IAN | This 72-Year-Old Rock Climber Will Change How You See Aging

Name: IAN | This 72-Year-Old Rock Climber Will Change How You See Aging
Uploaded: 2025-09-10T02:25:16.849Z
Duration: 7 min 56 s
Channel: Memories Transcend Time.
Description: In a world that tells us to slow down, 72-year-old Australian Ian Elliott proves it’s never too late to send your hardest route. At nearly 70, he climbs Grade 28 (5.13a) — a feat few ever achieve — and shows us what relentless determination looks like.

Memories Transcend Time.

9 Video Views·Sep 10, 2025

In a world that tells us to slow down, 72-year-old Australian Ian Elliott proves it’s never too late to send your hardest route. At nearly 70, he climbs Grade 28 (5.13a) — a feat few ever achieve — and shows us what relentless determination looks like.

My name's Ian Elliott. I'm 72 years old. I was born in 1952, raised on the Sunshine Coast in what was the country in those days. Oh, it was a great place to grow up. We had plenty of room, had lots of freedom. Mates and I used to ride our bikes all over the place. It was amazing in those days. I didn't start climbing seriously until I was in my mid-50s. I'd get six or eight metres off the ground and think, what the hell am I doing here? Let me back down onto solid ground. It wasn't an obsession so much, just a desire to get out there. The fact that a lot of the places you're climbing are beautiful places to be in. And then you've got the added challenge of climbing rock. Age isn't really a barrier to climbing. It's really a matter of doing what you want to do. Ian's someone who loves doing adventurous things and doesn't see that being over 70 is any reason to stop taking on new adventures. I met Jeanette in the Sunshine Coast Bushwalking Club in 1993. We'd been to some absolutely amazing places and had a lot of good adventures together. From that we got into canyoning and mountain rescue training. The rock climbing just sort of evolved from that. Jeanette developed knee problems so I got more into the climbing then because we weren't able to walk together. Sometimes you wake up and you do start thinking about climbing, you start going through the moves and trying to work out the tricky bits. Rock climbing inspires him to keep his body as fit as possible. To me that's a good incentive to keep doing it and he just loves it so why not? Mount Coolum is a big volcanic intrusion probably only about 500 metres from the beach and it's got this big overhanging area on the southeast corner. It's been the home of hardcore rock climbing in Queensland for the last 20 years. It's a very challenging climbing environment. You just don't see beaches like that on rock anywhere else in the world. Ian has always been such an inspiration because of how much he pushes himself and doesn't see age as a limit. He's surprisingly powerful. He just launches for holds and skips half the holds as well. It's really impressive to watch. I've never found climbing to be about proving anything to anyone else apart from myself. I don't really have anything to prove. I just like to be out on the rock climbing. I think what makes a good climber is determination to work hard and improve your climbing ability. If you want to achieve something you've got to put the work in. It's not going to come easily. As the years go by I certainly feel it more in stiffness and soreness. But once I'm on the rock you don't think about aches and pains or anything like that. All you think about is the next move. It's surprised me that I've kept going for as long as I have at the level I'm climbing now. You don't know how long you keep climbing at what grade until you can't. If I keep training and keep climbing how long can I keep going?