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JestaGal
Trad climber
Solana Beach, CA
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Nov 22, 2013 - 10:53am PT
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Oh, yeah...forget the dancin' boys. I want John Gill and Rich Gold at my next birthday party!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Nov 22, 2013 - 11:18am PT
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Hey! We dance too, if you're down with the minuet.
Meanwhile, here's an actual 70 year-old sorta kinda front lever, rather than the way youthful 68 year-old version posted earlier (thanks to Steve Molis for manning the iPhone both times).
Be forwarned that, rings or not, your dancing geezers will most likely adopt this position for the duration of your party. Just wake us up when it's time to leave.
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bjj
climber
beyond the sun
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Nov 22, 2013 - 01:20pm PT
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RGold, that is amazing. Very impressed.
I am 45 and I feel like I have one foot in both worlds. One still in the past as a young, fit upstart, yet the other now in the "crusty old guy fondly remembering his youth" realm.
I've just started climbing again a year ago after a decade off. I am not content to try and ease back and accept being resigned to climbing moderates for the rest of my life. Seeing things like what's on this thread is a good kick in my a*# to remind me I have quite a few years left to improve.
I managed to climb 5.13 / V8 a couple of times around age 30. I had assumed those days are over as currently I am struggling with mid 5.11 - Just maybe I was wrong.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Nov 22, 2013 - 01:55pm PT
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bjj, everyone has their own approach to climbing and everyone gets different things from it. I think that if I could somehow compute my average climbing grade over the 56 years I've been climbing, it would come out to about 5.8. And that isn't because I've declined to only leading 5.4's now---I haven't. It's because I've found enormous pleasure in those "moderate" grades at every part of my climbing career, including the now-distant times when I was climbing four grades harder.
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jgill
Boulder climber
Colorado
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Nov 22, 2013 - 02:41pm PT
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I always loved to do the 5.6s and 5.7s in the Tetons and BH Needles 55 years ago.
;>)
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bjj
climber
beyond the sun
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Nov 22, 2013 - 03:35pm PT
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I get what you guys are saying, but I'm the kind of person who *needs* to continually improve and push my limits at something, else I grow restless and discouraged. That's why I quit climbing the first time. Numerous overuse injuries forced me into a long layoff and to back down the difficulty scale significantly. After almost a year like that, I wasn't able to keep my psych up, and instead opted to try some new sports instead.
I was fully healed after 2 years or so, but by then I was very immersed in my new activities and wanted to focus on them - figuring my climbing career was over.
Maybe as I get older (or, more accurately, more mature) I will mellow and won't feel that need to keep competing with myself.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy moderate routes, and "easy" style climbing, but I can't (at least currently) survive on a diet of only those.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Nov 22, 2013 - 03:57pm PT
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I never got into gymnastics at an early enough age. I still pump iron to get in shape for climbing, albeit at a less "vigorous" level. It has helped though. And those pleasure "5.6-5.7" climbs seem just about right for my dotage, although I was still able to push up to some 5.8+ a couple times in the past couple of years.
But...it's always more fun looking ahead than sitting on one's a$$ contemplating "remember when...?" I'm already making plans for another trip to the Dolomites in 2014, finances permitting.
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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Nov 22, 2013 - 04:31pm PT
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I always loved to do the 5.6s and 5.7s in the Tetons and BH Needles 55 years ago.
Me too, John. Well, not 55 years ago though :-)
Curt
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
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Nov 23, 2013 - 02:42am PT
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Always inspirational!!!!!
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eagle
Trad climber
new paltz, ny
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Nov 23, 2013 - 09:49am PT
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props to mr gill. i could never hit this move in my prime..a warm up move for the fellas in the olympics
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 23, 2013 - 09:57am PT
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As a young climber in the Tetons in the late 60's we all aspired to do John's boulder problems around Jenny Lake. I think Steve Wunsch even got uo one or two.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Nov 23, 2013 - 12:52pm PT
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I think Wunsch made one of the very early repeats of the North Overhang on Red Cross Rock, maybe even the second ascent? I don't think Jim Holloway made it up to the Tetons...
Two shots, posted elsewhere, of Jenny Lake bouldering in the sixties:
Ray Schrag styling a one-handed ascent of Cutfinger Crack:
The Master himself on a traversing problem on Cutfinger Rock:
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 23, 2013 - 12:59pm PT
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The Jenny Lake boulders are an example (like Stony Point) of location, locatin, location. Modest in extent but historically important especially because of the imprint of John Gill.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Nov 23, 2013 - 01:30pm PT
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One of the things that is hard to understand now is that in the sixties the Tetons was the crossroads of American climbing, even while it was no longer the center of progress or activity. Climbers from all over continually passed through the Tetons on their way to and from other destinations, and so the very modest Jenny Lake boulders had a disproportionate effect on the American climbing psyche.
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JestaGal
Trad climber
Solana Beach, CA
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Nov 23, 2013 - 03:24pm PT
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I was on a two-week bicycle trek from Estes Park to Durango back in 1979 and somewhere along the route we ran into a guy who was bicycling in a pair of EB's. When I asked him where he was headed and why he was bicycling in his climbing shoes, he said he was on the way to the Tetons and didn't want to carry any extra weight. Does anyone know who that crazy person was and if he is still around? Can't be to many people that bicycled from Colorado to the Tetons in their EBs, can there?
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JestaGal
Trad climber
Solana Beach, CA
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Nov 23, 2013 - 03:35pm PT
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This thread is bringing back old memories...I think it was 1979...maybe August...I had signed up for climbing lessons in Toulomme for Week 2, but Week 1, I was hanging out in Camp 4. Some guy came over to my tent and asked if he could sleep there for the night because if the rangers caught him one more time without an assigned campground, something bad was going to happen...he told me but I don't remember what...the rangers had all ready taken his sleeping bag away from him (maybe a couple of times). I imagine that happened a lot of climbers back then. Anyway I let him stay in my tent...always wondered who it was
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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Nov 23, 2013 - 04:37pm PT
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I think Wunsch made one of the very early repeats of the North Overhang on Red Cross Rock, maybe even the second ascent? I don't think Jim Holloway made it up to the Tetons...
The Jenny Lake Boulders are great. I've done all the problems on Cutfinger and Red Cross rocks that are on the little guide that John gave me. The North Overhang problem is interesting, in that using the same two starting holds (one undercling and one small crimp) with your hands reversed--i.e., L hand on the crimp, R hand on the undercling, results in a new boulder problem that is about 4 "V" grades easier than the standard way of doing the problem.
Oh, and the Center Overhang is actually very hard. I'd say V9 or so, done Gill's way without the chipped and enlarged RH hold. When you consider that Gill first did this in the 1950's, it puts into perspective just how far ahead of his time he actually was.
Curt
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Nov 23, 2013 - 08:33pm PT
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Oh, Curt, I meant the Center Overhang as the one Wunsch might have been the first to repeat. That was the only route the rest of us couldn't do bitd.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Nov 23, 2013 - 08:50pm PT
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Bitd there were too many hot female seasonal rangers for me to give bouldering at Jenny Lake it's full due......or was it weak fingers?
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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Nov 24, 2013 - 01:44pm PT
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I've done all the problems on Cutfinger and Red Cross rocks that are on the little guide that John gave me.
Bitd there were too many hot female seasonal rangers for me to give bouldering at Jenny Lake it's full due...
So, what was your comparative success rate?
Curt
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