age and climbing performance

Notable sport climbing performances at various ages

As someone who quit work in my late 40's to climb full-time, the topic of climbing potential when conventionally "old" has long been an interest. I describe here how I was significantly inspired to "work now, climb later" (apologies, DMM) by a London friend who achieved his best lifetime climbing performances well into his 40's. A few years ago I launched a thread on a British climbing web forum facetiously titled "benchmarks for the elderly" to share news of significant ascents at various age thresholds. In general the results were even more encouraging than I expected and suggested strongly that climbing at a high level was possible in your 50's and beyond. 

In 2021, my Sheffield-based friend Simon started a Facebook group "Grey Power" aimed at climbers in their 50's and older. It has proved shockingly successful and now has over 10,000 members. A recent post, describing Lynn Hill's ascent of a 5.13d sport climb aged 62, kicked off a side conversation about performance at age which re-interested me in the "benchmarks for the elderly" data. I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to update the data from the old forum thread. In particular I wanted to add more data for women which had been under-represented there.

The chart above summarises my first pass at this. The "new" data has mostly come from pleas for help sent to two people - the hyper-knowledgeable Swedish expat Jonas Wiklund in Barcelona and perma-road-tripping rockstar Maggie Odette somewhere in North America. They unearthed numerous anecdotes of notable ascents which I attempted where possible to authenticate from other sources. Then I condensed those down to a shorter list to make the chart. Very approximately the data points are the "Oldest Known Ascents" at various grades. (If anyone is interested in the reference sources, see the Google Sheet here.)

The data

An obvious question is what does the chart tell us, beyond recording that someone did a hard thing at a specific age? Specifically, does it have any predictive value? I think it is reasonable to use the data for setting personal aspirations. If, say, you just turned 50, have had some life change that enables you to be more serious about your climbing, the ceiling for what may be possible is quite elevated: people your age, male and female, have climbed well into the upper 8's/ 5.14's. 

A topic that I am less sure about is whether the trend-line signifies anything? Superficially it looks like a  forecast of decrepitude. In other words: the rate of decline in your personal climbing performance that you might expect with age. The decline for both male and female from 50 to 60 on the curve is about a full YDS grade, or a couple of full Euro-sport grades, and then accelerates downhill beyond 70 for males (I was unable to find much data for females north of Lynn Hill). Intuitively that makes sense; we are accustomed to perceiving advancing age as an increasing drag on physical performance across a wide spectrum of activities, and athleticism isn't usually expected in the over-70's. 

Unfortunately, that interpretation would really only be robust if we could analyse multiple samples of performance data for individual climbers over their lifetimes. And even then we might want assurance that they had been trying equally hard at climbing throughout their lives. In the real world, careers, parenting and other pursuits distract people from climbing for years or even decades. In fact I believe some of the older climbers whose hard ascents have been newsworthy over the last decade, like Bill Ramsey and Chuck Odette, achieved their best performances in their 50's, not in their 20's. (Bill's article on projecting the 8c route "Golden" at 54 is the greatest thing ever written about redpointing, regardless of age.)

Another data problem is that we are not examining performances from a homogenous cohort of climbers, who are only distinguished by age but are otherwise identical. For example, no climbers aged ~60 now (my generation) had access to modern climbing gyms or, perhaps, more importantly, informed training advice until they were in their mid-20's or older, past their prime years for building strength and power foundations, tendon resilience and so forth.  Jeff Smoot's book about 1980's climbing in the US,  "Hangdog Days", documents how the influential Oregon climber Alan Watts caused himself permanent soft tissue damage in his prime by never taking rest days; a folly almost inconceivable to any subsequent climbing generation. In my peer group I can think of two people who were exceptional climbers in the mid-1980s and early-1990s respectively but suffered elbow and shoulder over-use injuries from which they have never fully recovered. 

It seems to me probable that the cohort of climbers currently in their 40's - early 50's, who did have access to quality climbing gyms in their formative years, and at least some warning against wrecking their bodies through over-training, may show less decline into their late 50's and 60's than the GenX elders/ late baby boomers occupying that age zone now.

If anyone reading this is aware of ascents-at-age that are significant or would augment the data (as mentioned, hard ascents by women in their 60's and 70's are an obvious absence) please let me know.

Finally a few notes that hopefully pre-empt some questions/ complaints:

• Yes, I have ignored trad climbing. Several reasons of which the main one is that it is unclear to me how to rank trad ascents from different climbing scenes meaningfully. How do you compare a hard but safe Indian Creek crack to a don't-fall British ledge-shuffle or a Czech sandstone trouser-filler between giant but spaced bolts?  (British E-grades do aspire to this but 1. they are not in widespread use outside Britain 2. there is the deep rabbit hole of whether they apply to onsight or worked ascents. In passing, though, to placate the Brits: Rob Matheson has climbed E7 at 72, Nick Dixon E8 around 60 and the ubiquitous Steve McClure E11 around 50.)
• The trend-line is a cubic polynomial curve generated automatically by Google Sheets that fits the male data with an r-squared of 0.99.  Yes, it is heavily influenced by the final data point (6a around 90).
• Some of the ascents cited are of routes that may have been downgraded and/or have split grades. I ran with the grade perceived by the ascentionists rather than, say, the current consensus on 8a.nu/ Mountain Project/ sendage.com. Precise grades don't seem hugely important in this context either in considering the overall trend or for the individuals involved (older climbers don't typically have sponsorships or instagram follower counts contingent on whether their hardest thing was 8b+/8c or 8c).
• Similarly some of the ascents are FA's of new routes which don't yet have established grades.

The Tantalus Traverse, river-to-river

The Tantalus Traverse is a rite of passage for Squamish mountaineers. It is attempted in a wide variety of styles and route variants but the common component is summiting the twin peaks, Tantalus and Dionne, via the long ridge of which they are the highest points, either moving north to south or vice-versa. The logic of the traverse is very clear from the Tantalus lookout on the 99.

The ridge from the lookout: Tantalus and Dionne twin summits in centre

In the summer of 2021 Leo was working at Squamish’s excellent climbing store, Climb On. He and his co-worker, MK, made a plan to attempt the traverse together and to my surprise asked if I would like to join. I was very interested but hesitant as their intention was to do the hardcore “river-to-river” version of the route rather than use a helicopter to gain and exit the alpine, and I doubted that I had the required fitness. Even tackled over three days, as they intended, the first day involves 2300m of ascent from the valley floor with full packs. The only comparable single-day ascent I have done since moving to BC was Mt Rexford from the valley in 2017 but on that occasion we offloaded most of our gear at a campsite halfway up and completed the climb with minimal weight. Furthermore, Leo and MK wanted to tag the summits of Pelion, Alpha and Serratus as well as the core summits of Tantalus and Dionne which is all that the heli-assisted groups usually climb.   

Our approximate route in Google Earth, from the north-east

Our approximate route in Google Earth, from the east

In the event, my fitness turned out to be adequate for the traverse. This may have been helped by Leo and MK procuring super-light gear as only climbing shop employees can, including the amazing Edelrid 6mm Rap Line  and toy-like Mago 8 belay plates.   My friend Luc also lent me his Arcteryx Alpha FL pack  which proved so great that I bought one for myself after the trip. I also have a theory that I have unintentionally made myself more aerobically-fit over the last few years through hundreds of days carrying new routing gear uphill at Chek. Heavy pack carried for medium duration = legit endurance training for bigger days? 

However we didn’t achieve all of our objectives. This was almost entirely due to route finding issues, even though we had researched the line quite thoroughly and had a GPS track to follow. On day one we couldn’t find the scrambling route up Pelion (a well-hidden gully, we later discovered) and opted to skip the summit. On day two, we made too leisurely a start and got caught behind several heli-bumped groups on the climb to the Tantalus ridge. Finishing that day in the dark we then got lost trying to find the right descent beyond Dionne and bivouacked well short of our intended stop at the Haberl Hut. On day three, we were unsure how to ascend the west side of Serratus, and ended up skipping that peak and then Alpha as well. None of which bothered me at the time or in retrospect: it was a fantastic adventure and I am extremely grateful to Leo and MK for inviting me along.  

Unsurprisingly the highlight was summiting Tantalus and then Dionne, and making the complex exposed rappels between them. Intermittent cloud cover made this section especially atmospheric, as we would have zero visibility one moment and long vistas another. Leo “led” the rappels throughout and I was very impressed to watch how calmly and confidently he navigated the terrain. I also slightly impressed myself by leading a short but steep crack pitch, perhaps 5.8, in approach shoes with a handful of ultralight cams on the (doubled) 6mm rope, to bypass the wide moat on Dionne. Later we would discover that other climbers at that point in the season were making a very loose scramble on the south-west face but I think our line was safer.

Trail head, day 1

Beginning the hike up Sigurd Creek, day 1

High on Pelion, day 1

day 1 bivouac south of Pelion

Sub-alpine meadows, start of day 2  

Getting psyched to start the technical climbing, morning of day 2

Horrific choss on the Tantalus north side bypass.
(Better to climb 4th class rock direct to the ridge instead)

MK holding the ridge together, day 2

MK and ...

Leo, Tantalus summit, day 2

Leo with Dionne behind

Leo, rigging the rappel past the Witch's Tit

Me leading a crack on Dionne to avoid the moat

Leo, summit of Dionne at sunset, day 2

Running out of light under Dionne, day 2

Day 2 bivouac

Sunrise on day 3. Garibaldi summit visible right of centre.

MK looking down over Lake Lovely Water, day 3

A "river-to-river" traverse necessarily involves a west-to-east crossing of the Squamish River to finish.Helpfully Leo and MK had pre-placed a small inflatable boat which made this straightforward, if muddy. Many people make unauthorised/ illegal use of the wire cables installed by BC Hydro for their (locked-up) cable trolley. I was glad we didn't have to do this. However we did have a final "bonus crux" carrying the boat and our packs 2km down a dirt road to our pickup.

In the past that dirt road, which lies on Squamish Nation reservation land, has been open to vehicles but recently it has been blocked off and it not even clear whether the nation want people there at all. Someone at the right level of government should be talking with BC Hydro and Squamish Nation to try to figure out a better/ sustainable solution, but this seems highly unlikely any time soon (as I have written elsewhere, District of Squamish are shamefully absent from important access negotiations like this). Meanwhile the continued absence of uncomplicated pedestrian access to the Tantalus is great news for the two helicopter companies operating out of Squamish airport. They offer a good service at a manageable price, which I have benefited from on several occasions since climbing Alpha in 2016, so I am not complaining, but this outstanding mountain range deserves better.

a data-driven Top 100 for Squamish

Climbers like lists. It is common to find "best of ..." type lists in guidebooks, less common but not unusual to find more granular sortings "top 10 highball boulders", "five most classic offwidths", etc. 

The excellent Squamish Select route guidebook, now in its 4th edition, has had a Top 100 list in its last two editions. Stating that a climb is "definitely top 100" is a frequent comment in online and even real-world conversations. These lists are based on one person's subjective opinion, or maybe the pooled opinion of a few people, but I have sometimes wondered if there is a way to do it more objectively, sourcing a much wider range of opinion? 

A month or so ago, my friend Tim B pointed out that the sendage.com database actually computes an average star rating for every entry, though you can only see it by browsing the source. For example, Grand Wall's average, based on 94 logged ascents, is 4.8841 (more accurately: is right now,  as the average is recalculated every time someone logs their ascent of the route in the database and gives a star rating).

Grand Wall's sendage.com page as the user sees it

And the source code for the same page,
note the 4.8841 average star rating

More usefully, the website's useful filtering tool allows sorting by rating, using the average ratings. So you can select an area and then filter with criteria like this:

In plain english: show me all the routes with at least four stars and twenty logbook entries, then sort them by average star rating. This gives 115 results. It is a fairly trivial exercise to then copy and paste these results into a spreadsheet (here, if you are interested) and play around with the list further, for example, dropping the bottom fifteen entries (the ones with the lowest average star ratings) to give a Top 100. When I did this I found a couple of duplicates that I thought uncontroversial to simplify: Spirit of Squamish and Klahanie Crack, and Smoke Bluff Connection and Wonderland. I also dropped a route from Porteau Cove as that is in the Vancouver not Squamish guidebook. Here is the final list, (re)sorted by grade:

A few comments: 

• In case you are wondering, the other popular databases (Mountain Project, 8a.nu) don't have the same star rating sorting tools (as far as I can see). 
• The list is what it is. It is the consequence of analysing widely-sourced subjective data in an objective way. I am not saying it is "better" than a list constructed in a more conventional way (but I am not saying it is "worse" either).
• The only arbitrary choice is the minimum sends in the filter. Leaving this at zero gives very weird results, biasing especially to new routes only logged a handful of times which the FA'er and their buddies have all given five stars. I chose 20 sends - you will get slightly different results if you lower to, say, 10.
• On the subject of number of logged sends, I assume it is not necessary to point out that actual sends will be a large multiple of logged sends? Because many people don't use sendage or, like me, may only log routes selectively. However I think it is reasonable to assume that logged sends are roughly proportional to actual sends. In other words: if a route has been logged many times it has been climbed many times, and if it hasn't been logged often it isn't getting sent often. 
• Unfortunately some very significant but hard routes get screened out by the minimum sends filter. Spirit of the West and Queen Bee are good examples. They have only been logged 3 and 12 times respectively.
• Similarly there are no trad routes in the list above 5.12a. The main reason is that the harder trad routes simply don't get logged very often on sendage. For example, even the uber-classic 5.12c Flight of the Challenger has only been logged 18 times. Cobra Crack has only been logged once.
• There are a disproportionately large number of 5.12d's. I have written about this before.
• I have highlighted new routes established since the last guidebook came out in gold. These constitute 10% of the list, which is a startling proportion, given that the guidebook came out only three years ago. Arguably it is something everyone should celebrate, as it implies the best may yet be to come. 
• Sceptical people may also spot that many of the highlighted new routes are from cliffs that I have discovered and/or routes that I have established. Well, that is what the data says. Feel free to do the analysis yourself and see if you discover something different.  
• Some exceptional moderate-ish routes established in the last few years aren't in the list because they haven't been climbed often enough yet but I am sure soon will be. Life in Space, Natural Perfection and  Zen Garden spring to mind.
• In the Squamish Select books, it is fairly obvious that the Top 100 list is being used to entice people to visit new or overlooked cliffs. That is a very valid reason to highlight some specific climbs over others, but clearly that can't be done with a strict data-driven list.