Devils Tower: Experience is the best teacher 06/19/2011
 If we had a band, this would be our album cover. Last summer two friends and I climbed the Durance route on Devils Tower in Wyoming. It was a highlight of my summer, to say the least. This huge igneous intrusion, exposed through years of weathering and erosion, stands like giant petrified stump in the flat Wyoming landscape. The first time I visited the Tower I was 13 years old, in a 24 foot RV with six other people. It was cozy. I never thought that 13 years later I’d be standing at the top. That’s not what this story is about though. Getting to the top was relatively easy compared to our adventure getting back down.
3 Comments The New River Rendezvous 2011 06/16/2011
 BEST BIRTHDAY WEEKEND EVAR!!
Every year at the New River Gorge hundreds of climbers gather to raise money, drink beer, win awesome prizes, watch fuzzy men fight in the air... and of course, climb! Trip Report: Sand and Espresso 05/31/2011
 Haystack Rock I spent the first week of May in Tahoe, traveling there and back via Seattle, WA and Fresno, CA. The drive is one of the most beautiful and varied I’ve done in quite a while. Scenery changed from the damp, greenness of the PNW to the snow capped conifer covered mountains of North Tahoe, to the sunny expanses of central Cali, and back again. Total mileage: 2,110 miles
Drive time: 50 hours Highlights: -Powell’s Books in Portland, OR -That town with a big blue lake in CA -North Tahoe, Squaw Creek. -Napa Valley -Cape Perpetua -Haystack Rock -The end of the Lewis and Clark Trail And here is the map... #aleyaheadswest 05/29/2011
It's moving day!
In a few hours I'll be on the road, headed for Colorado via Nashville, Des Moines, and the Badlands. You can expect: LOTS of pictures, (This is my new life after all...) a few posts looking at why I'm moving and what my plans are, and of course a trip report at the end of it all. Most importantly, if you know about something cool along my route please email/comment/tweet it so I can go check it out. Boldness: Reality Check 05/18/2011
 What unemployment looks like. Today I woke up, and for the first time in 12 years, didn't have a job. I've been unemployed before, but with plans or arrangements for a new job already made. Not this time. I really don't have a job.
Boldness: Climbfind 2011 05/15/2011
 Way back in August of 2009 I used a website called “Climbfind.com” to locate climbing partners for my upcoming work trip to San Francisco. I’d registered for the site some time early that same year, adding a profile pic and all that jazz like a good little user. The San Francisco trip was really the first time I’d used it for it’s intended purpose: to match climbing partners geographically. It worked beautifully. I went bouldering on Stinson Beach with three other great women, one of them I am still in contact with today (HI KELLEY!)
Goodbye NASA 05/11/2011
 On the #SED2011 #NASATweetup Bus I am the Formal Education Lead on the Education and Public Outreach team for the Solar Dynamics Observatory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. At least I will be, until the 17th of May. I’ve decided to move on, but I feel like the significant impact this phase has had on my life deserves some reflection, and a whole lot of gratitude. I’ve changed, almost completely, since my time at Goddard began. The things I have been able to do, the people I’ve met, and places I’ve gone while in this job catalyzed that change. My time at NASA opened doors for me and then taught me how to walk through them. My life is overwhelmingly richer for having been here. The depth of my thankfulness for all I’ve learned is overwhelming me as I write this, so excuse me if this post gets mushy, but some of these things just need to be shared.
*I stole the vast majority of these photos. If one of them is yours, I'm sorry. Boldness: Re-Inventing the Comfort Zone 04/25/2011
 Not quite camo... I had a rather overwhelming moment a few days ago. A few things hit me all at once: I’m moving 3,000 miles away from my family; I won’t have most of my things anymore; I don’t have a steady income; lots of my personal relationships have changed, and some people I’ve lost entirely. After letting all of that sink in, I felt a bit displaced. So far I’ve been resolute in maintaining my “live life to it’s fullest” attitude, knowing that all this change is helping me do that. But keeping that attitude sometimes means pushing back the feelings of loss and uncertainty that come with big changes. You can’t push them back forever, as I learned last week, eventually they will rush up and demand to be dealt with. So how exactly do you deal with them? How do you find ground when you are intentionally leaving it? How do you make a home when you don’t have one any more?
Re-invent it. One Year of the Sun 04/21/2011
 I think I may cry...
Self Rescue Part 2: Rappel Rescue 04/18/2011
 In the second installment of the Earth Treks Self Rescue seminar we learned how to swoop down from above and rescue an injured climber. Again, this further proved how inadequate my knowledge base had been to deal with an emergency in the field. A lot of what we learned from this point forward uses common sense and those basic knots, plus the belay escape. While practice is required, with those core skills and some creativity, you can get yourself out of nearly any tight spot.
Here we go with yet another test of my descriptive/technical writing skills... Rappel Rescue OR How to do it on top... | Aleya Littleton:
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