Rock Climbing

One morning my roommate Eli (referred to as “Crip Nasty” in the Colarbone Chronicles) and our friend Chuck-Ross invited my boyfriend and I to go rock climbing. Having little trouble at rock climbing  gyms in the past I figured it would be a fun morning of hanging out and little physical exercise.

Eli aka Crip Nasty

After picking up some gear we all arrived at Butcher Knife park excited and ready to go. Now, Eli and Chuck-Ross do this about three days a week but I was certain I could handle the 20 maybe 30 foot rock we were climbing. Oh how wrong I was.

Without the brightly colored knobs to lead my way up the rock I had a difficult time navigating the way. So after several failed attempts of only making it half way I finally gave up.

Although Eli and Chuck-Ross were the only two to make it to the top we all had a blast. Not only did we get a great work out and have a lot of laughs in the process, it was also a bit of a trust exercise as we belayed each other up and down the rocks. This random excursion is yet another reason why I love going to school in Steamboat.

Vince gearing up

Chuck-Ross showing us how it’s done

Tibetan Monks Visit Steamboat

Hey everyone, I’m sorry I haven’t updated this in a while but as you can see I’ve been busy transferring the blog from blogger to wordpress and have been working hard on the new layout. That being said I am open to suggestions so if there is anything you don’t like or think I should add please let me know!

This summer has flown by but I thought I’d let everyone know what has been going on at the library downtown. This week the Tibetan Monks have been diligently constructing a Mandela.

I’m sure many of you are wondering what exactly and Mandala is. Remember when you were little and spent hours building castles in the sand box? And then some of us got a little older and were introduce to sand art? Well ladies and gentleman, this is sand art to the tenth power. Imagine working 8 hours a day for a week carefully placing each grain of sand in its specific spot. This is a form of meditation for the monks and as they work on the piece they imagine it as a 3-D city.

And then- the part no child would be okay with. Once the project is finished the sand is blessed and swept away to show that all things are impermanent.

If you are looking for something to do this evening you can witness them finishing up around six and stay for closing ceremonies at 7 o’clock. If you’re lucky you may even get to take home some of the blessed sand!

The Sand

Me working on the community Mandela