Why I Climb

I wrote this in September of my freshman year at NYU, and stumbled upon it today. I can't believe I wrote this over a year ago.. I can't believe I haven't climbed in almost a year. As a recent article I read says, climbing is in my DNA, regardless of a shoulder surgery. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did rereading it today.

The first time I sat 300 feet above the ground floor on a tiny three foot wide ledge, looking down at the everlasting row of green trees with your back against a cool granite slab, I understood why I started this multi-pitch climb. Where else could you feel the dangerous rush of adrenaline that lasts 600 feet, the satisfaction of summiting, and the beautiful burn in my forearms besides climbing rocks?

            There’s a never-ending list of options when it comes to climbing. I’m not forced to pick one medium of rock, or one style of climbing, which keeps my climbing more interesting and exhilarating since I’m forever changing up my style. I’ve climbed granite, sandstone, quartzite, limestone, slab, overhang, and vertical walls. I’ve climbed both indoor and outdoors, including top-roping, lead-climbing, bouldering, sport-climbing, and traditional climbing. How can I possibly get bored from all of these options?

Although these terms may be confusing, allow me to dive into a story that may explain a few things. Three days before I left the sunny state of California for the intimidating city of New York, I climbed in Yosemite National Park. Although the temperature was well above 90° F, the wall rose above my companions and I in almost a taunting fashion. When I climbed the first pitch of the inviting rock it involved many painful and intricate hand and finger jams in an unforgiving crack. Forcing my hands, tips of my feet, and my delicate fingers into this burning hot rock only shot more fire through me, that pushed me to get to the top of this mountain. After climbing the first 130 feet, we could look down and see other climbers beginning to climb. Feeling the rush of seeing how high we already were, our party pushed onto the next stretch of climb, or pitch. After five pitches of beautiful granite underneath our fingertips, we reached the final pitch. This one hundred foot stretch dropped off on both sides, showing one of the most magnificent views of the valley floor. With the sun behind us, we could see clearly how green the top of the trees were, how many people were splashing in the cool river, and the sparkling granite that we had just climbed. The satisfaction of completing a hard climb started to set in as I stepped one foot up at a time, with the span of the entire valley on either side of me.

This fashion of climbing continued all the way onto the top of this 600-foot rock, where all around was a panoramic view of one of the country’s national parks. Historic rocks rose from all directions, including Half Dome and El Capitan, two very famous and exhilarating climbs. Just glancing at the faces and thinking of the technical moves and dangerous heights made my hands sweat in anticipation. Not only was I dreaming of climbing harder and longer, but I couldn’t help to notice the beautiful scenery of this natural valley.

After climbing down the back of the mountain, amid dirt paths, thousands of trees, and with smiles on our faces; we had arrived back at the start of the climb. As we looked up to see what we had conquered, our faces broke out into bigger smiles. We began to realize how hard we worked to climb 600 feet, and how much more beautiful it was from the top. After giving one last good look, we turned around, and returned to the car so we could find another route to climb.

Climbing isn’t just about the exercise or the burn in your forearms. Climbing can also be about the natural beauty of this planet earth, or about how much adrenaline you can feel pulsing through your body for an extended period of time. Have you ever walked outside of your house, or hiked somewhere, and admired how beautiful some parts of this earth are? Imagine that admiration and content feeling whenever you’re outside climbing mixed with rushing adrenaline. It’s the thing I live for, that feeling of euphoria from the surroundings and from the physical exertion. I live for the feeling of passion bubbling inside me, as I’m about to step onto a rock. There aren’t many things in life that give me as strong of a rush of endorphins than scaling mountains, bouldering short walls, or being outside in the fresh air doing something that I love.

Taken October 2011, halfway up a climb in Yosemite.

Quinoa Salad part two!

Even though it doesn't look like it, I have been cooking, almost every day in fact. A lot of the times it's been lentils, stir fries, or more recently quinoa salads! I get a farm box every other week, so I try and incorporate whatever is in my box into my salads. This past week I got beets, kale, swiss chard, onions, pears, apples, and mushrooms. I used some of this in a salad I made this morning..

Ingredients:
-1 cup quinoa (any color)
-2 cups water
-1 onion or shallot (I used a shallot)
-1 pre-cooked beet
-a bunch of kale
-red bell pepper
-half a can of pumpkin
-spices! [I used- curry, paprika, turmeric, garlic powder, and pepper]

Method:
1. place quinoa and water in a pot and bring water to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes

2. While thats hanging out, start sautéing your onions or shallots

3. Once shallots/onions look done, sprinkle some curry powder on the onions. Add beets

4. After ten minutes of the quinoa cooking, add your pumpkin, and stir

5. Keep stirring both sides

6. Once the beets look slightly toasty, add the kale

7. Stir and let all veggies cook. The quinoa should be done around now..

8. Add the cut up bell pepper to the pot, as well as the quinoa

And.... stir! yum!

:) I now have meals for three days straight... which is perfect since I am super busy starting tomorrow morning.

First trip to Wyoming

Even though I'm still not climbing, I joined the Alpine Club at CU- a climbing enthusiast club on campus. These people are pretty rad... they have trips every weekend to a climbing location in the area. This past weekend we went up to Vedauwoo, in Wyoming, an awesome crag known for it's offwidths. I went to camp, hang out with climbers, and get away for a day.

You can see some of my buddies climbing in the center.

From the campsite- our view of some crags

goodbye Wyoming sun!

I had a fabulous weekend, hanging out in nature, hiking, and being around climbers. Now I'm studying for a biology exam.. more cooking to come in the near future!

Four months out and feeling phenomenal

A few days ago I hit four months out of shoulder surgery... Anyone remember this?

Yea, really attractive sling! It did its work though... my shoulder feels GREAT! Although I'm not back to many activities (although I did a push up today at physical therapy!) life is fantastic now that I can use my shoulder again.

If you're new, catching up, or plain forgot- my shoulder injury goes as such: in November of last year, I tore my labrum in my left shoulder climbing at Brooklyn Boulders (where I also used to work). I didn't know that I tore this cartilage, and so I kept climbing. I came home for thanksgiving, and went to Yosemite for day to boulder with some friends. The next day, my shoulder was intensely painful and my whole arm ended up going numb. I got an MRI, and it was confirmed that I did tear my labrum.

When I came home in January, I saw a surgeon, who told me that surgery was needed to be able to fully climb again. So, I scheduled it for the day after I got home from NYU. May 17th, my shoulder was fixed! I ended up tearing off half my labrum, including my bicep anchor. They also went in and fixed part of my collarbone, shaved some bone, and took out tissue. There's an anchor in my bone, that holds my labrum in place.

I was in the beautiful sling for 6 weeks, and now, four months later I can ride my bike, run, am starting to swim, and have almost no restrictions. It's a great great feeling..

I even joined the CU triathlon team! There is no pressure to compete, but rather open practices with coaches. I swam with them [breast stroke] and went on an awesome long ride. I've been cramming projects and midterms, so I haven't practiced that much, but I did see some awesome views on our ride on Tuesday.

If you look closely, you can see two deer under the tree!

flatirons :)

And, of course I've been riding on my own as well. This past Sunday my bike and I explored for two hours. It was awesome to see Boulder on my bike.

I'm going to Wyoming tomorrow to camp with the climbing club [no climbing for me yet], but wanted to post an update! 

A day in my life..

I've been living in Boulder for over four weeks now (although not a full month), and life totally is different than both NYC and Berkeley. I thought I'd let you in my life for a day, and show you what a college kid does on a Sunday in Boulder, or at least this college kid..

apples with soy yogurt topped with cinnamon and agave for breakfast

puffed brown rice cereal with flax milk

homework... reading the worst book ever, paired with some green tea
(doesn't that look like a flower pot?)

nice ride with my buddy around Boulder

snack time after a nice ride!

after some homework, I went out on another ride.. and ran into some prairie dogs!

kale chips!

corn on the cob, from the farmers market

made lots of dal! yum!

part of dinner :)

Besides reading the most sexist book (even aggravates me when it's towards men) today was a great day... I got one great ride in, and another good one, and had some great great food. I couldn't ask for anything more..

Selling my soul to the Rockies

I've been living in Boulder, CO for two weeks now, and I couldn't be happier. This city is amazing, and not just because of the mountains that you can see from anywhere, but also the people and the atmosphere itself. I also have a great apartment, with a huge kitchen I can cook lots of meals in. School also started recently, so I've been focused on classes and getting my homework done.

I have a feeling that my posts will slowly turn over from food based writing to nature writing. I could go on and on about the recent outdoor activities I've done since moving here. Boulder is known for it's outdoor activities, and it falls short of absolutely blissful. Biking, running, hiking, climbing, even slack lining. There's something for everyone here, and winter sports have not even started yet.

The first big outdoor activity I've been involved in is cycling. I did this in NYC a lot, but I bought a new bike. I needed a touring road bike here, that could also work as a commuter, and bought this beauty..

It's literally my baby... I've ridden it everyday since I've gotten it, so almost two weeks straight. It's so smooth and gets me everywhere I need to be. Sometimes I use it to get to the grocery store, other times I just ride for fun. One day, my buddy and I biked 25 minutes away from where I live, and hit this:

No joke, we were in the mountains and next to a creek in less than half an hour on bikes. It was great.. This place is the opposite of NYC, I'm actually surrounded by nature as opposed to craving it. And even though school started, I still make time for explorations and peaceful time outdoors.

hiking with some boys on my floor

One of the boys, Grant, hanging out on top of a rock

I also am part of a transfer student group, where a really awesome coordinator sets up activities and get-to-know-you events. The most recent was a night hike, at the flatirons. Originally, we were all going to stick together, but I ended up breaking off with another transfer student, and hiking to the top of the first flatiron.

Like I said, it was night, so these pictures are of Boulder at night. You can see that the lights get farther and farther away. We started hiking at 8:30 P.M., and we didn't get back until 2:30 A.M. It was AWESOME! Although slightly scary at times, especially when we had to scramble up the backside of the first flatiron without a trail, it was totally worth it. I looked it up when we got back, and the elevation change was 2000 feet both ways.. crazy! Pretty good for a girl who has lived at sea level her whole life.

For now, I am relaxing, doing homework, and planning on hiking all three days of this three day weekend.

Hope all is well

Help! Advice needed!

Hey readers.. I'm in Boulder, moved in and content. However, I'm posting a quick post asking for the opinions of other vegans (or vegetarians!).... how do you deal with living with three big meat eaters? Not that there is anything wrong with people who eat meat, but watching one of my roommates cut up bright red beef (aka a cow!) in front of me eating dinner made me nauseous and lose my appetite.. I'm not sure how to deal with this, as I've never had to experience people cooking fish in crock pots in our kitchen, or large meat eaters living next to me.. How? Help!!

This is my version of "meat" a vegan, gluten free chili dog...

Feel free to comment- I'd love to hear some advice!