King's Peak

Another peak bagged this year. I think I'm done for the year; Twin and Lone will have to wait for next season for me to grace the presence of their summitts. King's was a lot harder for me this year than it was 4yrs ago, I blame college for that:) Overall it was a good time with good friends.

Fun Weekend

What a fun weekend! Friday I hiked to Lake Blanche and tryed, but failed, to find a way to hit Sundial peak. I burned 2700 calories! (according to my heart monitor). What a fun little toy.
Saturday I spent with friends in Idaho at the City of Rocks. What an awesome place to climb. We left around 6:30am, arrived around 9:30am, climbed and climbed, left the City around 9:00pm, found an open pizza parlor/convenience store, and arrived home around 1:30am. What a long, fun weekend:)

Mt. Timp

Another summit completed. Mt. Timpanogus was accomplished. We left the trailhead at 9pm and arrived to a camping site in a cirque around 1am. There was a lot of snow on the trail at elevation which required a lot of concentration to not go sliding down. We made it to the saddle around 530am to wait for sunrise. We summitted after sunrise and headed back down that afternoon.

Officially an RN

A lot has happened since my last post. First off, back in June I passed NCLEX! It was quite a scary experience. My body wouldn't stop shaking during the drive to the testing site...true it could've been from the caffeine I consumed that morning. I arrived at the site and was happy to see friendly faces taking the test with me. Three girls whom I've worked with in the hospital, and another gal who graduated from the U's program with me. We were all checked in and walked to our computer station after getting photographed and fingerprinted. I sat down at my monitor, put in my earplugs, and started to hear my heart beating really fast. I took a few deep breaths trying to slow it down which didn't help much. I began clicking through the screens with some difficulty because my fingers had somehow swollen up to the size of sausages, similar to when they swell after a long hike. I was so relieved to be in front of a window where the sky was blue and there was a big beautiful tree in front of me. When I didn't know an answer to a question I looked outside, took some deep breaths, and went through the choices with process of elimination. One of the medications I was tested on I never learned in class or during clinicals. The only reason I knew what it was was because my Grandma used to take it. When I got to question 73 I felt I was going to fail at 75. 45 minutes after starting I hit question 75 (realize the testing center provides 5hrs to take the test with a potential of taking over 200 questions). I read it very slowly and answered. As I was clicking next I was praying for question 76 to appear...it never did. The screen went gray and I was asked to take a survey of the testing process. I called my mom to go to lunch and was convinced I had failed. I tryed going rock climbing later to take my mind off the test which didn't help, I kept falling and failed to keep focused on my climbing. A few days later I was awakened very early by a friend of mine who said "Congratulations Nurse!" He had seen my license posted online very early that day, definitely before 5:00am so I was very much asleep when I heard the news and thought I was dreaming. It wasn't until I saw the results for myself that I believed I had passed. Hooray! I am now a registered nurse working at LDSH's emergency room. Life is Good.

Upcoming Plans

NCLEX is rounding the corner (13 days) and I gotta get back to reviewing and taking practice tests. I have definately been playing a lot and still have another trip to go...Vegas this weekend. I'm really excited. I'm going to the Bodies Exhibit and Blue Man Group. It's gonna be great. When I get back I start working for LDS ER as a PCA III meaning I shadow a nurse until my temp license goes through, then I can practice being a nurse again. I'm a bit tentative because I haven't had a clinical since April, hopefully I remember how to do an assessment. I'm pretty excited to start. The nurse educator (one of my preceptors) and my manager seem pretty excited to have me there, which is nice. It's nice to start somewhere where you know you are wanted, even if it's only because they are way short on nurses (only 12 full time nurses). I will definately be picking up a lot of overtime, but I don't mind, I have a lot of fun toys (kayak, SUV, laptop, etc) to buy this year:)

Moab

The plan for the weekend was to run Cataract Canyon, but unfortunately the height and speed of the river was not safely appropriate. Since the trip was cancelled, I pulled together six other friends to head to Moab. We packed between two vehicles, my little Corolla and John's EuroVan. By the time we got to Moab Thursday afternoon everyone was pretty exhausted from the wait and the drive. We left much later than planned due to some unexpected situations. But we did get there safely.

Friday was a day for climbing. John took us to Potash Road and Stacy rocked out by leading all but the two we had other people TR for us when they were done. It was a very hot day with very hot rocks.

Saturday was spent filling ducky's with air and taking them down the Daily Stretch in Moab. The water was at 30,000 CFS so it only took us 2.5 hrs instead of the usual 6hrs. John took his fun new boat down the river and did great in it. Danielle was in her own ducky being Pocahontas.

After the river, Mo's friend from Moab showed us a cool little spot for cliff jumping. I definately was not going to jump. I work in an ER, I've seen many injuries and would like to keep my ankles and legs for awhile. Mo and Bubbz jumped, Danielle eventually did too with a lot of coaxing.

On Sunday those of us who stayed a bit longer detoured to Goblin Valley and hiked through Little Wild Horse Canyon before heading home.

Mt. Olympus

I have had quit the busy week. Yesterday (Friday) I climbed up Ferguson canyon for 6hrs. I managed to get 4 climbs in (there were 5 of us). Ratings were as follows: 5.9, 5.9+, 5.10a, & 5.10b. I finished one goal this summer which was TRing a 5.10. It was AWESOME. We went to Porcupine afterwards for some delicious nachos and fish & chips. We made plans for beginning our summiting adventures. The first started this morning (Saturday).

Yep, after 6 hrs of climbing yesterday, four of us hiked to the summit of Mt. Olympus. There was snow that last part of the way, but not too bad.

My skin got scorched. I used the spray sunscreen and didn't rub it in so it's a splotchy scorch, pretty ugly looking. Oh well, it'll go away soon enough. I look forward to tomorrow...the day of rest:)