Longs Peak Run Part 2

This morning my knees are aching and my quads are incredibly sore thanks to an excursion up to the Keyhole on Longs Peak. I got a leisurely start, arriving at the trailhead around 9 am and started up feeling pretty good. After an annoying encounter with a horse train, the way was clear up to Chasm Junction where I stopped before. I could see individual climbers on the Diamond pretty clearly from there. I headed off to Granite Pass which went very quickly and then the Boulderfield was in sight. After a bit of rock-hopping, I was at the Keyhole by 11:15. While I would have liked to get the summit, it was at least an hour away still and I had to be back in Boulder. So back down, more or less uneventfully, to the car by 1 pm, a slow time induced by not quite enough to eat and dehydration, a state which persisted well into the night.

To do this mountain fast requires a lot more food and water than I carried today but I think I have learned my lesson on that point. I look forward to a proper summit attempt soon, hopefully under six hours round trip. I will post pictures once I figure out how to download them from my phone.

Jim Collins in Fortune Magazine

Go here for a very interesting story about Jim Collins, best-selling business book author and management guru.

Elbow Improvement

So Saturday morning, I was getting pretty tired of how my elbow was feeling so I decided after a thorough warm-up on the west side of Nook's rock, to try That Flakes It, the hardest V4 on the mountain for my money and nailed the dyno first try and without any pain. I went to Cloudshadow and did Hagans, The Consideration, East Inside Corner and the Pedestal Traverse as well. I caught up with Bruce Miller there, one of the great unsung talents in the Boulder scene. Then I went up to Red Wall and did the Standard Red Wall problem and Varney's from the lower start (V7?) and after did a bunch more really easy stuff. The temps were pretty hot and the rock greasy so I definitely had to work for the holds. Sunday my arm felt like somethung had definitely loosened up so that even a fairly hard run up and down Green Mountain felt OK.

I am increasingly convinced that many elbow issues can be traced to excess biceps tension as that seems to be what is at the root of the problem. Stretching the area seems to produce the best results. Brent Apgar's last treatment focused a lot on my left triceps and biceps and while my arm hurt quite a bit the next day, clearly something was beginning to change for the better. I hope this remains the trajectory for the future.

Ten Commandments for Aging Climbers Revised

Matt Samet, in the Sporting Life column in Climbing writes about the big elephant in the room of climbing, i.e. the problem of age. Readers of this blog know that this is an ongoing interest of mine, not least because everyone is an aging climber to some degree or another. Maybe age is just another name for gravity.

Anyway, while I admire Matt's writing (and really think he has done a lot to get Climbing back to where it should be editorially speaking) and think of him as a friend, I would like to address some issues, maybe even errors in his piece and suggest some alternative "commandments."

1. "Thou shalt have no other hobbies"
Climbing is not and never can be a hobby or even a pastime for an "aging" climber. If you are climbing past 30, you will probably keep at it to the bitter end and that's not a hobby, it's a passion. However, as you get older other passions can compete with climbing. That's a good thing, especially if you get injured. Take good care of your lower extremities, i.e. stay away from highballs, so you have an ambulatory option when things go pear-shaped.
2. "Thou shalt not display thy graven image shirtless in the rock gymnasion (past say 30)"
Sure there is some justice in this, though the placing seems a bit high, even if MS is following the original. However on reflection, which would you rather be, "a goggle-eyed man-child who's just discovered sprinklers in the park" or someone who's self-conscious and uptight about appearances. In Boulder you see all types and that's the way it goes. I'd rather be goofy, goggle-eyed, but inspired to climb better and not give a hoot about the rest of the crowd. But maybe I'm just not hairy enough.
3. "Thou shalt not say take in haste"
Again some justice in this one. Getting upset and angry about routes is a waste of time no matter what your age bracket. But on the flipside, "Thou shalt not be a weekend climbing tool and spend free time grimly pounding out the route mileage" is a good thing to consider. Balance, always balance.
4. "Thou shalt learn to use thy feet."
OK, but I would say if you haven't done this by now, you had better get as strong as possible instead.
5. "Remember rest days and keep them holy."
Good point except that older climbers have plenty of rest days enforced upon them by the demands of real life. No real need to worry about that one.
6. "Thou shalt not attempt routes thou onsighted in thy youth."
I would amend that to never go back to an onsighted route regardless of age unless you are going to be cool about the outcome. And good luck with that.
7. "Thou shalt not hate on the younger generations."
This is an important one. You can learn quite a lot from younger climbers and even if you have to work at it, make friendships with kids young enough to be (gulp) grandkids. It's good for them as well. They will be 30 before they know it.
8. "Thou shalt not wax poetic about "Back in the Day" (BITD) nor bear false witness on climbing forums."
Absolutely yes on this. Nothing traps you in the past like bad nostalgia.
9 "Thou shalt not tell other people how to rock climb"
Except when they are clearly committing a safety faux pas that will lead to the hospital and/or the morgue. Some experience might carry weight here.
10. "Thou shalt not wear socks with thy rock shoes"
Well I don't and never have but I would say if you're still climbing and having fun, wear whatever you want, however you want. Watch out for those old ratty harnesses and other obsolete gear though. Fashion is one thing, safety another.

Some replacements suggested
1. I'll keep it, reword
2. Replace with "Thou shalt be considerate of others"
3.Replace with "Thou shalt keep it fun, no matter what"
4. Replace with "Thou shalt always be learning to become a better climber"
5. Replace with "Thou shalt be committed to staying healthy and injury-free"
6. Replace with "Thou shalt pick thy battles carefully"
7. I'll keep it, maybe reword a bit
8. Yes as stated above.
9. Replace with, "Thou shalt be mindful in sharing thy experience"
10. Replace with "Thou shalt use climbing gear that helps you climb your best"

Oh and I almost forgot, weigh carefully any commandments for "aging" rock climbers from writers who are less than 40, however much they say they are "over the hill." Things are not as "confused" and "terrible" as you might think from Matt's intro. That state is reserved for your late 20s, when you are no longer young and still have no idea what to do with your life.

John Bachar 1957-2009: The End of an Era

The climbing community is truly reeling from the report of John Bachar’s death while soloing near Mammoth Lakes in California. Tributes are being posted at various sites by close friends and distant admirers alike. And as I read them I sense that a particular kind of loss has been experienced, one not quite like any other I have seen or experienced in the world of climbing and one that deserves closer inquiry and examination.

First of all, I was not a friend of Bachar and only met him once in Joshua Tree, a very long time ago, and briefly talked with him about bouldering. My only other connection was my sole appearance in a climbing magazine being in a very old issue of Climbing with him soloing Outer Limits on the cover. So I can’t speak to his character or personality except of course as he was depicted in the media, and there was a lot over the years. He came across to me as someone who knew very well how good a climber he was and had incredible skills and confidence along with a keen sense of understanding what the game of climbing was about. The famous $10,000 Camp 4 wager speaks of a climber who was not merely commenting on his own ability but that of his peers, a gesture unprecedented in American climbing not least because of its aggressive forthrightness.

So why does his death matter to anyone besides family and friends? I believe it matters because he became a symbol for an idea of something far greater than climbing. For anyone who cared about the problem of climbing harder routes, he represented an ideal of perfection and grace fronted by a cool and remote personality that appeared even and measured no matter how intimidating the path ahead. The eponymous Bachar-Yerian route epitomized this quality as Bachar seemed to have placed just enough bolts to encourage others to see where he could take climbing if he really wanted to push it out even further. Bachar went way beyond where the rest of us would choose to go but he did it with an icy edge of rationality that contrasted with the more out-there personas of his time.

Thus to watch Bachar was to believe that poise, control and reason were at the heart of climbing well. Somehow with him soloing 5.11 onsight made sense or you could at least try to make sense of it. He never looked remotely in any danger or ill at ease with his surroundings. His example could encourage you to master yourself and your own fear to live up to your aspirations. Even if you found his sense of climbing ethics overly strict or his media persona overdone, at the core something endured that was hard as steel and genuine.

Yet a reading of John Long’s short and masterful essay The Only Blasphemy points to a darker side, an atmosphere of almost inhuman severity that Bachar inhabited and even seemed at times to cultivate. We all marveled at the ease with which he climbed difficult and dangerous routes. See for example Bachar soloing the 12c route The Gift at Red Rocks on the video Masters of Stone 3. Anyone who has climbed on this route knows that it is not very secure and hardly on solid rock. The crux is up high on a sloping sidepull/gaston that certainly had me in suspense when I did the route. I have soloed some climbs myself back in the day and I know that I would never have dreamed of going there. Bachar deliberately explained himself in the video by saying “You don’t try, you just do” and somehow watching you know you can’t, won’t ever do it. Why? Because you realize there are other ways of finding out what you are made of that don’t require the isolation, the total inner focus, or the deadly risk of free-soloing. Some have it and some don't, that is all.

Now Bachar’s era is truly over and with it the sense of youth and immortality that he almost literally embodied, even as he aged. Bachar stood for the 1970s, a time before climbing became much more circumscribed and defined. With nothing but the famous blond hair, a chalk bag, running shorts and his Firé climbing shoes, he tackled climbs that had been considered cutting edge just before he arrived. He became an emblem of the American climbing scene, especially that of the Valley, a symbol of fresh, brash, energy with no limits or precedents to obey. Along with the surfers and the skateboarders, Bachar represented a vision of California as the land of youth and sunshine and open, endless freedom. The world is different now, climbing is different now, we are ambivalent about where to turn next, and now one of our guides is no longer with us.

When the Legends Die: John Bachar dead at 51

UK Climbing reports that John Bachar, whose career represented the epitome of American free-soloing in the seventies and early eighties is dead, apparently while solo climbing near Mammoth Lakes. This truly marks the end of an era. The influence that he had upon the sport of climbing was immense and his contributions in the form of very bold ascents will live on forever.