I got to cross ice climbing in Colorado off my bucketlist this weekend!!! Ouray Ice Park was sick. A bunch of people in my group were taking pictures but I wont be able to post them till later this week. I did get some pics on my phone though. Ouray is a little tiny mining town that lives for ice climbing. Its about 6 hours away from Salt Lake, its probably the coolest little town next to Lake Placid. The night sky was so clear it looked fake. Looking at the stars was like looking at the daytime sky with little black specks, I saw 3 shooting stars! So cool. So heres how it went:
Thursday:
Left SLC, carpooled with a classmate (yes, this was for a class and I got 2 credits for it!) we got talking about Paragliding and Snow Kiting (where a kite pull you on skis) which are apparently very popular things in SLC. You bet ill get into them! We get to Ouray and check in with our instructors. We stayed in cabins in groups of 4.
Friday:
We wake up at 6am and get to the ice park to set up some routes. It was about 17 degrees out, clear skies, perfect day to climb! We learned the basics, how to repel (climb down from the top), climbing techniques, tying into the rope, making anchors (tying the ropes into trees at the top of the cliff) and different knots and technical stuff like that. We climbed on some different routs for about 6 hours, most of the routes we climbed were around 70 feet high and the ratings were WI3-4 for those who know the rating system or feel like looking it up. After climbing we went into "town" and found this awesome little coffee and chocolate shop called Mouse Chocolates. They had the most amazing hot cocoa. Or maybe it was just amazing after spending all day climbing frozen waterfalls.
Setting up the anchors at the top.
Ice!
Saturday:
Wake up at 6 again, a little warmer at 23 or so. Still clear blue skies and perfect weather! We climbed in more difficult areas, Schoolhouse and South Park. (these are different areas in the ice park). My favorite was Schoolhouse, the cliffs were really tall I got about 2 climbs in there. The second time I fell and got some nasty bruises on my knees, yay for being tied into a rope and having a belayer to save your life! I was trying to compare it to rock climbing but its really different. Having crampons and ice axes youd think would make it easier but the axes and crampons sometimes slip or the ice gives out under them, which is what happened when I fell. In rock climbing you have grips on rocks but here the tools are the only things you have to hold you there! We hiked to south park, but all the routs were taken by other climbers so we had a test on making anchors and self and pre equalized systems (how the ropes are tied in at the top) and other fun rope related stuff. I passed :).
Wohoo! Fun in the happening.
Later, we decided it would be a good Idea to take off our 6 layers of clothes, get into our swim suits and do some polar bear. JUST KIDDING!! We soaked in the hot spring they have in Ouray! 106 degrees. It was sooooo nice. I could see more shooting stars sitting in the spring which was cool. The worst part was running in our suits in 10 degree weather from the cabins to the water. There was a separate cold pool of water next to the hot spring, and we had a competition to see who could get out and swim from the end of the cold pool back to the hot spring. It turned into a competition to see who could get out of the hot spring and get to the pool without freezing in place! haha. I win. Well I got thrown in but thats a different story. (PS the town runs on geothermal energy) Then we stopped by for some more Mouses cocoa and did "presentations" aka had conversations with the instructors about how cool ice climbing is and where would be good places to go hiking. What a kickass class.
Ive thought up the perfect career path for myself. With my meteorology major, I could get a Parks, Recreation and tourism minor and become a mountain guide or work in avalanche control, and also be an ice climbing/rock climbing instructor! If I do the more advanced ice/rock climbing classes, I could shadow the instructors by Jr year and become an instructor my senior year! What a cool job.
Also, Ive added something to my bucketlist. The instructors were telling me that through the outdoor rec programme here they're getting a group together later this summer to climb Mt Rainier in Washington. Its a CRAZY good deal, only 350 bux which includes transportation, food, a hiking pass, and we will be guided by the same instructors who do the climbing classes. Normally, just a guide is 3,000 bux. Its an intense mountain and a big deal to summit. Im definitely goin for it.
I found the blog of this really cool lady in Alaska who does arctic bike races. She did a post where she took a picture to represent each hour of a day for 12 hours, it was awesome. So I decided to follow myself around with a cell camera all day!
Heres my day:
5am- I wake up at 4:40 but lets call it 5. Im cheery and excited to go skate! Note the cheer in that face. Mmm coffee.
6am- Im at the Oval, we warm up on the bikes and stretch for half an hour.
7am- Ice workout
8am- Dead. And its only 8!!
9am- Jun gives us a break from dryland so instead we spin! fun. Can you count how many people are flicking me off for taking a picture now?
10am- FOOD. HUNGRY. STARVING.
11am- Chillaxing for a few minutes.
12pm My motivation for going to math today! (extra credit was to make cookies using a metric recipe and convert to US system)
1pm Getting in 10 minutes of homework before afternoon practice.
2pm At the rink (again) stretching before the ice workout. Gabby loves skating!
3pm Heres the track after we did our warmup relays. Sorry I would have gotten a pic of the relays but I was too busy messing them up.
4pm Taking turns doing a pivot drill.
5pm This is after we finished our 30 minute run, witch was actually kind of hard... At least we didn't have dryland today!! (Emily's in hardcore stretch mode, super serious.)
And there is 12 hours of my day! If your wondering, from 6-830 I eat and go to bed in that order. So exciting. Eat sleep skate.
Not really. But it felt like one. Today I took the morning off from short track and did some long track instead! Man did it feel good. Long track is from 9-11 instead of 7-845, so I got to sleep 10 hours last night! The extra sleep and long track was just what I needed to recover from the week of death. My legs thanked me.
Heres the theme song for this past week of training: (Adam Sandler from the wedding singer-Somebody kill me please)
Oh somebody kill me please, somebody kill me plee-ase, I'm on my knees, pretty pretty please kill me. I want to die. Put a bullet in my head.
Im pretty sure this does a good job on explaining how we all felt :)
And heres a funny picture of our coach on the phone (with his girlfriend?) while we are all dying doing dryland! Hes a strange dude.
I made this back in September of '06 and have been adding ever since! Its more of a goal list and places I want to go. Ive organized them into categories, they're in no special order. I don't plan on doing these things alone so feel free to join me in an epic adventure!! It'll be fun.
Travel
Places I want to visit: Vancouver Japan Germany China Spain Ireland
Places where I want to backpack/bike/ski/etc.
Alaska- Backpacking Elizabeth Islands- Kayaking Antarctica- Caving Siberia- Backpacking Anywhere in the Rockies- Backpacking Grand Canyon- Backpacking Utah- Skiing (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!) An ocean- Scuba diving South America- Caving Yellowstone Park- Backpacking Salt Lake City- Speedskating (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!) Colorado Springs- Speedskating Marquette- Speedskating Calgary- Speedskating Colorado- Skiing/Ice Climbing (Mission to be accomplished this spring) Austria- Skiing Switzerland- Skiing
Athletic Goals/Other Epic Things
Pan for Gold Skydiving Compete in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi Attempt to climb all 7 summits of the World (Killimanjaro, Denali, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Carstensz Pyramid, Everest, Vinson) Hike the Appalachian Trail (with my brother?) Hang Gliding Get my Black Belt Bike camp across Europe Bike across the US Climb Mt Marcy (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!) Climb Mt Washington Run a Marathon Earn Category 1 (for speedskating) Break 18 minutes for a 5k (running) Climb an active volcano Bungii Jumping Bobsledding Skeleton Sliding Go surfing 100 mile Bike Race Get back into Alpine Ski Racing (after skating...) Compete in a World Cup (Speedskating) Become National Champion (Speedskating) Compete in Arctic Circle Race in Greenland Set a World Long Track record Make the Jr World Team (too late now...) Qualify for Sr Nationals Qualify for Olympic Trials
Random stuff
Watch the Olympics live Have my skates signed by my favorite skater Get my Pilot license Get a Husky Road Trip across the US (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!) Meet Hyun-Soo Ahn Find the recipe for Kyoto Kinen (Tea drink in burlington, VT) Look for Pearls Stay in the Icehotel Spend christmas in Austria Spend New Years in a foreign place Experience weightlessness Sleep under the stars Partake in a Japanese tea ceremony See a Broadway Musical in NYC Go to an Opera Eat the most expensive dark chocolate in the world
