High Sierra Topix

Welcome to old age (I won't cop to being a grumpy old man yet), Balzacom. I haven’t been able to climb 2000 feet in two hours for years. At this point, I can’t manage a 2000 foot climb period. 1,000 feet or so is my limit. This year, I managed to make it to Young Lakes, a 1,300 climb and 6.5 miles in 7 hours. The return trip, mostly downhill, took me 5 hours. Last year, the eight miles from Townsley Lake to Tuolumne (all downhill) took me six hours. Two years before that (at 71), it took me four hours to go the four miles to Piute Lake. At this point, I am overjoyed to make it to any backcountry destination that offers a semblance of solitude.

As someone at age 75 still carrying nearly 40% of my body weight that is always mainly a heavy photography gear issue, my brag is I can purposely hike SLOWER than any of youz and take longer to get wherever.

https://www.davidsenesac.com/2024_Trip_ ... les-0.html

BrianF wrote: ↑Thu Aug 01, 2024 9:05 am Balzaccom, welcome to the grumpy old man club; in June I day hiked White Mountain Peak. After making the 7+ miles to the 14,452' peak in 3 3/4 hrs I thought I was doing pretty good (for 70 years old), but shortly after I got to the summit a young man came running up the peak- fast and hardly out of breath. That kind of deflated my egobut it was stll a fantastic hike and what views!.

Well instead of grousing over what you lost, do consider more than half the population can't muster the spark it takes to get where you got. As ling as you can safely get up and down those fourteeners, you are doing very well.

Ed

SSSdave wrote: ↑Thu Aug 01, 2024 4:46 pm As someone at age 75 still carrying nearly 40% of my body weight...

https://www.davidsenesac.com/2024_Trip_ ... les-0.html

Hmm, I reckon that's ~90 pounds. So how have you dealt with grommets pulling out on shoulder straps of external frame packs, and attachment points ripping apart on straps of internal frame packs? Similar problem for waist belts, too. I found I had to reinforce these stress points with leather gussets on front and backsides of these attachment points.

Ed

That does not look ultralight. I bet you could lose several grams with a different design...LOL

2000' gain in 2 hours sounds pretty zippy to me. I have never climbed much more than 1000' per hour.

I'm 70 and I'm hitting the stair machine at the gym pretty hard. Kearsage Pass is in my near future. I'm in better shape than I was 20 years ago, though. I finally figured out that I couldn't sloth around for a year and then climb an 11,000 foot pass. I used to be able to do that but now I have to keep in shape.

I recently went through the training logs for my best climbing years – when I had done the most peaks, for the greatest total elevation gain – and the main takeaway was those were the years in which I’d been the most diligent about doing weighted hill climbs. Hauling a pack of up to 70lbs up a 500’ hill.

So this 65-year-old is once again trudging heavily up a local hill. Hoping it helps with those trails that have gotten tougher over the years.