17 March 2015

8c by Bill Ramsey (54)

Bill Ramsey, a 54 year old professor of philosophy, has done Golden For A Moment 8c at Welcome Springs after 1.5 year of projecting involving 39 belayers. - This is is my 6th 8c and my second since turning 50. I trained pretty hard for this climb. My training is a little different than what most people do in that I often have big training days that can last for 13 or 14 hours, and then take 2 or 3 days off. A typical day will begin with an extended fingerboard session, with a lot of weighted dead-hangs, then system training, then bouldering in the climbing gym, then interval training on the treadwall, then core training. A lot of people frown on this much volume in a day, but it just works better with my schedule; I also feel like it prepares me for a full day at the cliff. I also replicated the crux of Golden in my garage, and would do it several times with a weight belt. The main thing I've noticed about climbing and training as I get older is how much longer it takes to recover, even from a minor work-out. Climbing after one rest day feels more like second-day-on used to feel, and two rest days is more like one rest day. There is no doubt that with age you have to work harder for smaller gains, but gains are possible. The one thing that hasn't changed in 40 years is how much I love climbing, especially the people and the places. I had a lot of community support for this route; I am an atheist but I feel pretty blessed to still be able to climb and try to improve and push myself with fellow travelers who are also striving to do the same! (c) Christine Bailey Speed
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