The Rest of April

At the end of April, my friend Joy and I climbed Angel's Landing- and not from the hike up side! We actually climbed the vertical face right up to the top of mountain! It was such a great time, and I learned a lot about myself, about heights, and about climbing in general. The rock is so steep and featureless at times that it is not possible to climb to the top of Angel's with only your feet and hands. You must ascend by what is called "Aid Climbing". Aid climbing invovles using webbing ladders to step your way up the climb. You must still place removable protection in the rock, but this can be tricky at times b/c the rock doesn't have much in the way of available places to put the protection! so you must carry a lot of gear. you can see in the pictures that we are covered head to waist in gear! Usually Aid climbing takes a lot longer as well, so you plan to sleep a night on the wall- with what we call a port-a-ledge. it's a big canvas cot that expands on the wall and hangs from a carabiner. you are always in your harness, even when you sleep so the risk is minimal indeed. We call this kind of climbing "Big wall climbing" b/c it is a big wall and requires more than 1 day to do. this was joy's first big wall to do on her own, and my second ever. to do this climb as a team of women was awesome! we had a spectacular time! Being able to figure out all the ropes, gear, and protection on our own is something to be proud of. We'll be doing more of these for sure! Our climb was called Prodigal Son, and was about 900 feet long to the top of Angel's Landing.

This past weekend Eric, Sam, and I headed down to our favorite place, Indian Creek, for some stellar desert climging. Eric took some great pictures, but they still need to be processed so I'll post those shortly. It's been a cold spring here in Salt lake, with snow dumps of up to 2 feet in the mountains. I could still be skiing i suppose, but the warmer southern weather and climbing was calling to us.

In between these two trips, Eric and i bought a house! Our first house ever!! We are really excited. We move in May 24th. The housing market in salt lake is interesting, and everyone across the nations will tell you a different story about when to buy and what the prices are doing blah blah blah. if you find the right house and the right price then it's a good time to buy! so we found darling cottage in the heart of salt lake. it's 6 miles from work for me, so my birthday present this year was a road bike. whohoo! it has a big enough yard for me to start a vegetable garden, it already has a clothes line in place, and the front yard is xeriscaped! we now have an official guest bedroom so anyone is welcome!! We feel that one of the big reasons for buying a house is to have it open to anyone in need passing through this part of the country. so if you or someone you know needs a place to rest a weary head while on travels, our cottage is always open. we'll post pics when we move in!

These climbing pics are in opposite order, but that's the way blogger uploads them and it was too difficult to switch them all around. so you'll have to enjoy the pics from the end of the climb to the beginning!






After the climb- tired but proud!



The view of our climb. The top of this rock is called Angel's landing. We climbed a line that is just to the right of the shade on the face.



Joy leading the final pitch. She was a trooper and lead most of the pitches on this climb. she's done quite a few more 'big walls' than i and was feeling her oats for most of the climb. she's a great partner!



Joy and I at the end of our climb! we are so psyched!!



This is what i looked like hiking down off of Angel's Landing. We arrived at the top in near darkness and had to hike the 2.5 miles down to the road in the dark. we were afraid of missing the last shuttle bus out of the canyon. so we were half running half walking, both of us carrying an absurd amount of gear on our bodies. At this moment in time we were not thinking that big walls were so much fun. but the next morning we woke up and couldn't wait to do our next one together!



Our View off the port-a-ledge. About 300 feet off the ground!



The morning light after a restful night's sleep on the ledge.



Me leading the 5th pitch.



Joy and I, happy climbers on our ledge.



Me ascending the line after Joy lead a pitch. I'm using my webbing ladders to stand up on and ascending devices that grip the rope help me inch my way up the rope. tiring work!



Joy leading the 4th pitch- a scary step over into a new crack system- and it's getting dark!



Joy and I before our climb- we're still clean with two feet on the ground!



Joy hiking our haul bag up to the base of the wall before the climb. in order to get all the stuff you need to live on the wall (sleeping bags, pads, water, stove, fuel, food) you have to haul it up the wall after you have climbed it. you do this in pitches so you always have whatever you need with you. but it can be tiring work to haul up all that water so sometimes a mechanical advantage is used with some dedicated climbing gear. it all works out in the end! but that's a big, heavy bag. i'm glad joy carried it. she said she was just training for her ultramarathon at the end of the summer. i gladly let her 'train'!!



Me leading pitch 3.