Weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park

Marc on the summit of Notchtop.

Notchtop from the trail.

I spent the weekend climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the most beautiful places in the world. Saturday I took my roommate on her first multipitch climb, a 5.7 crack that she exclaimed (after the first pitch) was "the scariest and hardest climb she's ever done!" (And she boulders harder than I do!) Then I dragged her up an overhanging, 5.8+ fist crack. (oops!) I really didn't mean to do that, but the other option, a totally lichen-covered 5.8 "hand crack" looked incredibly unappealing. Luckily, she managed to struggle her way through the fist section and actually do the route, though with a few falls. It was exciting for both of us. At one point she hollered up, "Lizzy, I don't think I can do this!" 200 feet away and sitting on the very tip of the Bookmark Pinnacle, I didn't have any opportunity to help her.

"You'd better figure it out!" I shouted back down to her. I'm so psyched she did, both because it empowered her to figure her way out of a very uncomfortable and difficult situation, and because I didn't have to descend (i.e. down lead) the not-so-well protected and very exposed arete that I had just climbed. It would have been quite an epic trying to deal with that situation.
Lizzy on top of Notchtop.

The next day, I met up with my favorite climbing partner, Marc Hemmes, and we headed out at 5 a.m. to climb Notchtop, a 12,149-foot formation with a gorgeous, wide 1,000-foot face that juts out of Odessa Gorge. Neither of us remembers the name of the route we climbed, which is fine because we didn't actually climb the 5.8+ that we planned on climbing, or at least we didn't complete the correct route. We attempted to find some obscure hand crack in a left-leaning corner that was put up by Steve Komito in the 50s. We think we did the first pitch correctly, but rather than do the second, supposedly splitter finger crack up a face, we ended up on a totally sketchy face where we were forced to do 5.9 moves over hollow sounding plates of rock that were plastered on the wall with dry dirt. Hemmes led that pitch, and he took so long (very uncharacteristic) that I knew something was amiss. As I climbed the route, my respect for him increased (as it often does), as I nimbly tried to avoid the large plates of rock, which I knew would not feel good smashed against my chest if I tugged on them off by weighting them. Needless to say, it was a bit scary. But we managed to top out, and the only other epics we experienced during the day were my chewed up Evolv approach shoes (damn marmots), Hemmes having to downclimb 200 feet to retrieve his precious chalk bag, and a stuck rope on the rappel (which I retrieved via prussiking up a full pitch of 5.8, which was actually quite fun--a route put up by Chris Kalous a few years ago).

We proceeded to Ed's Cantina around 2 p.m. and drank margaritas until Hemmes' dear gal, Diana, returned home, at which time we met up with her for some chatting.

Pictures to follow.


Marc looking down at his chalk bag, lying 200 feet below. Lizzy took a brief nap in a very cozy, sunny and grassy niche while Marc downclimbed the 200 feet to his precious chalk bag.

Pete Takeda Raises $400 for Liberia Scholarship Program

We made just about $400 at the fundraiser last night, which included about 25 or so people. Though it was less than we hoped because there was a breast cancer fundraiser that same night, the intimate setting provided our presenter, alpinist and author Pete Takeda, with the opportunity to really interact with the audience. He was engaging and funny, and people laughed for the duration of his one-hour show. It was interesting to both hear about the spy satellites the U.S. and Indian governments placed on Nanda Kot and Nanda Devi, and also the stories he recalled about his own journey up Nanda Kot. Also, all participants ended up with raffle prizes, which was pretty exciting. I wouldn't say this was my most successful fundraiser, but it was probably one of the more enjoyable ones (after I quit moping after finding out about the other fundraiser).

I'd like to thank the following folks for making this happen:
Lorraine and Buff at the Hangar Restaurant kindly hosted the event, donating their time and energy as well as beer and their very nice space. Pete Takeda for doing the show, Justin Faye for providing the wonderful music, and Dick Orleans for proving the sound system, the wonderful GEI board members Elizabeth O'Neill and Justin Voorhees, and volunteers Audra Ord and Douglas Snively.
I'd also like to thank: Redwood Creek Winery, Oskar Blues Brewery, SkirtSports, Glassworks of Estes Park, Marmot, the Stanley Hotel, the Meadow Mountain Cafe, Evolv Shoes, Clif Bar, Jet Boil, Black Diamond, Climbing Magazine, Wigwam Socks, Majka Burhardt, Keith the massage therapist in Boulder, artist Renan Ozturk, artist Emilie Lee, Kate Rutherford, and the Estes Park News and the Lyons Recorder for publicizing the event.

Emily Harrington

Oh yeah, I just interviewed the young (incredibly strong) climber Emily Harrington last Friday for an article I'm writing for Petzl. She never struck me as being very friendly, but I discovered that she is actually a sweetheart. I really enjoyed chatting with her and am looking forward to writing this profile on her (I will post a link when it has been published in a few weeks). I have a lot of information, and the Petzl article is just 500 words, so I'll likely write something else for my blog. She's an incredible athlete. She's done numerous 5.14s.

In other news, I'm slowly working out the details for my show for podclimber.com. We've got a couple ideas in the works right now. I may start out with some shorts (interviews with various climbers) and then work into my own show. Oskar Blues is already on board as one sponsor. I'm looking for more. It sounds like an incredibly fun project--talking to climbers, traveling, and being a journalist. Considering it's already my life, this will be just one additional fun way to be involved with the community that I love.

OK, off to the newspaper. Today is deadline.

Tomorrow the Girls Education International fundraiser with Pete Takeda! I'm excited.

Yosemite

I'm heading back to Yosemite on Friday morning to meet with Corey Richards to do an article for Rock & Ice. I'm looking forward to not staring at a computer for 12 hours a day, though I still have quite a bit of work to do with three articles due mid-July, plus having to write the employee handbook for the Berthoud Recorder (if that sounds like fun, it's definitely not at all). I planned on driving out to Yosemite with the copious amounts of Oskar Blues beer that I still have in my fridge and stacked up in my room, but unfortunately my car has broken down again (front brakes and bearings), and so I'm going to have to fly, which I prefer doing anyway--that way I can get a bit more work done while in transit.

I'm still recovering from all the action from the past month. Summers sure are busy; I'm getting lots of exercise and not much sleep (because of the birds and the light). I do love summer though. And, more than anything, I love where I live. I can't imagine being in a more beautiful place than Lyons. I took a bike ride a couple nights ago down on one loop of the "Fruit Loops" (bike route), by the South St. Vrain River. I've biked that road dozens of times, but this time I found something really special, a hidden access to Boulder County Open Space. A obscure, overgrown dirt road, of sorts, led to a fence, on which was posted a tiny sign explaining that "this is BCOP. Visitors must know the rules." I crossed the fence and hung out by the river in the tall grass. It's a lovely spot to cast a line. I can't wait to get back there when I get back from Yosemite.

After hanging by the river, I laid in the middle of the road and watched the sky darken, while bats did acrobatics trying to capture their dinner. I closed my eyes and just listened to the rushing river and the crickets. When I opened them again, the sky was almost completely dark, and the sandstone buttresses high on the sage-covered hill above me were black shadows against the sky.

Beautiful.

Pete Takeda to Raise Funds for Girls Education International in Estes Park, June 26

Photo by Jonny Copp. Nanda Devi

On Thursday, June 26, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the Hangar Restaurant in Estes Park is hosting a benefit for Girls Education International, a nonprofit organization founded by North Face athlete Heidi Wirtz and Rock & Ice Senior Contributing Editor Lizzy Scully. The fundraiser will feature tunes by local musician Justin Faye and a slide show by author and mountaineer Pete Takeda. The $35 ticket includes a BBQ, unlimited New Belgium Brewery beer, and raffle tickets for dozens of items. There will also be a silent auction.

Takeda recently published a book entitled, “An Eye at the Top of the World: The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring CIA Operation.” In the early 1980s, the CIA decided to put a nuclear-powered spy device on the top of Nanda Devi—one of the Himalayas’ most remote and forbidding peaks. The goal was to gather information on Chinese troop movements. Some time later, the apparatus stopped sending signals; it was as though it had completely disappeared. The device was never recovered, and now, nearly four pounds of plutonium, locked in the glacier beneath the mountain are moving ever closer to the source of the Ganges River.

“That’s enough manmade poison to kill every human on earth, or to produce a bomb capable of flattening a city,” explained Takeda.

For this book, Takeda not only interviewed surviving members of the original expedition—during which the climbers huddled around the spy device for warmth given off by the decay of radioactive elements—he retraced their steps to the peak itself. While en route, Takeda has his own harrowing experience with the violent forces of the mountain, and was almost swept away in an avalanche. To learn more, come to the Hangar Restaurant and check out Takeda’s exciting show. (For more information, please visit www.petetakeda.com).

Girls Education International (GEI) is a 501(c)3 operating under the umbrella of The Mountain Fund. GEI currently has two operational programs and two additional programs that they hope to launch by 2009. The profits from this fundraiser will go toward their Liberia Scholarship program, which provides scholarships to 42 girls in the mountainous regions of Liberia, and also to one of their Nepal scholarship programs, which provides scholarships to two girls in Kathmandu. For more information, please visit: www.girlsed.org, or call Lizzy Scully at 303-903-2768.

All donations, including the $35 dinner ticket, are tax deductible. Raffle and silent auction items provided by: Redwood Winery, Glassworks of Estes, The Meadow Mountain Café, Evolv shoes, The North Face, SkirtSports, La Sportiva shoes, jewelry by Suspended Stone Design, photography by Topher Donahue, Majka Burhardt’s book, “Vertical Ethiopia,” signed copies of Takeda’s book, and many other items.

Underinsured on the Rise

By Lizzy Scully

Since 2003, the number of underinsured people has risen by 60 percent, said a recent study by The Commonwealth Fund. This means 25 million people are underinsured, which brings the total of people with inadequate or non-existent health insurance to 75 million. That’s 42 percent of the population that doesn’t have health insurance. This primarily results from health care costs that are rising faster than incomes (91 percent increase in premiums versus a 24 percent increase in wages.) What’s wrong with this picture?

Plenty.

The United States has some of the highest per-person, out-of-pocket spending in the world, but policy is still focused on “exposing families to a greater share of costs,” the study explained. The theory is that people will make more cost-conscious comparisons of quality and care. Unfortunately, insurance companies don’t consider the fact that regardless of cost comparisons, insurance rates and deductibles are simply too high for lower- and middle-income people to handle, period.

I lost my “good,” corporate-subsidized health insurance when I was laid off August 2007. With my current insurance as an independent, freelance writer/editor, my deductible is $5,000 and my monthly payments $130—that’s somewhere around 10 percent of my post-tax income. If I have an accident, all of a sudden I’m paying about 25 percent of my income to pay off my medical bills. With mortgage taking up another 50 percent of my income, that leaves me with very little to purchase food, pay bills, drive to work. (I’d better not get hurt.)

The study’s authors – Vice President of The Commonwealth Fund Cathy Schoen, and researchers, Sara Collins, Jennifer Kriss and Michelle Doty – defined the underinsured as people who pay 10 percent or more of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Clearly I qualify as being underinsured. Having an inadequate policy could be nearly as detrimental to me as not having health insurance at all.

"Today you can have health insurance and still go bankrupt if you get sick,” Schoen explained in a PBS story. “This puts individuals, families, and the nation's health and economic security at risk.”

So what can one do? I exercise as much as possible, I eat well, and I don’t smoke cigarettes. That’s about the extent of what I can actually do to avoid paying the prohibitive costs of health care.

Unfortunately, there are millions of people who are not blessed with the good health that I have. What are they to do? How does an ovarian cancer patient pay for the copious amounts of prescription drugs she needs, let alone the chemo treatments and the travel to and from the hospital? How does someone who, though healthy all his life, suddenly must pay exorbitant medical costs because he contracts heart disease because of his genetic disposition toward it?

There are some solutions, but they require that people do additional research and/or take political action on both a local and a national level. What can you do?:
• Contact Colorado’s representatives, explain your story and tell them how important reasonable health insurance is to you: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newseek.cgi?site=ctc&state=co
• Contact your preferred presidential candidate and insist they address the issue: Barack Obama at http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/contact; or John McCain at http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/
• Check out organizations such as Code Pink, which are trying to change the overall system: http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?list=type&type=318 or the Health Insurance Resource Center, which is trying to help people navigate the world of insurance: http://www.healthinsurance.org//

A note I just sent to my mom and dad

mom, dad,
is my life always going to be this fast paced? it feels insane sometimes, like i can barely keep up with all the things that i am doing.
before i leave for yosemite next friday morning at 4a.m. to do my Rock & Ice magazine article, I have to:
1. write a employee handbook for the newspaper so that everyone knows what they are supposed to do (i.e. work 40 hours this and next week)
2. train a new hire at the newspaper (who is 18 and so green)
3. continue to train the woman who is going to eventually take my place as the managing editor of the newspaper--write a list of tasks for her to do so that she knows what to do when she eventually takes my place
4. clean my house
5. mulch the strawberry patch
6. get ready for the fundraiser i've organized for next thursday night in estes park (with a musician, a famous climber/writer doing a slide show, a BBQ, a silent auction, a raffle... i have to hire a guy to do sound, and get the wine and all the silent auction items there. agg)
7. write a grant for one of my nonprofit projects
8. interview and write an article about a young, famous climber (tomorrow night)
9. meet with a photographer to discuss writing an article on the via ferrati (in italy)
10. work at the newspaper with a new designer because my designer is gone on vacation for a week
11. have a meeting on monday night with the girls education international staff.
12. get in touch with the dang photographer who is supposed to work with me in Yosemite for this R&I article and who is still not communicating with me!
13. oh my gawd. why did you two raise me this way? holy shit.
love, daughter

IllumiNia II: a Nia-Inspired Dance Performance in Boulder this weekend

I published this in the Berthoud Recorder, and because I enjoyed the performance so much, I wanted to give it a bit more press. Plus, I wanted to add the short video that I created to accompany this review (though I can't seem to download the video at the moment...). Once again, I'm a lucky gal. I live in a wonderful place, where I can climb, work writing/editing 10 hours and see a cool dance performance all on the same day (which is what I did last Tuesday).

Nia Inspired Performance Multifaceted and Fun
By Lizzy Scully
When: June 20-21 at 7 p.m., June 22 at 2 p.m.
Where: The Dairy Center For the Arts
Contact: www.thedairy.org/Ticketing/tickets.htm.
Price: $18/adults; $15/students; $12 for children under 12; (children under five free)

For just one weekend, the Dairy Center for the Arts is hosting the Little Fish Movement Arts dance extravaganza, IllumiNia II: A Movement Journey Through Water, Earth, Air & Fire, with music by Kendra Howard and choreography by Howard and Sarah Becker. The troupe, based out of Boulder, includes women of all ages and abilities.

“Some women have been dancing since they were young and others just started a year ago,” said Becker. Regardless of ability, the women performed with impressive unison at the dress rehearsal I was able to attend earlier this week, and various top-notch dancers, including Howard, really made the show spectacular to watch.

IllumiNia II takes the audience through a variety of themed, group dance acts, with “interludes” of expressive improvisation giving some dancers a break while others changed costumes and got ready for ensuing acts. The sublime music and sensual movements of the first Middle Eastern style dance routine are sure to entice audiences into a mystic trance. But that won’t last for long. With each new act, the choreographers introduce drastically different movements and sounds, from Samba-style to African dance. The entire troupe converged on the stage for the wild and wacky hip-hop routine, for example, but then a few acts later two groups of women stomped angrily around the stage, aggressively “fighting” each other with arms thrown about and much hair tossing.

Though all the dancers were fun to watch, my favorite performers were the aerialists, who twisted, dropped and twirled about while suspended from two very long pieces of material hanging from the ceiling. They achieved their fantastic ballet poses and aerobatic flips by wrapping the pieces of material around their wrists, legs and bodies, all the while moving in tune with the music and the group dancers who danced around them on stage.

The variety of acts made this show special because they elicited various emotional feelings. I felt alternately corporal and ethereal, joyful and aggressive, and sensual and unyielding. I really enjoyed this show and recommend it to people who are interested in exploring new ideas and potentially pushing the limits of their understanding and knowledge of dance.

Girls Education International fundraiser Features Pete Takeda

Photo by Jonny Copp. Nanda Devi

On Thursday, June 26, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the Hangar Restaurant in Estes Park is hosting a benefit for Girls Education International, a nonprofit organization founded by North Face athlete Heidi Wirtz and Rock & Ice Senior Contributing Editor Lizzy Scully. The fundraiser will feature tunes by local musician Justin Faye and a slide show by author and mountaineer Pete Takeda. The $35 ticket includes a BBQ, unlimited New Belgium Brewery beer, and raffle tickets for dozens of items. There will also be a silent auction.

Takeda recently published a book entitled, “An Eye at the Top of the World: The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring CIA Operation.” In the early 1980s, the CIA decided to put a nuclear-powered spy device on the top of Nanda Devi—one of the Himalayas’ most remote and forbidding peaks. The goal was to gather information on Chinese troop movements. Some time later, the apparatus stopped sending signals; it was as though it had completely disappeared. The device was never recovered, and now, nearly four pounds of plutonium, locked in the glacier beneath the mountain are moving ever closer to the source of the Ganges River.

“That’s enough manmade poison to kill every human on earth, or to produce a bomb capable of flattening a city,” explained Takeda.

For this book, Takeda not only interviewed surviving members of the original expedition—during which the climbers huddled around the spy device for warmth given off by the decay of radioactive elements—he retraced their steps to the peak itself. While en route, Takeda has his own harrowing experience with the violent forces of the mountain, and was almost swept away in an avalanche. To learn more, come to the Hangar Restaurant and check out Takeda’s exciting show. (For more information, please visit www.petetakeda.com).

Girls Education International (GEI) is a 501(c)3 operating under the umbrella of The Mountain Fund. GEI currently has two operational programs and two additional programs that they hope to launch by 2009. The profits from this fundraiser will go toward their Liberia Scholarship program, which provides scholarships to 42 girls in the mountainous regions of Liberia, and also to one of their Nepal scholarship programs, which provides scholarships to two girls in Kathmandu. For more information, please visit: www.girlsed.org, or call Lizzy Scully at 303-903-2768.

All donations, including the $35 dinner ticket, are tax deductible. Raffle and silent auction items provided by: Glassworks of Estes, The Meadow Mountain Café, Evolv shoes, The North Face, SkirtSports, La Sportiva shoes, jewelry by Suspended Stone Design, photography by Topher Donahue, Majka Burhardt’s book, “Vertical Ethiopia,” signed copies of Takeda’s book, and many other items.

HERA Climb4Life Colorado, June 13-15

Lizzy & Audra at the HERA Climb4Life event

I participated in the HERA Climb4Life again this year, though I didn't do nearly as much as I did last year (last year I did much of the PR/marketing; this year I was too busy). The HERA events are my favorite climbing events because people are so energized to make a difference, and there are always so many neat women around. Sean Patrick made an appearance this year and said that she was having a "good day." She even danced Salsa with us all evening.

Once again, this year's HERA event was a huge success, with participants raising over $35,000 (even though there were fewer participants this year than last). I spent the day hanging out with the folks from Paradox. Unfortunately, a number of the participants bailed last minute, and so we ended up with only five climbers and around 10 volunteers. At least all the volunteers got to climb as much as they wanted!

After the day of climbing, a group of us stopped by Malcolm's house for pre-party cocktails. Then we headed to North Boulder Park where we drank wine donated by the generous folk sat Redwood Creek Winery and ate tasty food from Sherpas (in downtown Boulder). I met some really neat folks, including Aaron and Anne Marie (who were fellow volunteers), and I got to hang out with the amazing women and men who put this thing together: Lisa Carmichael, Kestrel Hanson, Eden Ellman, Carolyn McHale, Ken, Sasha, Sarah Hayden, and many more. You gals and guys rock!
Here are some photos.
Malcolm and Beck hanging out under the Bastille Crack.

Anne Marie

Lizzy and Chad Jukes

More TEVA Games photos: Chris Sharma, Lisa Rands, Paul Robinson, and more...

These photos were all taken by my roommate, Audra Ord, an intern at Climbing Magazine. (ps. if you can't tell, my roommie is obsessed with Chris Sharma :)

Lots of photos of Chris Sharma:





Danny Woods ended up fifth over all.

David Lama.

Woods and Canadian Sean McColl



Lisa Rands




Paul Robinson placed third.

OMG I forgot to Thank Evolv for paying for me to go to the New River Rendezvous

Oh my gawd, I totally forgot to thank Evolv shoes for paying for me to get out to the New River Rendezvous. THANK YOU EVOLV! Brian and Buck are awesome. They have supplied me with shoes since I embarked on the new journey of my life (which started last fall after I was laid off from the corporate world).

I am so appreciative of their support. They have actually supported me since days long gone by when I ran She Sends, the women's climbing mag. Not only are they super awesome for giving me approach shoes, climbing shoes and flip flops, but they're one of the most conscious businesses in the climbing industry (read: vegan shoes and supporting organizations such as the HERA Foundation and Paradox Sports).

I especially love the HERA shoe.

Though it's supposed to be a beginner, all-around shoe, I find it to be perfect for everything from climbing the splitters of Astroman to the slabs of the West Face of El Cap (though my feet ached a bit after 2,000+ feet!) They've just given me a pair of Sharma's. I'll try them when I'm in Yosemite to see how they work out.

EVOLV ROCKS!
Thanks guys.
Big hugs to both of you.
For more information on the best climbing shoe in the industry, visit the Evolv website.

Some highlights of the TEVA Mtn Games

I really enjoyed my time at the TEVA Mountain Games. I covered the event for Petzl and also sent a blog entry with plenty of photos to Rocky Mountain Sports. I'm not sure when that stuff will go online. If it doesn't get on the RMS blog, I'll go ahead and put all the photos and the blurb I wrote on my blog. We'll see.

What's on the schedule for the next few weeks? Let's see... I'm still managing the Berthoud Recorder, but am down t0 20-25 hours per week. I enjoy what I do, but I'm not really keen on being a manager at this point. I really want a bit more freedom. I committed to staying with them until the other editors are up to speed and until the one we hired to take my place is ready to take my place. I am very anxious to get going with podclimber.com, however. I'm planning on meeting with those folks in August for a few days while en route to Squamish (where I will meet with my awesome Canadian friend, Bonnie DeBruijn). We're going to work on me having my own show. Sweet!

Here are a couple photos and one video of the TEVA Games.

Starting to climb again, sort of

I'm not supposed to climb for a few more weeks, so I went and climbed the first Flatiron yesterday with my friend Will. My reasoning is that it's so easy it's like walking, therefore it can't possibly hurt my shoulder... Bet my doc would chastise me, but it felt so damn good to be up there. Aside from chocolate, family & friends, and sex, nothing brings me more joy than hanging out on the side of a really big rock.

It's nice hanging out with handsome climber dudes as well (I feel so lucky to be a climber. In what other community are you surrounded my ultra fit, down-to-earth people who are always excited to get out in the mountains?) Anyway, Will decided to check out Lyons for a few days before moving back to Boone, NC. We had a lovely time drinking wine and sitting on the front porch chatting, and, of course, playing in the mountains.

We simul-climbed up the first part of the Flatiron, but then got sick of the rope and so finished off the upper part and the ridge without it. It was a gorgeous day, perfect, sunny, cool. The colors (as you'll see in the pixs) were super crisp and intense. Wow. I love where I live. Life is sweet.

TEVA Mountain Games and World Cup Bouldering Comp

I've just published an article on the Petzl website about the TEVA Mountain Games, focusing specifically on the first World Cup Bouldering Competition held in the United States. I'll be posting more on my blog later this week. In the meantime, for more information, visit the Petzl Website here.

Beer and Skirt Sponsor--How lucky can a girly dirtbag climber be?

Lucky me. I've got a beer sponsor. Oskar Blues Brewery makes delish microbrews in a can (my absolute favorite is their Ten Fidy Imperial Stout). Because I travel so much and go to so many climbing areas (and because climbers like beer so much), they're going to give me beer for any and all climbing trips I go on. How cool is that. My gawd I am truly a lucky dirtbag.

To read more 'bout em, visit their site or their blog (maybe they'll eventually change their blog name from OskarBluesBrewsBikes to OskarBluesBrewsBikes&Rocks). I'll be writing a bit for their blog as soon as I get to back to Yosemite.

In other news, I've also been sponsored by this really neat company called SkirtSports. They make athletic wear, and their line includes plenty of super cute, totally functional but also sexy skirts. Over lunch, a friend suggested that I contact the SkirtSports athlete manager (who happened to be his lovely wife), I thought why not? I love skirts; I'm girly; I'm an athlete. So I contacted Chris Grack-Wilson, and she loved the idea of me wearing skirts and the other athletic wear they produce while on my climbing trips or at events (they make tanks, sports bras, and warm, synthetic layers as well. I don't wear the skirts while climbing with a harness, though they have shorts underneath). For more information on their company, visit the SkirtSports Website. I'll be writing for their blog as well starting later this summer.

Makin' Bacon Cookies with baker Matt Wurst

Matt Wurst loves to bake. Though he lives in Salt Lake City now, he's considering opening up a bakery in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Aside from his amazing pound cake (pictured in an earlier blog entry), he makes these amazingly delicious bacon chocolate chip cookies. They are pretty gross, he admits, because of the huge amounts of bacon grease and butter they contain ("I don't eat them, but they are like crack for everyone else," he says). Here's a short video of Matt "Makin' Bacon" cookies.

Not in Yosemite

I was supposed to be in Yosemite right now, as we speak, getting ready for a week's worth of work doing a really sweet article for Rock & Ice, but then my photographer bailed. Luckily I had only made it as far as Salt Lake City (which was still sort of a waste of a drive). However, all was not lost. I ended up spending the weekend with some wonderful fellows--Will and Matt. Will and I climbed a few easy routes in Big Cottonwood Canyon one day and we hiked Mt. Olympus the next. We actually planned on climbing it, but missed the turn and before we knew it we were at the top. Helluva hike. How the heck we missed the turn I'll never know. Normally I'm not so oblivious in the mountains. Maybe it was because it was so warm and lovely out--really the first time it actually felt like summertime. Here are some photos from my fun weekend.
Cheers!
-Lizzy

Lizzy & Will on Mt. Olympus

Will & Matt in their house in SLC.

Matt and "the best pound cake in the world" that he just extracted from the oven moments before this photo was taken.