Ouray Ice Park, CO

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.

Cant wait for my backpacking class in April!!


Brrrrrr. I got sunburned by the end of the day.

12 hours of my day

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.

Vacation!

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.

Picture of the day...

Sent to me by my grandma. Thanks, made my day!

Caption: "Snorkeling in Watertown, NY. Alcohol may have been involved."

HAHAHAAAA!!!!!

My Bucketlist

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


And still adding...

Am cup 3

Wohoo! Greenbay. It was SO cold there. There were windchills of -30!!
I did really well. It was my first time skating in the A group and I ended up in 16th by ONE POINT, yaaaay! Go me. I also got PBs in all 3 events, in the 1500 by 3 seconds and the 1000 (1:39.161) by a second, finally breaking 1:40.
Our coach was giving us hand signals during the races which I didn't realize at first. I never look over to the coaches box during races. So I eventually found out and decided to pay attention in the next race, which had 2 others from my team in it which made it really hard to figure out who he was signaling to. That didn't work out too well so I just decided to make my own plans in the rest of the races, haha.
I guess I should take a Korean class so I can understand the coach, it must have taken 20 minutes for me to decipher what he was trying to say on the phone.

What I heard, rephrased, in a nutshell: "Come to my room with your skates so I can sharpen them. And Tell Andrea to come too."
What he REALLY said: " I want Star to come up to my room so I can fix her blades."

I guess I should have guessed he wanted to see Stars blades because when I picked up the phone he said something in Korean, Id say something in English then hed say something else in Korean. Star is the only one in our room who speaks Korean. Hmmm...

Anyway,
Brittany was so amazing!! Ive never seen her skate like she did. Shes only been skating for 4 months and shes kicking ass and taking over the B group already. She may not know it yet but shes moving to Salt Lake this summer and will be living with me and Ansis and Mikey (who will pick SLC over Pittsburgh, sorry Pittsburgh). Yay Rochester!

Sorry dont have any skating pics! Just an airport one...


Me, Andrea, and Matt chillin at the Minneapolis airport.


Salt Lake City Inversion Madness!! (Nothing to do with the meet)


There should be Ginormous 10,000 foot mountains around somewhere...


Im still coughing from it!!

The Photo of the day...

...Cannot be shown due to lack of visual appeal. Shall I describe it? It pretty much sums up the last week of training for me. Its my left butt cheek. And It is now 4 or 5 different colors, slightly resembling the northern lights. How did it get this way you might ask? Well its really quite simple. Try falling on it, in the exact same spot, 4 times over 3 days. Its a combination of ice burn and impact, really quite lovely. And very swollen. I can only sit on the right side of my butt. But you know what? thats ok! Because I don't need to sit when im skating.

Photo of the day

It's Leslie and Jim on New Years!!



Nice antlers.

Recipes anyone?

If anyone knows a good burrito recipe do share! I know they're easy to make but I want some ideas of what to put in them. Maybe besides chicken and beans. Im on a mission to NEVER eat school food again, and burritos are fun to make, freeze, and eat for the rest of the week.

Im not dead

But I might be soon. Ive been busy waking up at 430 to get to the rink at 6 for practice now that our new coach Jun is here. Now were doing dryland before ice and again after. 4 hours total. If we don't get low enough in the corners he whacks us on the head with a skate guard! Then at 3 we've got dryland again and to top it off, 2 or 3 days a week we will have 2 ice sessions a day. Including saturday. Ive never felt such intense physical pain in my LIFE. The workouts are so painful they make me want to cry. And I DONT cry. Were doing pretty much the same workouts as the national team, and it made me feel better when I heard some of the Natl team guys cry during the workouts. I was so sore the other day it took me like 5 minutes to sit down on the toilet. OW. It was funny looking at everyones facebook statuses, "I CANT STAND UP!" "MY LEGS ARE FALLING OFF" "THE COACH IS OUT TO KILL US!" stuff like that. I figure at Am Cup 3 and Nationals were either gonna kick ass or skate 14 second laps trying, haha.

So im not sure if he knows much about long track but I asked him if I could keep doing it and he said NO. Im like WHATT??? Don't worry. Ill find a way. Theres no way I can quit long track. There are other skaters who do both, plus I just ordered a nice new LT suit!

Xmas

It seems like every time I fly in or out of SLC there are AT LEAST 4 SCREAMING babies on my flight. Coming back to Salt Lake from ROC was horrible.

First ill say I had fun seeing my brother, Anne, and my parents again. Especially my kitteh Maya. And all my friends. And Wegmans. Got a BUNCH of nice presents like new Keens, 17 inch Maple Golds (skate Blades)!!, Tea, and a Greys Anatomy trivia board game. My brothers friend Greg whos got a bajillion pairs of skis is giving him some nice atomics. Im jealous. His other friend Carmine said if I learn to do the moonwalk he'll be super jealous. So I have begun my training...
There wasnt much ice to be had in Rochester so Ansis, Lily and me went to syracuse to skate. Theyre rink is even smaller and colder than ROC, I guess ive been spoiled with our nice, big, specially padded, warm rink in salt lake!
Then we went to Ansis's house for a new years party, which was also kinda his birthday party, he turned 18. What a cool birthday! (Jim gave me moonwalking lessons)(And I dont care what Ansis says, I beat him at doubles ping pong, best game ever.)

So back to the horrible flight back.

There were 4 or 5 babies on my flight as usual, but this was worse. It was a 6am flight so I decided to just stay up all night since I had to leave at 4. I was so tired, but the babies thought I didnt need sleep so they took turns SCREAMING for the whole 6 hour flight...the parents thought it would be a good idea to walk them up and down the isle, you know, just in case I couldnt hear them from where they were. So by the time I got back, I hadnt slept in 30 hours and had to drive myself back. Not fun.

BUT! good news, our new coach Jun will be at practice on mondaaayyy!