Attention Whore

A few years ago, I received feedback from someone I admired greatly that my many posts and trip reports were being construed as a desperate grab for attention; an eg0-stoke with purely selfish intentions. “What would you do if you posted and no one responded?” he had asked. The words he spoke had their effect: I curtailed my writing, drew back from some of the online forums, only posting if I completed something “relevant” or “hard-core.” He had added, “Perhaps you should just write to your own blog,” in essence, put it somewhere that I don’t have to look at it.

In other words, I let his words have power over me, and now I fight, almost every day, to allow myself more freedom of expression through both my words and my pictures. The battle in my head is to never have someone think of me that way again.

Ain’t gunna happen.

Much as I would like it to, much as I would like to get along with everyone, I don’t, and I can’t.

The numbers below give me such a warm feeling inside. I put something to “paper”, and there are those out there who have taken the time to glance through it. For that, I am extremely grateful. I find the act of sharing some of my adventures, my experiences, my emotions while I’m out there both alone and surrounded by friends, to be cathartic. To be able to use words to convey what it’s like to stroll a trail or a slabby creek bed; to scramble above exposure; to ski a Sierra glacier; to nap on warm granite; to laugh with friends after a long day over a campfire, beer in hand and food on a plate; all of these are ways for me to connect to the outside world from my little town beneath big mountains.

It was a year of firsts: first ice leads; first lake skating; first trad lead; first time in new areas of the Sierra; first SAR involvement; first alpine ice climb. I returned to familiar places: Evolution Basin; the Ansel Adams Wilderness; Middle Palisade; Bear Creek Spire, the Whitney Zone. Both with friends and solo, I came back from my knee injury and started regaining that old confidence.

Thanks to everyone who joined me on the adventures of my life, both in the backcountry and here on the interwebs. I am hoping for so much more in 2013 and beyond.

<wicked little smile>

Buckle up, folks. Let’s take a ride…

 

Much love from the high Sierra, and from the luckiest girl in the world:

Climb Hard. Be Safe.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.