overstimulation

The internet is an overabundance of information. Linking and linking and linking to different things, websites, photos, climbing, blogs, clown porn, BBC world news, baby Jesus, vulcan displays, twitter, lance armstrong's sexy body, fashion, the apocalypse, dogs, vomit, unicorns, facebook, pancakes, devil horns, armani, three headed babies AND it never ever ever ends.

On a totally unrelated note, lately I have been wondering (actually Jeff was wondering) if I have attention deficit disorder. I googled ADD and found this nice little quiz of super appropriate questions such as, do you feel like your brain is a tv and all of the channels are on at once? That seems really intense. Is that how it feels Nic? My score was 63. Does this mean I get a D in ADD? 

Results of your
Attention Deficit Disorder Quiz
You scored a total of  63

You appear to be suffering from a moderate amount of attention and concentration difficulties according to your responses to this self-report questionnaire. You should not take this as a diagnosis of any sort, or a recommendation for treatment. However, it would be advisable and likely beneficial for you to seek further diagnosis from a trained mental health professional soon to rule out a possible attention disorder. My response: Laughing out loud hysterically for about 2 minutes with Jeff staring at me........then as the results sunk in.....FUCK!  Well this explains a lot.  Jeff scored a 10, which is not an F. Apparently the lower the number the better. He got a little thing that said, "YAY you are ADHD FREE!!!" Like he overcame a crack addiction or something.

Anyway...I had no idea that this could possibly be my fate, I though I was just impetuous and precocious.  I do remember my mom telling me that my 3rd grade teacher approached her and said, "Kelly has a hard time sitting still. All of the other kids sit at their desk and pay attention to the math problems, but Kelly is always rocking back and forth or flailing around; however, she understands what is being taught, so I don't think it is a problem." And that is that. Diagnosed in 3rd grade. 

I drew a picture This picture came to mind after I wrote this post because Jeff asked me if I got the idea for the ADD quiz from hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com. I was like 'huh'? She has the best blog in the universe and makes me pee my pants laughing, but I had no idea that she took the exact same ADHD quiz until Jeff showed me. awesome. I am not a copy cat but I couldn't help envisioning two identical cats. SORRY THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ROCK CLIMBING.

Lincoln Logs

I have an announcement to make. I am going to become an alpine weatherwoman. JJ will purchase for me a satellite phone and I will live at Lincoln Lake with the angry pika vs. marmot wars and pet mountain lions. When people want to know the weather they can call my satellite phone and for 500 bucks I will give them an update. For example....

Today is BAD, there are many clouds. Two thumbs down.

Unfortunately I would freeze my ass off and become extremely hungry and irritable. 

 On the other hand I could send all of my projects because I wouldn't be so damn tired from the hike. 

Oh, here I am suffocating myself with my own bicep :(

smarvez!

I am not sure if everyone has seen enough photos of unshackled...if not here are more.

look at those non existent crimping skillz

Keep your foot on STEPH!!!!!!

Rylan on Brazos Pequeños

Justin has small arms

nick!

Steph doing moves

Jeff on Bebe Wolverine

camp!

"my name is Kona"

"Sometimes I get tired......but very very rarely. This time it was because I ran all the way up the hill almost to the road chasing something...I am not sure what it was.."

ok more climbing

I can't explain this one

oh my gawd it's Rylan!

Justin sending Rebellion V9?

The hike out was amazing, a bit humid as we came out of the clouds, but amazing

what is wrong with me?

My body does not allow me to fall asleep before 1:30 and if I get up before 10 I have to take a nap or something to get through the day. This might mean I am ridiculously lazy but I blame it on the lack of oxygen in the mountains and maybe there is a shortage in my apartment too.

I may never be a responsible adult and how will I ever get a 9-5 and conform to American society? Also, why am I always hungry at midnight? This is inappropriate.

Sometimes I try to trick my body by getting in bed at midnight. I lay there with my eyes wide open disappointed that my brain won't comply.

I went to Mt. Evans again yesterday and I took like 250 photos. Ridiculous. As soon as I get through those I will post climbing stuff....for now enjoy my lovely drawing.

mystery

So I feel like I might need to start blogging about the strangest things that I vacuum up at the Denver Bouldering Club. Unfortunately this item that I vacuumed up might just be the coolest one I will ever vacuum up, so they might become less interesting from here on out.

In a deep dark corner that I like to vacuum because it accumulates a heinous amount of chalk dust I found a what looked like something had taken a small poo. It was dry and crusty and it reminded me of living with Alex's Chihuahua (pronounced Chee- Huua - Huuua).

Fortunately for me Flan was hanging out, so I called her over to observe this strange object. She said, "hmmmm... vacuum it up?"  So I did. (Sorry Lee)  It sucked right up and made the loudest crusty thunk in the bottom of the shop vac. Flan and I looked at each other and and tried for a second to suppress the laughter, but we couldn't.  It was awesome.

My theories on what made this turd are a raccoon, a fox, a pika, a marmot, a platypus, a narwhal, an aye aye, a unicorn, or Benson. All are very feasable...except maybe the narwhal and the platypus. This is most likely the cause...

I bet it comes out at night and scampers around the DBC snacking on screws and bolts. I wish it ate chalk dust. Hopefully something this exciting will happen next time I vacuum!

Lincoln Lake needs a lightning rod

Maybe it is just me, but I generally think I am going to die....frequently. These situations arise in instances such as yesterday. When we reached the parking for Lincoln Lake the clouds in front of us were coming at us, the clouds behind us were coming at us and the clouds on the side of us were coming at us. There was mass confusion in the clouds. But straight above was blue sky so I said, yeah sure and hiked in. It was mildly worth it because I fell off of unshackled with my heel on the lip going for the darn jug. big progress. Then the clouds starting rolling in, and by in I mean up the canyon from the lake and down the canyon from the ridge and from EVERYWHERE. visibility went to about 20 feet..ok more like 200 feet. 

impending cloud of doom

It was then that we saw another human. Ivo. He hiked down into the cloud mess, and missed the invisible cloud covered boulders and ended up at the lake. That is how confusing it was up there. 

looking off toward small arms from unshackled

beautiful view of lincoln lake from unshackled

About two minutes later...murder death kill lightning. it actually could have been a lot worse, but it was enough to cause concern, and uncontrollable shaking all over my body. It is like this reaction my body has to lightning in talus. I really don't want my body to do this to me and it certainly doesn't consult me before acting this way. It's like, oh thunder in the distance?...must shake uncontrollably and look like an idiot. When the lightning is really close then it is just over...even my jaw gets the jitters and my brain thinks, I am going to die. I blame all of this on Jamie Emerson. 

So we hunkered down under unshackled to wait it out. I stood on two crashpads just to be extra safe. I didn't feel very safe. There was one really great one where we all saw the flash then went "wah"...which is the beginning of one one thousand, before I freaking jumped because KABLAM!!!!! It died down a little and we moved up the talus, smartest idea ever. Another storm came rolling through and we were stuck again. Finally this one started to quiet and we were discussing hiking out when SHABANG!!!! It hit the ridge we were contemplating hiking up and arched over hitting the ridge on the other side creating the most dramatic drawn out rumble. Ok then..... I guess we will sit here longer....

Finally things really did calm down and we hiked up. As we were hiking up and I was thinking in my head about never ever ever never going back to lincoln lake and wondering why I do this for fun when the most beautiful double rainbow came out brilliantly directly over the lake. More leprechauns!!!!!

Or wait a minute..what we have here is a classic case of bear vs. unicorn. Who is going to get the pot o' gold? Bear is obviously closer and super vicious, but unicorn has super magical powers..

Hiking out

Since most of our day was spent sitting under dripping boulders we decided to summit Mt. Evans to make the most of our day. It was horribly hard work, for the car. We had to climb the last 200 feet to the very top. It was strenuous. I have never been higher than 12,500 until today. The summit of Mt. Evans is 14,240 feet. I actually felt great and with all of the clouds from surrounding storms it was a beautiful evening. 

this is my domain...any leprechauns, unicorns, bloody bears, squirrels!, wolverine, or chirping pika will die mercilessly by my pouncing repeatedly on your face.

oh hey! a climbing photo!

Lincoln Log and Leprechauns

Yesterday was a Lincoln Lake day. Jeff, Drew and I tucked and rolled down the hill and ended up warming up near and on Chalk on Rock. It is a great line but the rock is reminiscent of Vedauwoo. Not so good for warming up. I don't know why there is a photo me on this. I spent two seconds on it but Steph sent it quickly!

Nick playing around on a boulder I don't know the name of

Ben on the end of Chalk on Rock, V8?

After this I tried Unshackled and after some reverse progress, frustration, and complaining I figured out some beta to make things easier only to run out of skin and complain about that a lot too. Then Angie showed up and I forced my beta on her and she flashed that shit so fast! So awesome. 

Then it rained a little and I only had a small panic attack because the thunder seemed to be down canyon. I like to blame these things on Jamie Emerson. All of my most terrible weather experiences occur when Jamie is present and he says, "Ahhh it's fine"... then two minutes later he is packing up his shit and bailing, leaving Angie and I stranded with heart attacks in the talus with lightning striking down like the fury of God. 

Then something amazing happened. Through the hail, after Jamie bailed to another boulder, a double rainbow formed and the leprechauns came out.

Sarah and I didn't see the leprechaun at this point because he was waaay up on the hill and he is only like 10 inches tall. Kona was sniffing him out all day trying to find his stash o' gold, but she was a huge failure and just drank the fresh rain water out of puddles on the rock. useless. 

This may seem like I am taking in the beauty but I am just catching my breath because I can't hike and breathe at the same time up there.

all photos taken by Jeff Sillcox... edited and drawn on by me without his permission