At 87, a senior rock climber reflects

Preface this YouTube video very quickly, show you where I am. Paris Lake State Park, Paris California. I'm here at Big Rock. This is sort of my local hangout. I wanted to just give you somewhat of an idea of how lucky I've been in my 50 some years of climbing and how lucky I've been through most of my life. My body's held up, my health is good. A few little senior problems now and then which some of you older folks know. But I want to show you just a few seconds of some of the places that I've been and how lucky I've been to be capable enough to do some of them overseas and much of it in the US, the Alps, the Himalayas. Some of it backpacking, some of it climbing, some of it trekking. So anyway I hope you enjoy it and it'll give you a little idea of some of the philosophical things that I think in my old age when I'm climbing. So I don't know whether this is gonna relate to anything but at least I'm having fun. I feel good. I know when equipment that I use and particularly the way that I climb and the way I rope solo climb. We volunteer for this Ed. How come we volunteer? We don't have to do this. God that was a piece of cake. What was I whining for? Traversing over to Left Flake. Not too hard. Not a big deal. Everything's here. Well I'm right at the bottom of Left Flake. Raven Nest. That was occupied a couple years ago. All the junk is still here. I don't know when this crack runs out. Maybe it's right here. Oh yeah. Foot hold. No hand holds. Shit. Half a knuckle under the flake. Get cocky. Don't get too cocky. Under cling. I've done this dozens and dozens. I've probably done it hundreds of times but still got to be safe. Anything can happen anytime to anybody. Yee-haw. Yee-haw. As my grandson would say. Yee-haw grandpa. Runny nose. Bad back. Whatever comes just deal with it. I used to do this. Used to do it fast. Do it well and never had a rope. Never gave it a thought. And now I give it a lot of thought. A whole lot of thought. Extremely rough. Arounds me a Joshua tree. Same kind. You can bury your cheater shoes. Your sticky rubber on almost anything. You put all the right pressure at the right angle. You can go straight up. Body's holding up well. Legs are holding up. Back's not bothering me at all. Up here. Still climbing but I'm getting older and less less dumb. As one of my gym friends said. This is for all the young climbers but this is a no-no and I'm comfortable with it. So that's just the way it is. When you get old you think you know it all but you doubt. You still take chances. This is a risky sport anyway. I don't think I've ever fallen on it. Of course I'm ready to accept the responsibility of falling anytime. I don't ever think about it but I have to know that's a possibility but I don't ever dwell on it. Free soloing is what I used to do. I don't do anymore. I haven't done it probably for 6 years, 7 years. It's a mental game. It's all mental. I've done these routes. If you can do them, even leading where you go first, of course that's where all the risk is. This is like following with a belayer up above me. I'm always safe. Leading, you're leading every pitch. You have to lead. You have to go up. Be confident. It's more of a mental trip but free soloing is all mental. Every bit of it is mental. If you've done the route and you're capable, why can't you do it without a rope? Aha! Then the mind kicks in. When I get older, I probably won't be doing this. Somebody will be hauling me up but next month I'm 87. I'm going to keep going at this level as long as I can. Erase the doubt. It's amazing when you erase doubt. If you don't have any fear you can do a hell of a lot. The longest run out on the route. Then it can get a little dicey coming straight up. Straight up from this bolt right there. Straight underneath it. 20 foot run out and you're facing a 40 foot fall. I don't like to think about that which I don't. Speaking of hung up, see what I mean? I'm not paying attention. I'm talking and I'm not much of a talker. I got the rope hung up under that flake. If you get above it, you've got a problem. Anyway, I've had problems before. Catch my breath. You youngsters don't understand that. The oldster's got to catch their breath once in a while. I'm on Ed's rope now. We know Ed's rope. It's very sketchy. It's very small. I'm not sure it's going to even work at all. It looks like a 60 meter and not a 70 so he's sort of a cheapskate. He didn't want to pay for the extra 10 meters. What am I missing here? Hell Ed. Whoa. What's my problem? Shit. That's the most trouble I've ever had. Nothing worked.