THIS GUY ROCKS IT!!
from todd-gordon on superTAco
I'm an old guy (at 51) so I have the "old guy" view of climbing. Old guys talk about climbing more than climb. Our idea of training is drinking beer and bong hits...(O K... maybe alittle hacky sac... but then ya can't walk for a few days because the legs are too sore). We had our day in the sun. We are NOT improving, or even staying the same.... we are getting older, fatter, and weaker. Our gear is bunk, old style, rusty, falling apart, and all the webbing on our pieces (cams, stoppers, hexes, etc) are all stiff (from age, sweat and spilt beer)and probably test to around 800 lbs. For most of us (with a few exceptions), it's over and we are pretty much toast. We have been strangled by the American dream, families, jobs, and all of our bad habits. We have grey hair (or bald heads), and we are getting that loose skin/flab where muscles used to be. Our skin on our hands is getting paper thin, so spending two weeks at Indian Creek probably aint' so good an idea anymore. Booze and T V have replaced Camp Four (Which was booze and no T V...mot too much diff...). We used to travel the world to climb, and now we hang out at Starbucks, Walmart, and climbing stores to "shoot the bull about the good ol' days..."....When we climb with beautiful young girls, we hear comments like," Saw you out climbing with your dad."......5.9 can seem difficult, and bouldering and jumping off of boulder problems can put our backs into terminal wreckage. We cater to our children, when we used to cater to beer, bolts, and babes. Most all the places we used to camp for free are now regulated and cost money. Most all of the places we used to do first ascents at are now no new fixed anchor areas. Climbing magazines used to be good reads, now we just look at the pictures. Some of us old dads wear socks with our climbing shoes. When young climbers see us, they are convinced we are going to climb "trad "climbs, and do them very slowly (God forbid they ever get stuck behind us on a multi-pitch climb...). Most us old guys can climb cracks, chinmeys, face, O W, ice, mountains, walls, sandstone, limestone, etc....and there isn't such a big gap between our sport and trad leading abilities.....(I met a guy at Devils Tower who said he climbs 5.9 crack and 5.12 sport). Most climbers climb for about 4 or 5 years, then they grow up or find something better to do....a few of us have keep it up for decades....(There is something to be said about mileage....). .. We used to do walls and just poop out into space (poop in a plastic tube and carry it with us up the wall?... are you high??)....We know how to pound in pins and some of us really dumb old guys still put up new routes on the lead, on-site, with no top roping or beta (retarded, eh?). We all have had climbing accidents, forced unplanned bivies, groundfalls, and we have all been hit by rocks. We have all seen fatal climbing accidents. We have spent $1000s on guidebooks, but none on guides. We still know how to hitch-hike. Sleeping out under the stars is still fun, but a hotel , bath, and T V RULES! We would choose a motor home over a V W Van that runs on french-fry grease from McDonalds. Our wives have talked us into going on cruises, to beach resorts, and family church retreats. We still have cameras that take slide film. We wear Docker slacks with elastic waistbands , because we have "old men asses". When we get haircuts, the barber asks if we want our nose hairs and eyebrows cut too. We spent most of our youth around campfires and at crags all over the world, that many of us forgot (or ALMOST forgot) to have babies....Some of us old guys are now changing diapers, while our non-climbing peers have children in college or out of the house....(Better late than never??) We still have fun , and that is why we still climb every chance we get. Gettin old aint' for sissies. Climbing still RULES!
