 - 05:41pm PT
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I would rather work hard to enjoy my hobby.
It's just climbing...
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m_jones
Trad climber
Carson City, NV
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Dec 13, 2012 - 05:53pm PT
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So yeah - you get wistful when you get out and climb and wish for the good ol days. Would not trade for the past 30 for anything - never had a real job but worked a lot that let me play a lot in the mountains. Even got paid to ride a bike for a while.
Having Mark get me back into climbing and enjoying the learning curve again of relearning something I was good at is pretty cool.
So lucky to live close to so much climbing.
He is so right to not take your twentys for granted. Glad we did not.
Just seeing those cool sprinter vans parked at the climbing areas gets you thinking...
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10b4me
Boulder climber
Somewhere on 395
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Dec 13, 2012 - 06:34pm PT
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I dunno if I have regrets about anything. Sometimes yeah, sometimes no. Overall I think I should just shut up and live. :-)
+1
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Dec 13, 2012 - 07:36pm PT
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My friend took a photo of Fred Beckey asleep in a meadow near Liberty Bell. Fred hiked up with them, but then took a nap while they did the climb. When they came back he was fast asleep in the heather, and looked like nothing more then the old man of the woods, like part of the landscape itself. Wish I could find the photo.
What a life he has led, the dirtbag climber lifestyle. Doesn't get any better then that.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Washington DC
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Dec 13, 2012 - 08:13pm PT
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I didn't do anything but climb from the time I graduated HS to the age 23. Would dish wash with Lar Holbeck for a few months, do urainiam surveing in Utah with Stu Polack, guide coeds in JT and the Valley, all living for climbing. Even went around the world climbing for a year. Finally went to University, built a career, had a couple of kids I love, became financially secure. Now at 56 I find myself shopping for those Sprinters as well. Wife and I have decided a mini cooper and good tent and hotels is the way for us. We like to travel over seas too much. My friend Lars continued his nomadic lifestyle until he passed in his early 50's. I was always envious but really we all just find our own way.
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Gene
climber
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Dec 13, 2012 - 08:18pm PT
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I did 8 years of road tripping between 21 and 32. Those experience helped define who I am and the path of my life to date. Dirtbagging/adventuring is a state of mind that carries over into many of life's arenas. It's more than a measure of the thickness of the wallet.
g
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Dec 13, 2012 - 08:28pm PT
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Peter: I would add: don't miss your sixties wishing for your twenties.
Definitely beat me to that one.
Now that my daughter is out of college I'd be a dirtbag climber again tomorrow except I married way above my station and my wife has certain minimum health, sanitation, performance, and aesthetic standards which I am always struggling to meet. She shouldn't have married old and Irish, but I'm glad to have married young and smart.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Dec 13, 2012 - 09:56pm PT
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She's a good woman JH, no doubt. But she'd dig living near the Brenta in Italy, some of the most amazing big wall free routes in the world. Much more than the stuff in Yosemite. Plus, incredible ambiance and decadence at a discount price:-) No one is sleeping in the dirt over there but in one of the many warm huts under eiderdown eating some world class, but simple cooking for dinners. Cheaper than the Sprinter van's these guys are discussing. Those things bare are in the $40,000 range. Double it as a conversion. A climber could buy his own place in Italy for that.
Ya get sick of the mountains ya head to the med and lay on a warm sunny beach till you're sick of that.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Dec 13, 2012 - 09:58pm PT
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Dirtbagging is a life skill- the ability to get by with few wants and fewer needs is a vanishing trait in the conveniarchy we've created. Getting older does not necessarily equal getting wealthier, and the era of perpetual economic growth may well be behind us.
And yeah, take advantage of that 20-something energy while you can.
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matlinb
Trad climber
Albuquerque
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Dec 13, 2012 - 11:16pm PT
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I sometimes climb with a group of climbers in their 60s and early 70s. Their kids are grown, they are either retired or are well established in their careers and have some decent vacation and flexible work schedules. They seem to be able to climb as much as they want. Two days at the gym during the week, one long day on the weekend and several week long trips through out the year.
They do not appear to have to worry about the balance in their checkbook, they have many long standing friendships and healthy relationships with their kids and grand kids. It seems that they have stuck a great balance in life that I would do well to model.
With that said, I think a pickup truck / bumper-pull camper is more practical for the aging dirt-bag climber than a Sprinter Van - and certainly less expensive. My camper has an 80 gal water tank, a small bathroom with shower and a stove with an oven. It was quite deluxe during my last trip to the creek!
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