feature story

Climbing Past 40
by Peter Beal

     I can remember many years ago, practically in high school I guess, imagining what I would be doing thirty years later in terms of rock climbing. At that age I thought of little else and what is interesting is how I assumed that by, say 25, I would be done with the sport, or at least with the idea of trying hard climbs which at that point meant 12a, 5.11 really. I climbed a lot with older partners and I saw firsthand the difficulty of juggling responsibilities of work, family, and other obligation. I assumed that I would follow that path.

Thirty years later I have a deeper respect for those older climbers who helped me gain a solid foundation in the sport. I realize first-hand how difficult it is to make the trade-offs necessary to continue in the sport, especially at a higher level. I’m married with a full-time job, a mortgage, and a baby daughter and I now know why it’s no big deal that 15 year olds can climb 5.15. That’s because I see 40-somethings are climbing 5.14 or even V13 which is a much harder achievement. I know I am climbing much better than I could have forecast when I was a teenager and really barely below my peak.  I realize that it is possible, given a minimal amount of physical strength, to continue at a very high level indeed.

This is because climbing is primarily a mental pursuit. How else to explain the rapid rise in ability from novice to elite levels by physically immature teenagers that is a constant feature of the current climbing scene? Physical strength is important but pales in comparison to mental focus and psychological motivation and that is where kids excel and grown-ups lag behind. Why is this so?

As we get older we see past the internally oriented world of climbing. We understand that the world is a much more complicated place. This change in mental and psychological outlook is a part of the process of maturing. Climbing is a game that involves primarily the imagination, a sort of sustained suspension of disbelief. It is ideal for children who can readily immerse themselves totally in an alternative reality. Adults who can sustain that frame of mind are in a good position to excel at what is after all a highly contrived, complex, and potentially dangerous game. However they are also far less likely to succeed at the much less captivating game of real life. Like the T-shirt says, “Climbing may be hard but it’s easier than growing up.”

In other words there are many pressures, some subtle, some overt, that derail continued participation in the game of climbing. In the next few paragraphs I want to outline a few and propose some ways of understanding and coping with them. Maybe they will help you remember why you got into climbing in the first place and why you want to continue in the sport.

The most serious of these pressures is simply that of giving up. Part of the process of maturation is sadly enough, knowing when to give up on things that are no longer feasible, such as winning the Nobel Prize or becoming president of the United States. If you aren’t already well on the way to those goals by now, you know it’s not going to happen.

The same may appear to be the case for climbing another grade harder or whatever goal you secretly harbor. In climbing however you decide what you want to do. There is no prize committee voting on what you deserve. The motivation and satisfaction are totally internal and therefore nothing external, theoretically at least, is there to stop you from achieving what you dream of. To many adults who climb however there is a strong temptation to transfer the feelings you may have about goals like the Nobel Prize to more controllable outcomes like linking a 5.13 or doing a particular boulder problem.

Indeed, many other adults look with suspicion on anyone who bucks the trend of giving up as they grow older. If you have goals and desires that sit outside the mainstream trends of acquiescence and resignation, expect resistance and misunderstanding from many who cannot see what you do. This may include employers, family members, etc. Be patient but persistent. Inertia is a powerful presence as is habit. Climbing can take advantage of both, especially when the going gets tough.

Related to giving up is the problem of movement. Current economic and social trends point more and more to people sitting still for a living or recreation, often looking at computer screens, a dire forecast indeed. As a climber, you must always cultivate movement. Every opportunity to move presents a challenge to the aware individual. A flight of stairs offers a chance to visit the problem of maintaining momentum, balance, pace, and a general kinesthetic awareness. A walk down the street allows a close observation of the surface of the road or sidewalk, noting features, textures, and colors. Take off the headphones and listen to the wind, smell the air, and immerse yourself in real reality, the kind that climbing allows you to experience.

If you are an adult with a real job, your best friend for climbing movement will be the climbing gym. Use one as often as you can, whenever you can. Seek out the opportunities to extend your limits in all areas of climbing. Use different holds, different body positions, and seek out less visited features of the wall. Be forever seeking out what you can achieve, even in a sense get away with. Do this even as you warm up for the harder climbs or problems you aspire to. You may surprise yourself and the delight that comes with that surprise is an ever-renewing force in climbing.

Another serious pressure is that of time. This is addressed to those who are actually working for a living, approximately/at least 40 hours a week.  Adults never have enough time. In our hyperactive, work-addicted culture, we are sleeping less, working more, and more or less living in fear of never being caught up. The truth is we are never going to be caught up. To be caught up is to be dead. At best we can aspire to equilibrium which implies that we are balancing competing aims and objectives. This is exactly what the sport of climbing is about. We have to hang on and let go at the same time. We have to take risks but avoid injury. So as climbers we are used to these difficulties.

The question is how to reconcile them. First, you must make climbing a priority. No one else will make it one for you. If you can’t do this for yourself, what else are you shortchanging in your life? How can you bring a full sense of yourself to your job or your family if this vitally important part of what you are is being suppressed? We’re not asking for the moon here, just a chance to be fully human at least part of the time.

If you have a job that demands more than 50 hours a week or no vacation, you may simply have the wrong job and your desire to climb more reflects that situation. If you have family demands, you will have to negotiate with a spouse or children for time. But whatever the result, once you have the time, make it count! In other words, use the time that you have to the fullest. Rest on the company’s time not yours, for instance. And make sure you are rested before you climb. Turn off the TV and computer and get to bed early.

And as much as possible, if you have to, compartmentalize away your outer life when you are climbing or away from work, such as with your family. Today’s workplace is for many a harried, uncertain, even paranoid environment obsessed with competition. Such feeling tend to seep into every aspect of existence, sapping them of joy and meaning. Remember that no one will hand out an award to you for worrying about your job all the time, unless of course you want that kind of a job. Worrying about work robs you of energy you need elsewhere such as succeeding in climbing.

The last pressures I will address are the subtle or not so subtle cues that you are older. Our culture worships youth but at a terrible price. In the face of all evidence to the contrary, we hear that once you are past say 35 you have no business playing games like rock climbing. In some senses this is justified. You have bigger responsibilities, maybe dependents. Your attention should be focused on your career, family, finances, and the myriad other things that teenagers don’t have to deal with.

It is very tempting at this point to opt out or make excuses or feel embarrassed, like you have to keep up with some fictitious image seen in a magazine. Some climbers state explicitly, “If I can’t keep improving, I will quit.” The question you have to ask is who is this “I” you are talking about? What does improvement mean? You don’t think the same as a 20-year old and your body isn’t the same. You are a different kind of climber, no better and no worse than before, perhaps with many more things to think about and balance against each other. So maybe improvement remains relative to the climber. If you climbed V12 before you had kids, is that equivalent to V10 with them? Maybe it is. Maybe it will be a little longer before you find the time or the motivation to go there again. But that’s your situation, no one else’s and what you make of it is your own business. Comparisons are helpful only up to the point that they make you decide to stop trying to do what you love. When you do what you love, you are succeeding, you are improving.

There is unbelievable pressure all around you to give up on your dreams. Some will say that’s an inevitable part of getting older. It is only if you want it to be. Dreams can take on an infinite number of shapes and directions, some of which can be discarded and replaced by others as we age, those being more suitable to who we are now. As we continue to chase these dreams however, we draw strength from them, strength that may surprise us as we continue to find our place in the pursuit of climbing.

- Peter Beal   04-01-08
  visit Peter's blog at mountainsandwater.blogspot.com