That is the name of the route in Zion National park that we climbed. When we say we are rock climbers people envision a lithe young person with straining muscles hanging from a ceiling or on the face of some monstrous mountain. That's kind of the NFL level of rock climbing. We are more the junior high school version. Or maybe I should say the old folks home version.
The theory behind rock climbing is that you use equipment to protect yourself in the event of a fall. Everyone falls. You trip over a toy in the hallway, you have a few too many at the bar and fall off the stool, you ride your bicycle too fast around corner. As you age you learn to predict instances where you fall and ways to avoid falling, it hurts.
I grew up in western Colorado. We have big things to fall off of. Houses were on hills and had stairs. Boulders along creek sides where we fished. Falling on rocks hurts. Ski hills that we raced down. I learned at an early age it is not good to fall.
Barbara grew up in flat Florida. No stairs, no hills, sand to fall into. As a result she has less fear of falling than I do. This makes her a much braver rock climber than I am. I am ok with this. Actually quite proud of her achievements. I feel no shame saying that she will be a better rock climber than I am.
So as we find ourselves delayed in Kanab, UT we are looking around for things to occupy us while our truck is repaired. Our Rock Climbing Guide book describes an adventure climb in Zion National Park. It has 4 pitches (4 levels). On the rock climbing scale of 5.3 to 5.15 it is a 5.5. Translated to a scale of difficulty where 1 is not difficult and 10 is nearly impossible this one is a 2. Right up our alley.
It's just over a mile to hike to the start of the climb. Part of that hike is over some sandstone rocks that are a challenge all by themselves. Scary in it's steepness, double so because you free solo (climb without protection) about 200 feet up. It's not terribly difficult, just scary. Most 13 year olds would have a good time scampering up. Most 60 year olds will take a very cautious 45 minutes to accomplish the same thing.
Doesn't look to hard huh! The next picture gives a little different perspective of the same area.
Once we actually started the climb we felt much better. Roped up and in harness tied into fixed protection spots adds a great deal of comfort. We may get hurt if we trip and fall, but we aren't going to die.
Barbara takes the greatest risk. She has to climb sections between the protection. That scares me.
After climbing a couple of pitches we take a little break and look around.
The view is amazing.
After we climbed the four pitches there was a little exposed scramble to get to the top. There was lots of really loose rock that looked like it would tumble down easily.
With a lot of adventure climbs there is a registry at the top. It's fun to look and see who else has made the effort to climb to these heights.
Barbara always gets really excited to get to the top.
Me, I am just happy not to be hanging 400 feet up in the air on the side of a cliff.
