Training for the Long climb

What a 93-year-old man on Half Dome taught me about Sustainable Performance

The Mountain

The climb that reveals what capacity really means

Some mountains test your legs. Others challenge your lungs, your pacing, your patience, and your ability to remain steady when the climb demands more than comfort wants to give.

Half Dome tested all of it.

Three years ago, I set out to climb one of the most iconic and physically demanding hikes in the country. The route to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite is no small feat: long miles, thousands of feet of elevation gain, exposure, heat, fatigue, and finally, the cable ascent itself, which is a steep granite climb requiring strength, coordination, and mental steadiness.

The hike asks more from you as the day goes on, which makes it such a powerful metaphor for life. The higher you climb, the more capacity matters.

I left for Yosemite ready for the climb and expecting a physical challenge.

However, I came home thinking differently about aging, resilience, and what sustainable performance can actually look like.

The Reframe

Longevity is more about capacity than speed

Somewhere on the subdome, just before the final ascent, we found him.

Ninety-three years old.

Sitting quietly. Resting. Refueling. Calm. Unbothered.

His name was Everett Kalin, a retired professor who believed he could still climb Half Dome with thoughtful preparation and training. What moved me most was not the possibility of becoming the oldest person to complete the hike, but the deeper commitment to preserving the strength, health, and resilience required to keep saying yes to life’s mountains.

We sat near him for a while and asked whether he was trying to set the world record.

No performance.

No grand speech.

No need to prove anything.

And honestly, he barely acknowledged the question.

Just a grounded, steady presence.

Then he looked at me and said something I have never forgotten:

“Keep climbing. Don’t stop. And you’ll be able to do this in your 90s too.”

Later that day, Everett became the oldest person known to summit Half Dome. Yet, it wasn't the record that lingered in my thoughts.

What captivated me was the way he moved, igniting a curiosity about the true essence of aging well. It made me ponder whether most of us are actively cultivating this quality or quietly drifting away from it.

His pace was not hurried; rather, it was steady and purposeful. Calm. Focused. Deliberate. Each step was taken with intention.

That moment marked a turning point for me. I realized I wasn't merely observing someone who was defying the passage of time; I was witnessing the remarkable outcome of decades spent engaging fully with life.

Capable.

Adaptable.

Still fully participating.

Longevity, in the truest sense, is about maintaining sufficient strength, balance, and resilience to continue embracing life for as long as possible.

After decades as a Physical Therapist, that moment confirmed what I had already seen over and over again: the people who remain capable in their 70's, 80's, and 90's didn't get lucky.

They built it.

Building Capacity

What the Mountain Made Obvious

Everett did not arrive at the base of Half Dome and suddenly decide to climb it. He had been building toward that moment for years.

He trained by walking several miles around Lake Merritt near his home most days of the week. He repeatedly climbed the 16 flights of stairs in his retirement community building. His son, Jon, and granddaughter, Sidney, joined him on the climb, carrying heavier loads so he could conserve energy for the ascent ahead.

His preparation was not extreme. It was consistent. Walking. Stairs. Daily movement. Gradually building the strength, endurance, and recovery capacity required for the demands ahead. The mountain simply revealed the capacity he had been quietly developing over a lifetime.

Consistent, intentional training compounds in all areas of our lives the same way sustainable capacity is built over decades.

This principle maps directly to the three areas I see deteriorate first when high-performing people stop investing in themselves: nervous system regulation, movement capacity, and metabolic recovery.

Pacing the Nervous System

Everett moved with remarkable calm. No urgency, and no emotional reaction to the difficulty around him. He simply paced himself and that discipline, more than anything else, is what allowed him to keep moving.

People who age well tend to regulate effort differently. They know when to push and when to pause. They understand that endurance isn't about output it's about the ability to recover and go again.

Half Dome makes this obvious quickly.

The people still climbing in their 70s, 80s, and 90s are rarely the ones who burned the hottest early. They're the ones who learned to manage their energy over a long arc.

The nervous system drives all of it: breathing, recovery, stress tolerance, decision-making, sustained endurance. It's the infrastructure beneath everything else.

When I saw Everett sitting quietly on the Subdome, resting and refueling without apology, I recognized it immediately as intelligent pacing. Not weakness. Not slowing down. Strategy.

That image stayed with me because it's exactly what most high performers resist. They often view recovery as lost time rather than part of the work.

Sustainable performance depends on regulation, not constant output.

The Body Adapts to What it Repeats

What struck me most about Everett wasn't that he reached the summit (although this was an amazing event to witness), it was how naturally he adapted to get there.

At one point, when the granite steepened and the stairs ended, he dropped to his hands and knees and kept climbing. I loved that detail. Crawling is one of the first movement patterns humans develop. It builds coordination, cross-body integration, stability, weight shifting, and adaptability. It's also one of the first capacities most adults quietly abandon.

Yet there he was at 93, instinctively returning to a foundational human movement pattern because the terrain required it. No resistance. No ego about how it looked. Just adaptation in real time.

That's movement integrity.

The mountain required adaptation over perfection, and that lesson extends well beyond hiking.

Strength.

Mobility.

Balance.

Awareness.

Recovery.

The ability to adjust when conditions change.

Sustainable performance is rarely about forcing the body to perform the same way forever.

More often, it is about preserving enough capacity, awareness, and resilience to continue adapting over the long climb.

Recovery is Part of the Strategy

Halfway up the Subdome, Everett was sitting quietly, resting, fueling, and conserving energy for what lay ahead. This image captures a concept that many high performers struggle to internalize: recovery is not separate from performance; rather, it is an essential component that supports and enhances it.

Endurance across a long career works the same way it does on a mountain.

Sleep.

Fueling.

Hydration.

Stress physiology.

Recovery habits.

Metabolic health.

These determine how long the body can continue adapting under load. Most people treat them as optional until something breaks, but by then the debt has been accumulating quietly for years.

Depletion compounds and so does capacity. The direction depends entirely on what you've been consistently doing.

Everett wasn't trying to beat aging, he was staying engaged with life long enough to preserve something remarkable. Those are very different pursuits, and the gap between them shows up slowly, in the ordinary choices made long before anyone is paying attention.

That's where the real training happens.

Train for the Long Climb

Small daily inputs shape long-term capacity

Select one habit this week that supports your future capacity:

• Walk more than you think you need to.

• Carry something heavy with intention.

• Take the stairs.

• Practice getting up and down from the floor.

• Slow your pace enough to recover while continuing to move forward.

• Practice conserving energy instead of wasting it.

  
  

Longevity is built through ordinary repetitions sustained over time. That is what Everett's story and the mountain made visible.

Mission Implementation

Where this shows up in how you live, work, and lead

In how you live:  The version of yourself that can still say yes to adventure, travel, hiking, play, and meaningful work decades from now is being shaped by what you repeatedly practice today.

In how you work:  Burnout is rarely caused by hard work alone. More often, it comes from sustained output without adequate recovery, regulation, or support. Pacing yourself is what allows you to stay engaged for the long climb.

In how you lead:  Everett did not summit alone. His son and granddaughter supported him throughout the climb. Rangers informed hikers along the route that he might become the oldest person to summit Half Dome, and by the time they reached the top, a cheering section had gathered waiting for them.

The moment was bigger than one man climbing a mountain.

It became a reminder of what community, support, and shared effort can make possible.

Even more meaningful to me was learning that Everett’s close relationship with his family inspired his granddaughter, Sidney, to pursue a master's degree in gerontology.

That may be the deeper legacy.

Not simply reaching the summit, but influencing how the next generation thinks about aging, vitality, and what remains possible later in life.

What to Carry Forward

The lesson that stayed with me long after the summit

Half Dome is beautiful. But Everett is the lesson.

Not because he set a record.

Because of how he moved through the mountain:

calm,

adaptable,

steady,

supported,

fully engaged,

and willing to keep climbing even when the terrain changed.

That is what sustainable performance can look like.

Not preserving youth.

Preserving the capacity to continue participating in life.

Train for the life you want to keep living.

Train for the long climb.

With strength in stillness and purpose in action,

Raquel Lines, PT, ILM, PYT

Raquel Lines Wellness

Mountains & Missions Journal

The Art of Sustainable Performance

References

[1] Reports on Everett Kalin’s 2023 Half Dome summit and training preparation, including stair climbing, walking routines, and family support.

[2] Paterson DH, Warburton DE. Physical activity and functional limitations in older adults: a systematic review. Can J Appl Physiol. 2010.

[3] Booth FW, Roberts CK, Laye MJ. Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases. Compr Physiol. 2012.

[4] Kalin, Sidney. Phone interview. May 12, 2026.

Disclaimer: This content is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or a substitute for physical therapy or healthcare treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before beginning a new exercise program, especially if you are experiencing pain or recovering from an injury.