For ten days I lived my dream; climbing and exploring the vast desert of Southeastern Utah, I shared this dream with my beautiful girlfriend Deni Murray who inspired me to climb hard, enjoy life and settled me down when the intensity of my spirit blurred my focus. Even now the trip doesn't seem real, there are scars on my hands, dirt in my shoes and vivid memories in my head but I can't help but wonder if it really happened. Coming back to the strange reality of school and responsibility sucks. Before I fully succumb to the dark messy void of homework and exams I'll share the adventure one day at time.
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| Entering Zion National Park |
We arrived in Zion National Park the afternoon of March 20th after a day and a half of driving. We checked into our campsite at the Watchman campground overwhelmed by the immensity of the landscape around us. The huge sandstone walls intimidated and inspired us. After a hearty dinner we were anxious to climb something after being stuck in a car for two days so we headed towards "the boulder" at Zion. The boulder was covered in an endless amount of interesting and challenging holds and we quickly began designing our own traverse sequence around it. We bouldered long into the night with headlamps, laughing every time we fell off or smiling when we discovered a friendly new hold.
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| The Watchman |
The next day we climbed the classic Ashtar Command on Ataxia tower. Deni led the lower 5.8 crack pitch in fine style, a few times she smiled down at me. She belayed me up to a comfy belay ledge where we snapped a couple selfies before I set off on the second pitch. I finished off the tapering crack and started traversing left on crazy rock features. The holds I was using were barely the thickness of stiff paper, a skin of the rock seemed to have peeled off providing good but doubtful holds. The long traverse right meant a long and painful fall would be in order if a hold broke or a foot slipped. Luckily nothing broke and soon I had a bolt clipped. From there the climbing was fantastic, the face was covered in perfect crimps and edges making for awesome balancy climbing. I fell into a rhythm and quickly found myself looking at the the chains atop the 100 foot pitch. WOOOO! Deni followed up enjoying the awesome climbing! Atop the tower we soaked up the spectacular views and weather.
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| Deni leading |
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| Belay ledge selfie |
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| Awesome second pitch |
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| Makes Hot yoga look lame |
Our second full day in Zion we embarked on a canyoneering adventure! Canyoneering was totally new to both of us so we were at the mercy of the advice from park rangers and local outfitters. We ended up choosing Keyhole canyon the classic beginners canyon in Zion. After hiking a short distance into the desert we found the beginning of the canyon, a narrow slot in a hidden cliff, and dawned our wetsuits. We waded into the dark cold water at the bottom of the canyon wondering what was around every corner. The canyon was an amazing creation, carved into the beautiful sandstone by the hand of water. We continued to descend, farther and farther from the sun and the desert above, into one of nature's well hidden secrets. The adventure included three rappels and a couple long cold swims. All to soon we were squinting our eyes in the bright sun as we exited the canyon and walked back out to our car. We laughed at the passing cars, they must be wondering what we were doing in the desert wearing wetsuits. Our day finished with a complete tour through Zion and a another sesh on the boulder.
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| Start of the canyon |
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| Rappelling |
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| Cold! |
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| Beautiful |
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| Deni Rappelling |
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| Almost done! |
We spent our last two days in Zion backpacking in the southwestern corner, checking out the petrified forest and enjoying some beautiful views. Zion is an amazing place, I'm sure we could spend weeks in Zion either backpacking, climbing or canyoneering. The immense walls were incredible and inspiring.
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| Lance Bouldering |
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| Deni Bouldering |
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