How do you count time?

Climbers do not count time in days or weeks, indeed. It is useless notion for them. Instead, you could sometimes hear such expressions as: "Oh, it was long time ago I went climbing, I had to cut my nails four times!". So the currency of time in climbing is the nails. You can't climb with long nails, so if you climb often, they never happen to grow long as you cut them all the time. But if you are taking a break, you will have to deal with the nail cutting as it is not comfortable to wait until you would be climbing again!
So let me explain the meaning of such expressions:
"I had to cut the nails once" - at least a week has passed (unless you were drinking a lot, as then they grow faster), almost no impact for you climbing skills.
"I had to cut nails twice" - you will not be able to do some things you did well before.
...
"I had to cut nails five times" - you will get thoughts like "what I am doing here" while climbing.

England is funny but...

Sometimes she scares me...
So, happy new year. We are finally sober and drunk again, in the right course of the year so to say.
The stuff I wanted to tell you guys about was the travel we made in South England just before the new year. You wouldn't believe, but the weather was perfectly warm and nice, no strong winds or rains. Our brains were spelled with the magnificent views of the sea. I have never seen such a landscape - beautiful cliffs just above the sea and countryside landscapes on the other side. It is a hobbit land, it is. We felt like hobbits traveling with some mission. Well, Marius had to be a megahobbit, but it did not change the feeling.
The trees looked like women with long hair, who stand in the wind and keeping the hair with their arms so that they could see where they were going and stoned in this position through the ages.

Climbers and Christmas

If you think that Christmas is all the same for all people, you are wrong. In different parts of the world there are different traditions and habits. Moreover, there are parts of the world where there are no Christmas, nor even Xmas! Anyhow, for those, who are interested to know about the special climbers Christmas traditions, we want to present an old Christmas tradition, that survived few centuries and is still practiced in some parts of Lithuania.
Climbers, who practice this tradition, do not expect presents in casual socks or under the Christmas tree. Instead, they modestly hang their chalk bag above the fireplace. Modern version is of this tradition is to hang the chalk bag on the heating element, as it is believed, that Santa Claus always comes near the heating element, because he gets cold while going very fast around the world. While getting warm he puts a spell of luck on the bag, and, if you weren't too naughty during the year, a present.
It is also believed, that Santa Claus is a pretty good climber himself, mostly practicing chimney routes and ice climbing. He rarely uses any safety devices although his style includes large dynos! Nevertheless, we must not forget that he must be the most experienced climber on Earth.

Šilelis club wishes You Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Elephant Girl Returns

Why karate can be more dangerous than climbing? Make a wild guess! As the title may suggest, it is related to elephants. Are there elephants on climbing tracks? Very possibly, no. Are there elephants in karate training area? Not very possibly, but possibly, yes. What happens if an elephant steps on your feet? Ouch...

Help needed

As our climbers are also students, who receive homework, we want to ask you for help. One of us needs to write an essay about the intelligence of mice. The problem is the numbers. Does anybody know, what is the IQ of a mouse? Thank you in advice.

Nachrichten

As you may see, no events have taken place in Šilelis club recently. Imagining that there are some devoted readers who are curious to know why, we will tell the truth.
Which is that life simply goes on!
Nobody has fallen, but as you see from the title of this post, some climbers might have been occupied with studying German. Nobody has climbed 8a, but you may almost be sure that some parties have taken place recently and some climbers are probably still recovering. Some have been playing cards and others have been to a death metal concert. There was also Romualdas Cup Football Tournament. And someone succeeded in counting to infinity twice...

Could it be?

One of our readers, climber Bozena from Poland, has sent us a video claiming that it could be Trisūnas, that she captured with her camera. We indeed do not know if it could be true, as the fact that the little creature was listening to Metallica's "Seek and Destroy" (confirmed by our experts) is very confusing. Moreover, the creature seems to be dead in the end, which leaves us helpless in finding out the truth.
If you know anything about this creature, please do not hesitate to contact us. Any kind of information will be appreciated. We are very eager to find out how Trisūnas looks like and where he is based as this information is important to the climbers in all over the world.