Beast on Beast action Part II

In the spirit of beast vs beast, I figured I should remind people of this.

Leopard vs. crocodile!

I just have to post this:

Here is the full link to the full story.

I was astounded! 

My reflective ego

Do you ever feel like your internal self-critic has gotten a little bit out of control?  All of a sudden compliments are undeserved, you haven't done enough, etc.  I was thinking about this in Tuolumne last weekend and the first image that came to mind was the big red hairy monster (whose name is Gossamer, apparently) from Looney Tunes.  I think this is what my reflective ego looks like right now...hovering over me.  I need to do something that Bugs Bunny would do: pretend I'm a manicurist and fix its fingernails, pretend I'm a hot sexy female red hairy monster and seduce Gossamer...you know, things like that.

What would your reflective ego look like?

Colorado and stuff

You don't see flying toilets every day.

Yippee!!!!

Here are some silly pictures from Colorado.  It's been interesting hanging out with my parents' friends.  My Mom REALLY wants to get a place here.  If only it were a little closer to Rifle - that would be awesome!  It would be great if I could find a ram to take me there...

I went fly fishing for the first time yesterday.  I think I could get into that.  Basically you just hang out in a beautiful river and watch trout.  I can watch the trout for hours.  They are huge!

Waders are hot, especially when they are missing a buckle and leak in one foot.

Sunsh and I also went for a hike up on the slopes.  I can't believe I forgot my camera, because the wildflowers were amazing.  So beautiful.  It was hard to believe that someone hadn't planted them.

Flying back tomorrow and hopefully I'll find someone to climb with on Sunday.  I'll definitely be in the meadows next weekend though.  I miss them already.

By the way: does anyone have a good recommendation for a bivvy sack?  I want to get out to the hulk and don't want to carry a tent.

Also by the way, please donate money for MS research, or join my team for the Waves to Wine MS bike ride September 13-14.  Here is the link

Who needs stallions?

Avon calling!

Here I am in Avon, CO, where I used to go with my family 2x a year to ski when I was little.  The place has changed a lot, but still has the silly statues and lots of roundabouts that cause much consternation.  Unfortunately, however, the lovely green pines are not so green anymore, due to the pine beetle infestation.  It is beautiful in the summer though - I've only ever gotten to see this area in ski season.  I'm surprised at how green it is!

The flights were uneventful, aside from getting an amazingly clear view of Yosemite valley and the meadows - so beautiful!

  I picked up my rental car from the Denver airport and was rather surprised to find it was a Prius.  "Cool!" I thought...until I tried to turn the damn thing on.  Ok I found the power button, and I pushed it twice...things are looking up...lights on the dash turn on, sounds are issued forth.  But I can't figure out how to put it into drive!  After pushing many buttons, cursing, turning knobs, trying to call the one person I know who has a Prius, my friend Sunshine and her friend Jeff to ask for advice, and cursing some more, I try to find someone nearby to help me.  Then I couldn't get the key out of the ignition.  "GIVE ME THE FUCKING KEY!!" I yelled at the car.  It wasn't very constructive.  

Anyway, I found a nice young man to show me how to start the car and I was off on my way to Denver to collect Sunshine and get some food.  We made it to Avon, checked in to our hotel which is under some heavy duty construction, and navigated the maze of posh hotels in Beaver Creek to find parking and my parents...and a life-sized volvo SUV made out of legos.  Whatever.  Fortunately there was a reward for all of this trouble, which was a sushi dinner courtesy of my parents.  Sweet!

Tomorrow I want to hike to the top of the mountain.  I'm really into mountains lately (have I mentioned that to anyone lately?  yes?  ok then).  I have a whole list of things I'd like to do and see!

So let's go back a few days to a trip report for Tuolumne for the past weekend.  I drove up Friday morning knowing that Drew wasn't going to make it, so I made plans with Lucho for Friday afternoon...turns out he had to bail too.  So I did what I normally do under these circumstances, which is deluge everyone I know with voicemails and text messages so I could see if anyone wanted a partner/didn't mind me tagging along.  

No one was coming up until late Friday or Saturday, so I found a nice little spot near Tenaya lake and took a nap after finishing the book I was reading:  The Last Season (I recommend this by the way).  I woke up around 3:30 and decided that I was a worthless turd if I didn't do something, so I hiked up to Cloud's Rest.  This is an awesome hike!  Apparently no one starts around 4pm, so I was pretty much alone on the trail.  I did run into a nice European fellow who had hiked in from the valley and was bivvying on top.  He had all of his water in a bear canister and consequently nowhere to put his food so it would be safe from the marmots.  Weird.  Why would you put water in a bear canister?  I don't know.  Anyway, he took a picture of me that is embarrassing, so I'll just post pictures of the view and some pretty flowers I saw along the way (a pink monkeyflower and a Tiger Lily), which won't burn your eyes out.

Saturday I met up with Patti and two of her friends to go back to South Whiz Dome.  We hiked up the back and I hung a toprope on Blackout.  Ran a lap on that and then two laps on Shadow Warrior.  Shadow Warrior went pretty well until the middle where it gets really really thin.  Not my specialty.  I'd like to go back though and maybe figure out a sequence.  Patti did super well on all routes, and put my energy level to shame by running two extra laps on Blackout.  She was PSYCHED!!!

In the afternoon, somehow I spent about 6 hours in the store parking lot.  We were waiting for Townsend and Kevin to get off of Heart of Stone so we could all go do something together, but when they came down it was late and we were all knackered so we went to the Tioga Pass Resort for dinner.  While waiting for a table, Townsend told the most amazing levitating-shit-on-a-wall story I have ever heard about Kevin.  Apparently Kevin normally has really impressive BMs while climbing, but this time it was a bit loose, there was an updraft, and Kevin, his parter, and the rope were doused.  Amazing.  They bailed.  Wow.  Who can trump that story?

On Sunday Townsend, Patti and I went to East Cottage Dome and did a few knob climbs in between light rain showers...I was happy to lead a few knob pitches and felt like I was getting the hang of climbing in Tuolumne.  Patti got into some strange funk where she thought that she couldn't climb the knobs, but she crushed anyway.  In the afternoon I met up with Rob and we went over to Private Property where I got properly worked, Rob Miller-style.

I wasn't sure if I would do anything on Monday, but I enjoy hanging out in the area alone or with people, so I stayed the night outside of the park and drove in Monday morning to check out the weather and see if it looked like rain.  It was suggested to me that I should go up Tenaya Peak, but after checking it out, I decided that I did not want to do my first solo in sketchy weather.  So back home to unpack, check out Batman:the Dark Knight with my superhero-movie-watching-friend Bjorn and a few other folks (believe the hype - it's awesome!), pack back up, sleep and catch a plane to CO.

Phew!  Here are a few more photos of the weekend:

Kevin having fun with cashews

early morning light in Lee Vining Canyon above Ellery Lake

Townsend, the bivy sack, and the Volvo

I'm in love.

I think I have fallen in love again.  

My new love is the Sierra.  I've known the Sierra for a while, but I never thought of him as potential relationship material.  I think I was distracted by more flashy things like southern Utah, Australia, Thailand, Europe...so the Sierra went under the radar.

But now I am enamored.  The Sierra never disappoints.  Sure, I always have to drive to him, and he never buys me dinner, but it's always worth the effort!

I have a long list of things I'd like to do with the Sierra, and I certainly don't mind if others join me.  He doesn't get jealous.  This is good because I'm about to catch a plane to the rockies for a few days.

some people

So as anyone knows who has been reading this blog, the last few months have been a bit of a transition period.  The news of having MS, a failed relationship (or a successful breakup if you want to be optimistic?) and being in graduate school.  Any one of these things is enough to cause one to reflect upon where they've been and where they're going.  My equilibrium has shifted and I'm not yet sure where it will rest and what it will look like.

So with that background, let's add some interpersonal drama.  Every now and then we will inevitably have to work with or be around or live with or whatever with someone who's brain simply does not work like normal people.  My advisor calls these people "unreasonable people."  Often you can just work around people like this and try to ignore them and not depend on them for anything, but sometimes you get drawn into a situation that is uncomfortable.  In other words, sometimes these people insert themselves into your life and you don't have much choice in the matter.

In cases like these, where I'm provoked, it's easy to want to dive into the fray and defend myself, or strike back, or discuss the situation with friends.  Seriously, it's all I can do not to get my back up.  But I try to keep in mind that the very best way to be is polite and nice (thank you Southern upbringing) and to remember that, again, some people are unreasonable, and some people are just not going to like me.  I'm ok with that; I'm not perfect.  In addition, chances are these people will get bored with me and find themselves in another situation that takes up their energy soon enough.  And like my Dad says "you can't win a pissing contest with a skunk."

So for all of this, trying not to let things bother me, etc., I still end up feeling very immature for being in a situation like this in the first place.  Crap!  Haven't I outgrown this sort of thing?  I suppose that the only thing that I can do is try to take the high road and not strike back when someone is confrontational, even if it is deliciously tempting.  Obviously I will always have some growing up to do and lessons to learn.  Don't we all?

I do have to say that my life in the last few months has really made me appreciate all of the wonderful people in my life - and there are a lot of you!  While it can be uncomfortable, I am always grateful for these transition times because they truly do make you gain some perspective.   Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve the generosity and love and support of the people around me...so thank you.

On to more exciting things:  heading back up to Tuolumne this weekend, hopefully Thursday night.  I talked to Karl and Audrey last night and I think they will join me, which will be a blast because they are awesome.  Drew and I were discussing the possibility of going to Medlicott in the morning and doing a bit of sport climbing, and then heading over to Electric Africa for a toproping session the afternoon (if there is no thunderstorm of course).  Saturday I'm not sure, but Audrey is getting me psyched to boulder (oh boy), or it might be fun to do something longer and easier (I love those, but my new criteria is that the descent be less exciting than the climbing).  Sunday had some discussion of climbing at Private Property with Rob Miller and Lucho, but I'll probably be knackered by then and it's all 5.12 and over, so who knows.  

SICK!