A group of older adults in Rutland, Vermont, gathers at Green Mountain Climbing Center several days a week to do something most people wouldn’t associate with retirement. They climb. They call themselves the Flailing Fossils, and the name is more humble than the reality. Denise Coriell, 73, has been climbing for years, and member Pat Hunter still remembers her first attempt, when she got halfway up the wall, looked down, and froze before pushing herself to the top. That moment, she says, made her reconsider other things she had avoided out of fear.
The health case for climbing is stronger than it sounds. Gerontologist Sam Cradduck says the sport challenges muscles, balance and the brain at the same time, and he describes it as fall prevention at its best. For older adults, fall risk is one of the biggest threats to independence, so an activity that sharpens balance while building confidence is doing double duty. The social side matters too. Showing up a few times a week with people who cheer you on is its own kind of medicine.
If you’re on the Suncoast and thinking about your own routine, there are plenty of ways to borrow a page from the Flailing Fossils playbook. Pickleball, walking groups, water aerobics, or yes, a climbing wall at a local gym. The sport is not the point. The point is trying something that stretches you a little, in body and in nerve.
What’s the one activity you’ve been telling yourself you’re too old to try?
