Eleutheromania

13:26 12/19/2019 will forever be engrained in my head.  "His hair is the wrong color," I remember thinking to myself as EMS rolled him out of the ambulance, my first glimpse of the boy. I saw his pale skin under the hands of the EMTs working hard to compress his tiny chest in an attempt to keep his blood circulating. As he rolled past me, I quickly realized that "wrong color" was hair that had been saturated in blood. The call came in just a few seconds prior, "Code 3, male, head caught in a gate, CPR in progress." My co workers called for me to prepare a trauma room for a Code 3. I did my typical routine, got the crash cart out, began hooking pads up, prepared the Lucas so it was ready to go. Another coworker came rushing over with the pediatric crash cart. I looked at him puzzled. He said assuringly, "It's a 9 year old." Our hospital sees a ton of people in the older population, so a code 3, CPR in progress on a 90 year old was nothing ...

       2021: I decided would be the year I did things I was bad at. I picked routes with foot cutting dynos, big moves, small crimps, and intense drop knees. I TRIED not to knee bar as much, I really did! I worked hard to get better at running. I attempted to obtain my Certified Emergency Nurse specialization (I suck at tests and this was one was no different. Spoiler alert: I failed the exam). I applied for a new certificate outside of my realm of ER nursing to broaden my scope of practice and open some new doors. So when the option came up to climb a 19,347 ft volcano in Ecuador to celebrate Emily and Adrian’s pre-wedding ceremony with 42 of the most impressive athletes I had grown up idolizing, now was certainly not the time to say "no." (#Yolocoto) Gorgeous pink alpenglow on Cotopaxi the night before our ascent     Brooks, Katy, Ciara, Naomi, and I did our first test hike on Mount Sopris in Carbondale, CO at the end of September. I knew we ha...

The hustle bustle of the city was getting to me. Only so many times can you cross the Bay Bridge without losing your sanity and overall faith in humanity. Tributaries of cars 8 lanes deep dump into the stream of toll booths which they so cleverly and ironically call “Fast Track.” The concrete jungle of San Franscisco creates an illusion of paradise with its fancy cars, expensive victorian homes, and lucrative job opportunities. The problem with this illusion is it’s driven by material items that have no real importance and contribute little to our mental well being. I was ready for an escape.  I stepped off the plane in Liberia, Costa Rica, sweat immediately gathered in large drops on my forehead and dripped down my face. No AC. Our redeye flight from SFO should have consisted of sleeping, but movie watching, trivia gaming, and chess playing took over our six hour flight. My eyelids felt like fine sandpaper scraping against the dry surface of my eyes from lack of sleep. T...

If there is any place on Earth that can break you, challenge you to your mental capacity, demand strength beyond your physical limits, and have you question your ability to keep going, it is Céüse. I have developed a special love-hate, toxic relationship with this place over the past two months. And that is exactly why I want to return. Céüse Photo Cred: Ali Alter The Céüse cliffline is located in Southern France near a village called Sigoyer, which is surrounded by rolling patchwork farmland and quaint villages.  From the cliffline, farmland and mountains for EVER. At an elevation of about 2,000 meters, the beautiful blue and gold streaked limestone cliff makes it the perfect climbing destination for summer craggin. The cliff is broken up into several sections, all which offer a wide variety of climbing from steep, jug haulin, tufa pullin/kneebarring, techy slab, vertical, traditional routes and multipitch routes! Ali and I called Les Guerins our home for 6...