What's up with all of the old guys getting fat? How in the hell do they expect to climb if they weigh 40 or 50 extra pounds? Then they actually complain about their so-called fitness level. Like they could climb if they were strong with a 50 pound weight belt bolted on? Come on!

Is it just a problem with old guys? Most of the kids walking to school around here look overweight.

ShortTimer wrote:What's up with all of the old guys getting fat? How in the hell do they expect to climb if they weigh 40 or 50 extra pounds? Then they actually complain about their so-called fitness level. …..

Hey hey……I thought that was a private conversation

I don't know any old fat climbers. I know some young fat climbers though. They don't keep up so well...

DMT

heh. I was going to start a thread some time ago about how old climbers seem to have a few extra pounds while the old peakbaggers stayed trim. But it would probably have been seen as an exercise in selective photo choice.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:I don't know any old fat climbers. I know some young fat climbers though. They don't keep up so well...

DMT

that is more reflective of what I see...surprised sometimes....because yeah, if you aspire to be a climber....that is one hell of an handicap.....lose some weight dude

Does seem to me to be more of a young thing. When I was in jr. high, I can remember about 5-10 fat kids in my whole school. Working at a jr. high on a health day last year, I noticed that something like 1/4 of the kids weighed in the 180 and up range (the girls too). So there's definitely that trend.

I saw a 69-year-old on Telescope at 10000'; he had just come up from Badwater (not Shorty's Well-- he started 6.5 miles farther away). He didn't look fat.

Bob Burd wrote:heh. I was going to start a thread some time ago about how old climbers seem to have a few extra pounds while the old peakbaggers stayed trim. But it would probably have been seen as an exercise in selective photo choice.

The man hikes hard every day of his life so there's no way calorie overload is gonna lay a glove on him.

Dude, I'm fat (6'2" - 240) and I can keep up with with all the skinny folks just fine... it's all mental, fat people just give up easier... not me...

One time...

I ran a marathon last March and some lady came up to me at the starting line and said, "you're so inspiring." I said, "why?" Her face went pale and she walked away... I was the biggest (and one of the tallest) dudes there by a mile...

A second time...

I got on the scale at K2 Aviation in Talkeetna on our way to climb Denali, and the kid with the clipboard said, "jeez mister, your the biggest guy I've ever seen try to climb up there" after the scale topped out at almost 400 lbs (course, I had a big bottle of scotch in my bag, but nonetheless...).

And then this one time...

...when my parents sent me to Fat Kid camp...

Gary Schenk wrote:I'm not sure Ron's gonna like you calling him old!

Hell, I'm old, and he has 15 years on me. I bet he's good with it.

ShortTimer wrote:What's up with all of the old guys getting fat? How in the hell do they expect to climb if they weigh 40 or 50 extra pounds? Then they actually complain about their so-called fitness level. Like they could climb if they were strong with a 50 pound weight belt bolted on? Come on!

A thread just for me, SP's Ugly Fat Bastard!

Oh. I don't climb but I do struggle up mountains in all weathers. Slowly of course. But I'm quite happy about that. It means I mainly choose to walk alone to stop slowing others to my pace.

Been doing it since I was 55, nearly 7 years ago, when I discovered what a mountain was. Something like, 1500 to 2000 miles walked every year, and a vertical ascent of 200,000 to 250,000 feet every year since.

For various reasons I even gave up alcohol nearly 4 months ago.

And the impact of all of the walking etc and now no alcohol on my 250 lb , 6 foot body.

Zero. Not one effing ounce of weight lost!

And I do eat fairly healthy. Always have done.

So, sod it.

I'll just keep going the way I am, and take the regular flak about it on these Forums.

And love it as well!

Note to Elves. In reality I am actually quite happy for derogatory remarks about the size of women's breasts to cause a thread to be nuked. But I am equally happy for threads about fat old bastards like me to be kept going ad infinitum.!

Entropy is a bitch; as people get older many will gain weight. I am getting so frustrated trying to lose weight as I passed 40. I was always a lion and now I am a bear! Much respect to all who keep in shape and never let themselves gain weight.

I never got fat. Strangely enough, however, I got a LOT shorter.

Bob Burd wrote:Hell, I'm old, and he has 15 years on me. I bet he's good with it.

Mid-Life Crisis! (abbreviation:...)