Blog — She Dreams Of Alpine

First Sail to Catalina Island - Cat Harbor

This new interest in sailing is about a year in the making now. It was around May/June of 2015 when Michael and I were binge watching Sailing You-tube channels and Sailing Documentaries on Netflix and we decided to take an "Intro to Sailing Course" down in LA, just to see if we'd like it. In good fashion, we took our groupon down to a local sailing group and went on our first intro sail. We really dug it but realized we had no idea what we were doing. So we signed up for a week long live-aboard sailing course to get certified ASA 101, 103 and 104 (which I never wrote a post about sadly.. maybe I will one of these days) in Mexico for the end of 2015.

Sailing, Outdoor AllAllison BoyleJune 21, 2016Comment

Crystal Crag - North Arete

I want to tell you guys about my favorite climb I've done so far this year! Two weekends ago Michael and I headed off to Mammoth Lakes, CA to go climb the alpine route North Arete at Crystal Crag. This was one of my goal climbs for the year, because I've been reading it would be a good intro climb into Alpine Climbing, and I love, love, loved it! Besides the fact that we were the only people on the climb the day we went out and we had perfect weather, this climb was that perfect mix of long but easy fun (rated 5.6)... and the views were fantastic!

Climbing Related, Outdoor All, Alpine ClimbingAllison BoyleJuly 1, 2015Comment

Rated R Climbs and Rated Fun Climbs: The Needles & Dome Rock

It was going to be a mountaineering-in-Utah kind of weekend, but last minute (after looking at the weather conditions and understanding the mountain we were headed to may be more of a hike than snow mountaineering) we opted to stay local, and go climbing with some friends in The Needles instead.

Climbing Related, Outdoor All, Trad ClimbingAllison BoyleJune 29, 2015Comment

Tahquitz Peak - The Trough 5.4 Multipitch Trad

It's been a really long time since I've posted something. It's not because we haven't been out there doing our thing. In May we took our first sailing lessons at Redondo Beach, CA, we went bouldering at a place called Wagon Wheel in California, hiked the Jar trail several times, and went mountain biking at Wind Wolves Preserve. I meant to (and still plan to) write up a post on the Jar Trail and the mountain biking trail at Wind Wolves, but its just been a pretty hectic month (mixed in with a little bit of laziness on the weekdays).

Climbing Related, Outdoor All, Trad ClimbingAllison BoyleJune 3, 2015 Comments

Training Update: End of 8 week Transition Period, Beginning of a 16 week Base Period

I bet you were thinking I'd have given up on my training experiment by now (using the methods and program described by the book Training for the New Alpinism). Although I missed a couple of planned days here and there, I mostly stuck to my 8 week transition period plan. Woo hoo! And shame on you for not believing in me.

Moab, Utah: Desert Wonderland and Epic Mountain Ranges

I’m finding that, more often than not, things do not always go according to plan. Plans formulate, chaos intervenes and then the plans change. This isn’t always a bad thing though; sometimes I enjoy how things turn out differently than planned.

Hiking Related, Outdoor All, MountaineeringAllison BoyleApril 24, 2015Comment

Ben Lomond Mountain, There and Back Again

Not all who suffer do so unwillingly. In fact, last weekend I spent 14 hours with about 20 or so people who chose to spend their Saturday's doing that exact thing. Suffering. The Utah Climbing Club. The group of people I look forward to seeing once a month to suffer with somewhere on a mountain in pursuit of summits. Summits that don't necessarily mean much to anyone except for ourselves, and they only mean so much to us because of the hard work and sweat we put into achieving them.

Hiking Related, Mountaineering, Outdoor AllAllison BoyleMarch 28, 2015Comment

The Other Side of Las Vegas: Red Rocks Climbing and Mountain Biking

Viva Las Vegas.

I've been to Las Vegas many times before. In fact, when I moved to California, going to Las Vegas was one of my many frequent trips with friends on the weekends. We went 5 or more times a year sometimes. Then, I grew tired of it, or rather, my body grew tired of being hung over and stumbling into the next work week. I stopped going really. I'd always marveled though at the Red Rocks in the distance in Las Vegas, but never really had anyone to go climb with there and so I had never been.

Biking, Climbing Related, Outdoor All, Sport ClimbingAllison BoyleMarch 14, 2015Comment

My 2015 Training Plan: Transition Period

I've never really had a dedicated training plan when it comes to exercising. It's mostly been along the lines of: Climb more, and Run more.

Climbing Related, Health & Training, Hiking Related, Mountaineering, Outdoor AllAllison BoyleFebruary 10, 2015Comment

Rock Climbing Self Rescue

There I was, belaying Michael up from the trad anchor I had just set up on this 5.10a multipitch climb in Owen's River Gorge, CA. All of a sudden my rope went tight. What the heck? That's when I heard the crash of a boulder on the ground and I peered over the edge to find Michael knocked out cold. Fuck.

My first trip to Joshua Tree

My chico and his family generously took me under their wing for Thanksgiving and fed me good food and let me drink their booze. I am very thankful for their extreme hospitality and welcoming attitude. Given our wandering nature, Michael and I high tailed it to Joshua Tree National park post Thanksgiving day celebrations to see what the hype about climbing at Joshua Tree was all about.

Climbing Related, Outdoor All, Sport Climbing, Trad ClimbingAllison BoyleDecember 18, 2014Comment

Sport Climbing: New Jack City, California

Rarely do a bunch of my climbing friends plan to spend a weekend climbing outdoors together. That might seem odd, but everyone's got different schedules and goals so a lot of climbing weekends just usually end up being me and Michael and maybe one other person. So this weekend in November was special because it was the first time I've ever been to New Jack City and we were also meeting 5 of our climbing friends there for some good old fashion camping and climbing.

Climbing Related, Outdoor All, Sport ClimbingAllison BoyleDecember 17, 2014Comment