Skills Every Girl Should Know

On my list of skills to acquire is now ice climbing. Chicks with Picks website is absolutely fabulous and is completely inspiring me to learn how. So what that I have a small, but growing fear of heights? I am moving on, pushing myself ahead. Just last fall I participated in a day of multi pitch rock climbing with my friend Michelle. On or around the third pitch, I exemplified why I should never open my big mouth and jinx myself.

I had asked our guide “What would happen if I dropped this?” holding up the ATC device we had been using for belaying.

“Oh it would be a little more challenging, but I could use a munter hitch and a beaner or I could use…” I stopped listening right about then because I believed him. I mean his name was Conrad after all. Wasn’t Conrad Anker a world famous climber? Okay so although our guide was not the Conrad Anker, he was an excellent climber named Conrad and that was close enough for me.

So we boogied on up the climb, where roughly five or ten minutes later, long enough for us to forget about my silly little question, I decide to take a swig of my water. Little had I realized that the beaner I was unclipping was not in fact my water bottle, but rather my ATC device.

Shiiiiiitttttttttt!!! I yelled as we all watched the ATC device fall for like an hour. So yes, I jinxed us and yes I learned what a munter hitch was used for. Now I am ready to try ice climbing where I will not, at any time, ask the “what if?” question.

Places I want to be…

Waking up inside my tent.





Pushing off in my kayak.



On a windblown peak.



Catching Bass.



Instead, stuck in my office.

Dreaming about where I want to be.

Girls Love Dirt

Dirt crystallizes into many different forms depending on where you are and what you are up to. For instance the most common formation dirt takes in the Northeast region of the US is mud. Mud cakes up in the derailleur, creates mini landslides on steep hiking trails, and covers one’s backside while biking. Once mud has covered a person’s legs and starts to dry it actually becomes a mini tattoo and will require lots of lather and scrubbing to remove.



In the drier regions of the country like the southwest dirt seems like fog in the air once kicked up. Spend much time around it though and it becomes another layer of skin only to be revealed by sweat creating small rivers through it.

As an outdoor lover, I’ve discovered that dirt is my friend and no honest romp outside is finished until I have some of it on me. In fact the cowgirl way is not to avoid the dirt, but rather swim through it. Just make sure you do it in style by maybe having pink toenails or wear a Terry bike skort. Now get out and get some dirt on ya!

The Causing of it All

Mountain Girls love to be outside. The wind whistling through our hair, the sound of our feet rustling through leaves and the sight of spring’s first buds make a mountain girl’s heart flutter like non other. But sometimes even a mountain girl’s ambition waivers. When it gets dark out before leaving work, when it is so cold the snot freezes in my nose and I wonder if contact lenses can freeze to a person’s eyeball, I’ll admit the idea of running through the woods alone sends panic rippling through me. That is when I look at the little dog standing by the door, restless, relentless, fearless saying “your gonna let that stop us from checking out the cool stuff out there?”



That is when I realize that being a Mountain Girl isn’t something I do entirely for myself.

I do it for my dog too.