Motivated lifers?

This is for you lifers out there. Those of you who have been climbing 25 years or more.... Looking back, what things or how did you keep your motivation up through the years? New routes? Good partners? Simplifying goals..... I am 30 now and been at it 15 years with only moderate signs of slowing down, but the inevitable aging has me wondering. Stories, ideas, rememberings...

20 years and counting...

Great friends, memorable adventures, and beautiful places. In that order.

It was all all climbing, climbing climbing for a long time. I found that picking up extra sports, that helped my climbing to boot, broke up the same ol'. Trail Running and Mtn. Biking for example use different muscle groups, yet still increase cardio for climbing. Many Boulder climbers I know cross train with as much Fly-Fishing as they can get to. I think that might help with mental cross training or something. But then again I've only been at it for 24 years, what do I know?

Jeremy Schlick wrote: I am 30 now and been at it 15 years with only moderate signs of slowing down, but the inevitable aging has me wondering. Stories, ideas, remembering...

Aging? When I was 30, I was in the best shape (power to weight ratio) of my life. My goal was to climb the then elusive 5.12. Through lots of dieting, training etc, I managed a few 12a TRs, and found myself totally happy. But subsequent years left me unfulfilled based on climbing for performance only. I took 7 YEARS OFF, I was bored.
But alas, at 39, I found that just talking about the old days, not to mention $2000 worth of gear left me longing to get back on the rock again. I realized, that "off the couch" I could climb (follow or lead) 5.10, which I was totally if unexpedidly, content with.
Now I climb for the sheer thrill of it, which was what got me into it in the first place. Sure, I still try to TR an 11 every now and then, but for the most part, I'm leading "easy stuff." Fat bald and ugly (well not quite bald) I enjoy "rock climbing" recreationally. Having a heritage and a degree of experience is the only thing I can boast about during the campfire bullshit, but that's quite OK with me.
For god's sake, just have fun, and don't judge yourself or others and enjoying the endeavor of climbing!!!!

Your 30? Your just a puppy dog!!!!

I'm not old enough to qualify for a majority of this discussion, but I believe I am at least a pretender if not heir apparent to the 'lifer' category as you have defined it. After 19.5 years of climbing, if I can make it through to this summer, then I could answer your questions.

But if you were to ask me what I would probably say next spring, it would be as follows:

Warren Miller once said "Anyone who says that they can ski as well at 40 as they did at 25 was not a very good skier at 25." A decade on, I can feel that I am fading, despite any skills I might have gained. I may be just a pup, but I am not a spring chicken anymore. I wake up each morning knowing that today I am a better climber than I will be tomorrow. Though I lament that my ability is slipping and with it my list of options for climbing, it does not demotivate me. I've never been a number chaser (which is convenient, since I am not a great climber) but no matter how hard I climb or don't it will still give me a good workout and still take me to new places. IE- presently. My flight leaves Singapore tomorrow for Kinabalu to go run around on that peak for a few days.

I don't think one keeps their motivation up with intent. It either is up or isn't. I believe in the pleasure principle- that people do things to gain good feelings or avoid bad ones. That's a simplistic view of human motivation. Fact is, different things make us happy or sad. For some it is the escape of the everyday that climbing provides them that they are seeking (avoidance of the negative) for others it may be the need for physical exercise or need for novel experiences (curiosity) that motivates them. For others it is social contact or perhaps the need for social status (number chasing). For the purposes of this discussion, let's just say you should figure out what it is that you presently get out of climbing. Then examine if climbing will continue to provide for that need or if you will continue to have that need. Social climbers may quit climbing when they get a new batch of friends. Curiosity driven folks may fulfill that need by taking on a travel-bug oriented habit or doing field research. Exercise oriented folks might discover white-water rafting (Middendorf) or Mountain-Bike Racing (Yaniro) or whatever.

Anyway, the point is that if your motivation wanes, go with it and do what suits you. I don't think you can stay motivated, it is probably a good indication that other things in your life have become more important to you (or this one less).

Been tying in for over 35 years and still manage to find a thrill in it every time. Over the years I've been more and less active always finding time to do some climbing. Years were spent paddling kayaks down western rivers with less emphasis on climbing. Now days I'm hell bent to get on the rock as much as possible. I probably fit the Warren Miller quote by Tony. I touched on the tens in my early twenties and never got much higher than that until my late thirties. Now days I'm hoping to tick something in the twelves..... maybe. My big love still is and always has been getting out on really big pieces of rock. The urge to be out over the void is something I can't resist and worry about the time when I won't be able to. Yea, I'm slowing down in some respects but in others I've still not done my best. I don't have to push myself to want to be out there but I do have to push myself to attain that which I haven't reached yet. So far I have way more things I want to climb than reasons not to go.

Hello Jeremy,
I began climbing when I was twelve in 1971. That makes me a 47 year old climber.
I was climbing at my peak in my mid to late twenties, at a level that I have accepted that I will never attain again.
Oh yeah, if I could go back to climbing five to seven days a week as I did back then, I might be able to push the number grades up to my previous levels, but marriage, kids, grandkids, full time job, mortgage, etc. have taken priority, as they should if I want to keep the wife, kids, grandkids, home, etc.
These days I am reduced to getting out one full day on the weekends (usually) and if I'm lucky, after work in the summer, one or two days a week for some bouldering.
I often wax nostalgic about the good old days, when climbing dominated my life. Man, I was climbing hard back in the eighties.
I was doing several first ascents a week and leading hard, run out 5.12 trad. You have to climb a lot to keep a calm head when climbing at that level. Looking back, I truly am lucky that I survived those years, as many of my contemporaries did not.
These days I get scared on sport climbs of a much lower grade.
I know that I will always climb in some capacity as long as I am ambulatory, and hopefully that will extend into my eighties or nineties, God willing.
However, when I look back on my most memorable climbing experiences, I do not recall the high numbers, or routes that would impress the climbing community that I did here in Colorado or on road trips.
Oh, by the way, the road trips are now gone too.
I moved to Colorado because of rock climbing.
But, I do recall my earliest trips to my local crag of Taylors Falls and the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota and Devils Lake, Wisconsin when I was a teenager, or our annual trips out to The Tetons via The Black Hills and Devils Tower.
Those early exploratory days were magical.
My most memorable climbs that linger in my imagination were usually 5.6 to 5.9 trad routes when I was cutting my teeth in the alpine world.
In my opinion, and upon retrospection, numbers are not where it's at. The total experience is. The comradery, the lies told around the campfire, the epics, and near epics.
I am now officially an over the hill has been.
I have accepted that I will never again climb at the levels that were once commonplace for me.
So, am I a disgruntled, frustrated, over the hill has been?
Hell no. I now look to climbing as my replacement for medication, health club, self improvement, and respite from the workaday world.
It keeps me sane when I am trapped in a cubical under flourescent lighting, for forty hours a week.
It gives me something to look forward to at the end of a stressful week.
You asked, "How do you keep your motivation up through the years? New routes? Good partners? Simplifying goals?"
I respond in the affirmative to all of the above.
I still am drawn to first ascents, even though they are of a much lower number grade. I now seek quality, not quantity (i.e. high numbers)
I always enjoy the company of others who share the joy of exercise in the outdoor world. I've never taken to rock gyms, though I know it is of benefit.
Simplifying goals? I think this is a big part of what keeps me from getting too frustrated. I still like to push myself to my limits, and my limits are exceedingly limiting. I seek out great sequences on cool rock, warm south faces with beautiful surroundings.
I am less into sport climbing and have gone back to the kinds of climbing that I did when I was fairly new to our sport.
I love doing on-sight first ascent trad routes. I often go bouldering for lack of partners. I find myself doing toprope climbs, which before I only employed when scoping a line for bolting potential.
Some day in the not too distant future, I may find that I am relegated to some 5.2 slab like the East face of The Third Flatiron above Boulder. I only hope that when that day comes, I will enjoy it as I did the first time when I was a kid.

ATS wrote: But alas, at 39, I found that just talking about the old days, not to mention $2000 worth of gear left me longing to get back on the rock again.

Did you just use your gear out of storage? How about your ropes? I know that equipment manufacturers recommend replacing slings/ropes/etc after a certain amount of life. My gear's been in storage for a while and I feel like I should sell it now if I'm not going to be able to use it in the next year or two...

Yea Mike, I indeed replaced my rope going from a 165ft to 198ft. Although visually it looked fine, it held 100s of sport falls and was probably due for replacemnet long before my "retirement" anyhow. Many of my either tied or sewn slings got replaced as well. The slings on my cams remain, but last year I bought several new C4s so those are ready for battle during the next decade. Moreover, I got newer "dogbones" for my qd's (I like all of mine to be the same color) All of this cost me a few hundred bux, but oh'well.

Tom Hanson wrote:Some day in the not too distant future, I may find that I am relegated to some 5.2 slab like the East face of The Third Flatiron above Boulder.

Maybe more distant than you think. One of the guys I climb with occasionally is still leading trad in the 5.10 range -- at the age of 75!

JL

Tom Hanson wrote:It keeps me sane when I am trapped in a cubical under fluorescent lighting, for forty hours a week.

As does this site...thanks MP.com for giving a way to still be learning, studying and even enjoying the mountains while stuck in the cosmopolitan world...even for us "young pups".