[SA Chris]

I think almost everywhere in the UK it's 40 and older.

[webbo]

Did my first bouldering comp in years recently. Up here veterans are 45 and older, so i was competing against whippersnappers 18 and up. Held my own on the technical vertical stuff and slopers, but got spanked on the steeper army stuff by kids half my weight and on things involving climbing upside down with feet by your hands.

Last years summer bouldering league thingy in Leeds had the seniors category as 40 and over... I didnt enter - but probably will this year - might squeeze a top 3 and win a pair of boots/T shirt etc..

Dream on unless no one turns up. You've now got the likes of Bitcom and Swanny competing in the vets cat.

[gremlin]

Met one of you older types in Erto a couple of years back. He (an Italian, suprisingly enough) started at 42, RP'ed 8b at 50 and was mixing it up with us at 52. He may be dead now though. 
He'd been sporty all his life though.*

*All based on long conversations held in Italsprench as he didn't speak the queens english.

You say "older types" like we're a different species! 

This Italian geezer is inspirational! 

[gollum]

Did my first bouldering comp in years recently. Up here veterans are 45 and older, so i was competing against whippersnappers 18 and up. Held my own on the technical vertical stuff and slopers, but got spanked on the steeper army stuff by kids half my weight and on things involving climbing upside down with feet by your hands.

Last years summer bouldering league thingy in Leeds had the seniors category as 40 and over... I didnt enter - but probably will this year - might squeeze a top 3 and win a pair of boots/T shirt etc..

Dream on unless no one turns up. You've now got the likes of Bitcom and Swanny competing in the vets cat.

You might be in with a chance................Bitcon is a shadow of his former self and Swanny doesn't compete much. 

[scribble]

As someone else said, depends what you mean by 'high standard'. Putting it another way, I've found big improvement is possible in late 40s without a background in training. I'm 50. I've been climbing on and off for over 20 years in the VS-E1 occasional E2 range and never trained, never bouldered and did only the occasional F6a sport climb. Age 47 I decided to blow the cobwebs away, get some decent shoes and have a proper go at redpointing. Did my first F7a after a few months, first F7b and F7b+ after a year, first F7c after two years, so age 49. I'm aiming for F7c+ this year. The main limitation for me is not psyche, time or energy but proneness to injury if I overdo it at all. So, go for it, but carefully!
PS: ukb delurk alert.

[Oldmanmatt]

The funny thing is...
When I signed up to UKB, I choose the moniker "Oldmanmatt" because I thought I'd be amongst the oldest using the forum.

[scribble]

I know a guy, who is going to be 77 this year, has Limes disease and leads 7a, red points 7b...

I am seriously determined to be that guy (minus the Lymes disease). I cannot imagine not being psyched to climb. More psyched than ever after more than 20 years.

[fatdoc]

happy to say I'm pretty sure I'm still one of the fattest

[Fiend]

I challenge you for that title!

[shark]

Toby recognised and had a chat with 65 year old Lee Shaftel when we were in Kalymnos in October




He started at the age of 32 and redpointed his first 5.14a at 59

[Fiend]

Like watching young gymnasts or ice skaters, it’s lovely and fascinating to see children and small lizards scampering up unimaginably difficult walls, but it is definitely not what I would call “inspiring.” Since none of us will ever become younger or a small reptile, these impressive feats do not give anyone who is not in that demographic anything to aspire to–and can also make you question if it’s possible to even try….

Yeah fuck the wee reptilian shites and their V11s at 10 years old 


Edit: really nice article in general.

[tomtom]

Did my first bouldering comp in years recently. Up here veterans are 45 and older, so i was competing against whippersnappers 18 and up. Held my own on the technical vertical stuff and slopers, but got spanked on the steeper army stuff by kids half my weight and on things involving climbing upside down with feet by your hands.

Last years summer bouldering league thingy in Leeds had the seniors category as 40 and over... I didnt enter - but probably will this year - might squeeze a top 3 and win a pair of boots/T shirt etc..

Dream on unless no one turns up. You've now got the likes of Bitcom and Swanny competing in the vets cat.

Mick was 1st/2nd for a while... not turning up was part of it, there were a couple of seniors who got some great scores but didnt do all the rounds... I recon if you can climb 7A-7B and went to every round you'd be in with a good chance at the Seniors... tell you what, I'll race yer this year

[webbo]

I think I'd be in a diffrent cat something like grand super old knackered veterans vintage class. Senior sounds like its for kids.

[tomtom]

I think I'd be in a diffrent cat something like grand super old knackered veterans vintage class. Senior sounds like its for kids.

I think I'd qualify for the immature category

[webbo]

Did my first bouldering comp in years recently. Up here veterans are 45 and older, so i was competing against whippersnappers 18 and up. Held my own on the technical vertical stuff and slopers, but got spanked on the steeper army stuff by kids half my weight and on things involving climbing upside down with feet by your hands.

Last years summer bouldering league thingy in Leeds had the seniors category as 40 and over... I didnt enter - but probably will this year - might squeeze a top 3 and win a pair of boots/T shirt etc..

Dream on unless no one turns up. You've now got the likes of Bitcom and Swanny competing in the vets cat.

You might be in with a chance................Bitcon is a shadow of his former self and Swanny doesn't compete much. 

You need to stop using technique. Who ever suggested it was clearly trying to ruin your comback.

[scribble]

The usual words of wisdom from Dave MacLeod on his online climbing coach blog:
http://www.onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/2012/02/distracted-from-task-at-hand.html

"I wouldn’t take the message that this [various injuries] is a necessarily a sign that you cannot train as hard as others you observe, just that you cannot do it yet. Big difference. Injuries are much less often caused by a high training load per say, rather it’s sudden increases in the training load or where it is distributed across the body that is more important.
It’s true that some respond differently than others to training stress, but I’d say this is a distraction from the real problem that people run into, which is failure to adjust training load carefully enough and failure to adjust the quality of the recovery to match the change in training load.
If you are used to sitting at a desk all day and training a handful of hours a week, getting stressed, not sleeping enough and drinking a couple of beers every night to forget about it, and then switch to full on climbing many more days on with intense work for elbows and fingers, no wonder the body gets a fright and isn’t able to catch up.
2 years of climbing is nothing. The body takes many years, like ten, for some just to get used to hard training. That is, just to get into full gear and then really start. There are no shortcuts. My advice to anyone in this situation is to use extra time they have to get out and climb in as many different laces as they can. The adjustment needed in the elbows and fingers to train harder will happen along the way, and meanwhile you will actually learn to be a good climber, a process that takes tens of thousands of routes under your belt."

[fried]

If you are used to sitting at a desk all day and training a handful of hours a week,  getting stressed, not sleeping enough and drinking a couple of bottles of wine every night to forget about it, and then switch to full on climbing many more days on with intense work for elbows and fingers, no wonder the body gets a fright and isn’t able to catch up.

What're you spying on me!

[scribble]

If you are used to sitting at a desk all day and training a handful of hours a week,  getting stressed, not sleeping enough and drinking a couple of bottles of wine every night to forget about it, and then switch to full on climbing many more days on with intense work for elbows and fingers, no wonder the body gets a fright and isn’t able to catch up.

What're you spying on me!

Ha! Exactly the phrase that went through my head too!

[Muenchener]

So I'm not alone here in being an old cunt who admittedly didn't *start* climbing in his late 40s, but resumed after a long (> 10 years) hiatus.

Luckily for me I was always a hopeless punter (E1/2 trad, sport 6b/c) so regaining my old level wasn't too much of a challenge when I decided, after a couple of years pottering with the family, to put a bit of effort and structure into training. Exceeding it should be possible too - and there I find time and family commitments are more of an obstacle than injury (*). I'm fortunate in that there are wonderful climbing possibilities within easy weekend range of where I live: Frankenjura 2 hours, Sella Pass 3 hours. But I don't get that many family-free weekends, and there's basically nothing decent within evening/afternoon range. So I go to walls a lot, and focus my attention on onsighting because I don't have a local venue that I get to regularly enough to make it worth having redpoint projects (**). Which probably limits my rate of progress.

(*) although I did get my only ever ring pulley tear within a few weeks of resuming training, and my elbows get rather sore if I do too many steep bouldering sessions in a row

(**) Yes I have seen the video in which Adam's dad drives from Czech to Catalonia several times in the space of a few weeks so that Adam can work on his project. Good for him.

Did my first bouldering comp in years recently. ... Held my own on the technical vertical stuff and slopers, but got spanked on the steeper army stuff by kids

I did a bouldering course last year in which I found that I have reasonable finger strength compared to Kids These Days - thank you Manchester University MacDougall Centre - but am clueless at any kind of hanging-from-feet shenanigans.

[gremlin]

I'm glad I started this thread as it's given me some hope and encouragement for the future. I think I just need to be more patient and realise that improvements come more slowly with age but they will come if I stay sensible and dont push too hard.

[SA Chris]

Well I hit the 12 st mark on the scales this morning after being 13 at Xmas. Got it shifted surprisingly easily. And first time under the 12 1/2 st mark for about 3 years. Didn't take much effort either, just a bit of self-discipline.

[Fiend]

Good effort. How did you do it?

I am still 12.4-ish. The difference being I am not 18 foot tall 

[gremlin]

 

This is about age, not weight!