Fair comparison. 40 year climbers with 5 years experience and a willingness to push themselves to failure routinely climb harder than 40 year old climbers with 25 years experience gained climbing without falling.
Falling onto a dynamic rope is not in any way traumatic, even to an old guy like myself. The equipment really is that good. A 10 foot lead fall into space is nowhere near as demanding on the body as, say, a lay-up in Basketball.
Don't you first fall into the rope and then slam against the mountain side?
Oh, and, out of curiosity - how old are you, how long have you been climbing and what were your failures and worst injuries?
I'm asking because I am turning 30 and feel like my chance for a young and silly, careless life is slowly over.. no chance to even think about learning climbing or snowboarding or any other exciting sports.
On top of that I am an aspiring musician to I am kinda worried about my fingers and arms.
Two of the strongest climbers I know started in their late 30s. I'm 39, and I suspect my hardest routes are still ahead of me. You'll get out of it what you put in, regardless of when you start. I'd recommend taking off from work tonight and heading straight for the nearest climbing gym to give it a shot.
Oh, and one nice thing about climbing is that the better you get at it the less it hurts to fall. So sure if you fell off a beginner route with lots of ledges to hit it would certainly hurt. Fortunately you don't do that too often. Once you get past the beginner stage, routes tend to get steeper and less featured. As in, less stuff to run into when you come off.
I spent the better part of October pitching off routes on the Greek island of Kalymnos and never hit anything but air. The routes there overhang up to 45 degrees, so there's simply not anything to hit, and therefore hardly any real consequence to a fall.
It's never too late to start climbing! The goal doesn't need to be to climb extremely hard routes, but rather the ones you enjoy.
Rock climbing is a great way to get your head free (being a developer myself, I find myself thinking about project related topics all the time, and climbing and sex are the best ways for me to get my head free).
Re: crashing against the wall: that usually does not happen because you fall mostly downward and only a small bit towards the wall, which you can absorb with your feet.
Falling onto a dynamic rope is not in any way traumatic, even to an old guy like myself. The equipment really is that good. A 10 foot lead fall into space is nowhere near as demanding on the body as, say, a lay-up in Basketball.