skiing and ice climbing

I have a bunch of pics to post from the past few weeks but I havent had any free time till now so here it goes. A few weeks ago...ok im not gonna lie it was way more than a few weeks it was back on the 14th, I went skiing with Garrett and a couple of his friends at the bird and took some crazy cool pics. Way too much powder for my GS skis though, the mountain pretty much pwnd me. Twisted my knee pretty bad and couldnt walk for a day but surprisingly it completely healed in only 2 days.





The clouds at the same level as the trail!







Ice Climbing II class in Ouray, CO.

Carpooled with a classmate. The drive was about 6 hours but we had the most interesting and random conversations so it seemed shorter. Went from religion to chocolate to drugs to southpark episodes, lol. Stayed in cool little cabins in town, I bunked up with 2 others. The first morning we climbed it was 11 degrees out. The next day it was a little warmer but not by much. After climbing and dinner at this awesome mexican place with monster nachos we went to the hot springs. Water was about 108 degrees :) Getting in and out was the hard part, it was still in the teens outside. My hair froze on the way back to the cabin, haha. There was a climb I did that day, hardest route ive ever done. It was completely vertical and had a little "cave" near the top that required some navigation to get around. On the way up I fell and dropped an ice pick, so my instructor, being the badass/insane crazy person he is, climbed it back up to me without being attached to a rope half the time, no big deal.
He eventually knotted sketchily onto my rope kindof...but I dont think it would have held him if he fell, haha. Hes a pro.
We were mock lead climbing that day and its good I was still attached to a top rope cuz I ran out of ice screws (the things you put into the ice to keep you from falling to your death if your not attached to a top rope) before the top, that would have sucked, lol. So on the way down I remembered the "cave" below me and the instructor reminded me to stay to the right of it while repelling so I didnt fall into it, and naturally I slipped and fell into it headfirst, haha. But it was basically just an indent in the ice/rock so it was shallow.














Nate the crazy instructor.


See the cave at the top? Thats what I fell into, haha.





Chocolate ice climbing sculptures at Mouses Chocolate.



The very first ice screw ive ever placed!


Ninja garb.


Downtown Ouray




The fire we made one night.

The almost demise of US Speedskating

This is overdue, but the power at the hotel was out. I shall explain:

The American Cup 3 in VA this past weekend was an experience. Mostly because it didnt happen. It was saturday morning and blizzard came in and dumped 2.5 feet of snow, which Virginia is not used to. We were warming up on the ice when we heard a loud noise. (Luckily) after a while someone noticed a support beam holding the roof up was no longer straight. It was brought to the attention of the officials and they put 2 and 2 together and got everyone off the ice and told everyone in the locker rooms to pack and get out because the roof was collapsing.
By this time the beam was twisted and bent at a 90 degree angle. We quickly got our skates off but as we were packing, we could all hear rumbling and creaking noises, part because of the stampede of people trying to get out, partly because of the roof. It was super scary.
Meanwhile, Jun is just sitting there sharpening skates in the corner like nothings happening.
His sister comes in and tries to tell him to get going, hes like ok let me finish.
She leaves, and most of the people in the room are gone. Im like JUN its ok, you can stop sharpening now. We need you alive, ok?? And he finally comes to his senses and packs out, hahaha. Crazy dude. Putting our blades over his life...
So we all leave and meet at the hotel. Only an hour or two later, the building is in ruins. Can you imagine if no one noticed the beam? All of Americas elite speed skaters except the Olympic team (which is in Vancouver now) would be dead or injured. The end of US Speedskating. Crazy to think about.
In case your wondering, the meet was cancelled and I know were lucky to be alive, but we all spent craploads of money for entry fees, airfare, food, gas, and hotel, uuugh. At least it was kind of a vacation...
Till the power in our hotel went out. All the guests except me and some of my teammates left the hotel, so we had it all to ourselves. We made the best of that by sitting in the dark in the hot tub till it got cold, then we played hide n seek in a pitch black empty creepy hotel, scariest thing ive ever done.

In the end we decided that everyone at the meet tied for first place, except Adam who is number 2, so we could all go home happy. The end.

Here are some pics Kelsey Schiel (skater from MI) took after the rink collapsed. So intense.

It started like this...


And ended like this.



This is around where the coaches and judges were standing.





And here are the traditional airport boredom photobooth pics.











Random pics I took:

Heres our favorite kiwi rockin the new look.


The blizzard outside my hotel window.


when your powers combine..i am..CAPTAIN PLANNEEEET!


Mustard sauce anyone? (engrish in VA)

My creation...IT LIVES!!!

Take a gander at this masterpiece, the first...thing...ive ever made with needles and yarn!

Good karma: Check.

Im so proud of myself I had to blog about it... I just saved a puppy!! I found her wondering the hood and I returned her to her house. Yay me.

PS im also learning how to knit today. Wish me luck.

air?

Most of you know we get super bad inversions here in Salt Lake. Last week was the worst one ive EVER seen. I couldnt see even the outline of the mountains, the most obvious things out here! Hope this air doesnt take years off my life... If it does, I BLAME YOU, READER WHO DRIVES AN SUV!!!! >: (


Its not snow, not a wind storm, its POLLUTION! *gasp*
Its times like this I wish I lived up in Park City...

Back in the desert

Im back in SLC after a 2 week break (although I actually started this break a week before I left) back in NY. A much needed mental/physical break it was. It was awesome seeing all my friends again and sleeping in and eating junk like the old days. Aside from 1 spinning class I went to, I did absolutely nothing for 3 weeks. I definitely felt it my first practice this morning. It was horrible I thought I was gonna die! Its a combination of the being out of shape and the altitude. I figure in 2 or 3 weeks ill be back where I left off. If your a skater and wondering what Jun is having us do lately and what I came back to, this morning we did a warmup relay, 3 laps skulling/3 laps normal skating x3, then 2x 100 lap relays 4 person teams 1.5 laps, 5 lap cooldown. From what I hear this was an easy day LOL easy, thats funny. I guess thats because today he left out the 27 lappers which he would normally have us do in addition.

Anyway. The trip back. So my flight from roc to detroit was supposed to leave around 3pm. The plane to take us to detroit was stuck in detroit for some reason, weather maybe, and got there 3 hours later. This didnt worry me since I had a long layover in Detroit anyway and would still make the connection to SLC if I ran. But, over the intercom the pilot informs us that the paperwork has expired and it would be a "short moment" before we take off. So 25-30 min goes by. We move a little, he come on again. As you can see we need to be de-iced so itll be a "short moment" before we get on our way. 20 minutes goes by. I realize now that theres no way Ill make it. I get to detroit and were sitting on the plane waiting to get off. Captain comes on, sorry folks we need to wait until we get a jet bridge driver over here so we can de board. 10-15 more minutes go by. Im super pissed by this time because there are no more flights out to slc until the next morning and im a poor college student/ unsponsored athlete which means I cant get a hotel room. Im not expecting any vouchers or anything since airlines love to pull the weather card and deny responsibility for everything. I go to the desk and without even asking they rebook me for the first flight out, give me 2 food vouchers, a hotel voucher, plus moved me up to FIRST CLASS. Now THATS customer service.

First class was the most amazing thing ever. When I got on, they took our coats and offered us drinks other than the bottled water that was already in our seats. There was so much room in the seat that I was all sprawled out and there was still room to spare. When we took off they served a breakfast of cheerios, milk, yogurt, a bagel, and a bowl of cut melon, strawberries, blueberries and oranges. Its definitely the way to fly!!


First class. The seats were so big I couldnt even get the whole thing in the picture.


The thing I miss most about the east coast...TIM HORTONS.


My kitty Maya! She sits on the sink and waits for me to turn on the water so she can play with it and get a drink, HAHAHA.


Maya again.


I went to the pet store to look at the hamsters and they had these!!! LOL robo-hamsters...hahaha.


Went to a good korean place and ordered all the good stuff, bulgogi, kimchi jjigae (due to the lack of budae jjigae which I love), and bibimbap. Out of this picture are korean pancakes which are amazing. mmm


Me and my 3 best friends <3


The chocolate banana heart cake Meghan made me!


@ Javas


Cool Javas sign that only speaks the truth.


mmm Javas.