Fell into a gap

My good friend and long time climbing partner and I managed a short session. We saw the oldest living climber I've ever met, who is 88 years old; he still shows up at the gym, although we haven't seen him for quite a while. When we exchanged greetings and asked him how he was, he said he was "in a downward spiral," and smiled in his usual courtly fashion. He then said he hoped we'd "spiral nicely upwards." He didn't start climbing until he was in his early fifties, but has done a good deal of back country climbing. We've seen him bouldering at the gym and falling flat on his back from ten feet off the ground, get up, dust himself off, and walk on to the next problem. A force of nature, he is, and it is hard for it to dwindle.
After reading Margaret Laurence's last novel, I found a little collection of her first published works, The Tomorrow-Tamer and Other Stories. Not very far into it, but it's a gem; and I've got all her work in between these two to read, if I can find them out there.