Eleutheromania

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...

I haven't wrote in a long time. Here's a quick update: When my road trip to Rifle, Ten Sleep, and Maple ended last September, I took a 13 week contract north of Denver at St. Anthony Hospital. My goals were to tackle my first travel assignment all while getting to climb in Rifle on my days off and explore other sport climbing areas of Colorado. Turns out, it got cold. REAL cold. Like by mid October, the roads to Rifle were frozen over and it was snowing in Denver. There went my outdoor climbing psyche. I just wanted to sit around, eat soup, do yoga, get in half assed sessions in at the gym, and do tons of gymnastics. All in all, I'm glad I took the job because it opened up a TON of opportunities but as for climbing, it pretty much SUCKED! Beautiful scenery but no bueno for climbing After Colorado, I couldn't fathom going back east to more cold weather. I had finally gotten my California nursing license (after waiting approx 5 months) in mid November and could of...