Moab Rain Clouds

Cody acting tough setting up the slackline

But really he is tough, standing up from a seated position

Rachelle is my new fav slackline buddy

My favorite move

Magic

I need a bumper sticker that says "Moab is my happy place." I went to Moab for the first time in college (if my memory serves me right which it usually doesn't, I don't think I went as a child). Now I go several times a year. I have even gone in the winter. Now that was interesting. What til you see the Colorado river frozen. About 5 years ago I took my first trip to Moab for climbing and now it has become an annual trip.
This year sadly, our trip was to be haunted by rain clouds, but that didn't stop us from having a ball (a great way of saying we had a lot of fun). We woke up Saturday morning planning to climb Castleton Towers. Instead we woke up to rain and soggy sleeping bags. Our climbing blues were soon soothed by the Love Muffin breakfast and a shopping trip to Pagan. We then set out to repel off Corona Arch. I'll fully admit, I am a pansy at heart. I really want to be tough, but I'm not. After scrambling up a steep sand stone slab I was on top of the arch knowing that my only way down was the 140 ft repel (going down the slab would have been more dangerous because of the exposure). Luckily, I have great friends who didn't mind if a four letter word slipped from my lips as I prepared to drop over the edge. I made it pass the edge then I was hanging freely in the air for my repel. As soon as I was off the arch I felt stupid of being scared.

Moab view on our way to Corona Arch

This might be where a few choice words slipped out

And I'm off

Mom! Look no hands

Can't get enough of the red rocks

But what would a climbing trip be without actual climbing. The storm held off long enough for us to do a couple climbs on Potash Rd. Too bad the darkness came too soon. With night came our awesome sleeping arrangements. My friend Sterling lives in Moab and so we crashed at his house, sort of. We actually crashed on the trampoline outside. Cody and I played guitars (me giving up really quickly) and everyone sang. You really grow together when you sleep on a tramp, mostly because you are eventually laying on top of each other. But that didn't last long, because bright and early Sunday morning the rains came again and we moved to picnic benches under a pavilion. Every plan we had for the day was instantly crush and we headed home shortly after breakfast vowing to come back in a few weeks to climb again.
This post couldn't come at a better time. I am heading to Moab this weekend hoping to finally tackle Castleton.

That's a big boy

Climbers pack it right

Adam rocking it

Wall Street (Potash Rd)

Cody - Redhead's do it better!

Oh we might have killed the battery rocking out to some tunes

Put your back into it!

Bring on the ice and trees

This last weekend was a return to winter for me.  I ended my Friday night early so I could be in bed by 10pm.   Up at 5:30am Saturday morning to pull on my winter gear and head out into the not as cold as I expected morning.  Beside one detour back to my house to pick up the socks I forgot, I picked up friends at 6am in SLC and drove down to Provo for one last pick up.  Unfortunately, someone slept thru his alarm so we had to call his mom (well he left his phone there and she answered), find his address and pull him out of bed.  By this time our plans to hit up Joe's Valley were thwarted.  BUT we were determined to get our ice.  Up Provo Canyon we went to Stairway to Heaven.  This ice climb usually has somewhere between 5-7 pitches when it is fully in, but there was only 1, maybe 1.5 pitches of ice.  (It had been too warm the last week and was melting all our ice.)  So we set up a few top ropes and did laps on the ice.  I did about 3 climbs, not much, but it was enough to make me the good kind of sore.  My ice climbing is in serious need of improvement, but I'm happy to get climbing early this season.  I hope to do a lot more climbing this year than last with my new (to me) ice tools.

Photo posted by my friend Matt on SummitPost (this was not taken on Saturday)

So one advantage of climbing in Provo was that I was really close to home.  After a nap (I was so wiped out and sore) I was able to go to the last night of the Festival of Trees.  It was really fun despite my less than usual energy level.  I won 20 points from Hoopes for all the people I knew at the event and I got to hear some stellar bag-pipin'.   The gingerbread houses are not as grand as I remember from my youth, but this was my first time hearing the Salt Lake Scots Pipe Band.  They were incredible, but really who doesn't love a good bag pipe.  It might have to be a new tradition to go to the Festival the last night so I can hear the pipers.

Climbing - Oh how I have missed you

Last night my ward went climbing at Momentum climbing gym in Sandy.  It was awesome.  We had over 40 people come (which I call a successful activity).  Personally, it has been about 4-5 months since I climbed. That is very sad.  I used to love climbing (I still do).  I used to climbing weekly.  Now I get blisters because my hands are too soft.  I better go more often and toughen these hands up.  But it was good to just to be climbing again. And the soreness today is well worth it.
Here are a few pics of the wardies climbing (taken with Bishop's iphone).