Day 18 - Saturday August 11 - A Broken Phone To Mend a Broken Heart

Stacy and I were in charge of the ward campout this weekend so we spent last night near Marion, Utah. It really was pretty nice, though. I probably would not have gone to that activity if I weren't in charge of it, but I think I will go from now on. We came home around noon and took a nap. I then met CJ and the other Llamaites for a while down at the OR show - which was enjoyable. Crazy met me at my house around 5:30 and we went up to Parley's Canyon for some climbing. We made the hazardous hike down and then began climbing the 5.8 on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain Wall. This is an interesting climb because there isn't much at all to hold on to. You just have to use friction and trust your feet. I did slip at one point while leading, but only fell about four feet before the rope caught me. When I finished I came down and took the oppotunity to check my voicemail since I had heard my phone ringing while I was climbing. I placed my phone in my back pocket since it would not fit in my front pockets while I was wearing my harness. Crazy followed and cleaned the gear at the top. The plan was to then climb out of the super tall climb so we wouldn't have to hike out. This was going to be difficult since there was a group of people toproping this very climb. I sat down to relax and see what our other options were in the guide book. It was a short time later that I desired to know the time. I reached for my phone but realized it was in my back pocket. Oh, no. I just got this phone. I was up on my two year contract with Verizon and I got a sweet new Chocolate phone for free! I pulled it out and sure enough I had broken the screen. There is no way I can fix it. This began to sadden me, and I began to get a bit grumpy. I didn't want to wait any longer for these people to finish. Mike and I decided to just get out of there. With the phone situation, though, I face a bit of a moral dilemma. On the one hand I am bummed out about my phone, but on the other I don't want to be bogged down by things. A wise man once said, "Things you own end up owning you." I have come to grips with my broken phone. I am determined to not be negatively affected by this. I will inquire as to the repair or replacement of this phone, but if I have to revert to my previous phone of the past two years, then so be it.

Day 17 - Monday Aug 6 - Back on the Train

As stated in my previous post, I have just not had time lately to get outdoors. But rest assured. This has all changed now. I was able to get out and climb with Mike Schultz tonight up Little Cottonwood. I do not know what the name of the climb is because Mike did not know. He had climbed it like 12 years ago and thought it might be nice for my first trad lead. That's right. You heard me. My first trad lead. He was pretty sure it was a 5.7. We got to the base of the climb and I had Mike give me a short tutorial then I played around with the gear for a few minutes. We were then on our way. The climb was a four pitch climb, but we just skipped the intermitent pitches and made it a longer two pitch climb. Mike led the first pitch. I followed and tried my best to see how he was setting the gear just as a last minute way of educating myself on the matter. I then led the second pitch. There were some areas where I got a bit frightened, but all together I did alright in that category. The route was a bit confusing and I still don't know if I went the right way - which, I suppose, doesn't really matter in the end, does it? I did make it to the top set of chains and then belayed Mike as he cleaned the gear. As he neared the top I asked him how I had done as far as gear placement goes. He said the majority of the gear was set well. There were, however, a couple that probably would not have held any substancial falls. This was a little disheartening, but I got over it quickly. I had to since it was getting dark fast and we were several hundred feet in the air and then a good hike from the car. Mike had forgotten his rappel device (he had been using a Gri-gri to belay me) so we had to share mine by sending it back and forth to each other on the rope. This was the cause of an even slower exit. It was nearly pitch black by the time we made the final rappel, and then we had to hike out. Now, when I say "hike" out some of you may be thinking that this is like a little trail that we simply follow to the parking lot. You are mistaken, my friend. In total darkness with only the help of a small headlamp, I free-downclimbed a granite crack of probably 15 feet. Now this would not have killed me had I fallen, but try remembering that in that sort of situation. We did make it safely to the car and back home. I had a great trad leading experience and look forward to doing it again. Peace.

Tri 2 - Saturday Aug 4 - Cache Valley Classic

The past couple of months have really been building up to today for me. Yes, I was looking forward to Mexico and stuff, but I was really looking forward to this weekend for two reasons - 1. My last final was yesterday and this summer semester has been like the most time intensive semester ever. 2. I haven't done a tri for some time and I just needed something to really get me going. Unfortunately, due to reason #1 I was not able to train as much as I would have liked (I trained next to nothing) for this tri. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I was wavering back and forth and then on Sunday I decided that I really wanted to do this and I signed up (they have a no refund policy). Ryan wavered a bit too much and didn't decide to sign up until registration was closed - so he didn't make it. Stacy and I went to bed early last night because we then woke up at 4:15am. Ugh. We had breakfast, loaded up the car, and made our way to Hyrum Reservoir. I really wanted to make sure I was there plenty early this time since last time was so hectic and I wasn't able to do all I wanted before the race. We did. We were among the first people there. This gave me ample time to prepare my transition station, get all the information I needed, use the restroom, etc - which are all things I was lacking last time. The olympic distance race started at 8:00 so I was glad to watch the open water start and see how it was all going to go down (this is my first time swimming in open water - other than just like off a boat or near the beach). I then made my way down into what I thought was going to be freezing water. It wasn't. It was actually really nice. In fact, I probably could have done it in just a swim suit - without the wetsuit - but after I began warming up a little I soon found out that a wetsuit is like the best thing that ever happened to a triathlon. It keeps you so buoyant. It made swimming much easier. From now on, any tri that allows wetsuits - I will be wearing one (please take time to notice in the picture above the muscley arms of the gentleman in the water - yeah, that's me). It was difficult to hear the announcer dude from the water due to all the people and everything going on, so I just started when everyone else around me started. It was actually pretty cool to be running into people and stuff. Thanks to the wetsuit, the swim was remarkably easier than I thought it was going to be. I came out toward the front of the pack and made my way to T1. This took an extra 30 seconds or so in order to remove the wetsuit, but I am telling you - it is worth it. My bike was a little bit slower than last time. I am sure this is due to the lack of training I have had. I felt pretty good, but I definitely could have gone faster. I passed some 12 year old kid while biking who was doing the sprint race as well. After looking later I found that he had a way faster swim time than myself! I figured I was then leaving him in the dust. The bike route was relatively flat with a few hills here and there. Not bad, though. I came off the bike and had a good T2 time (remarkably better than last time since I didn't forget my race number). Now this is where the race began to look grim. The first half of the run was uphill and I was feeling it. It wasn't long before that 12 year old passed me and left me lagging behind. I am not going to lie - a little part of me died inside right then. I found myself slowing down every now and then to try to recoup. After the turn around we just went back the same route so it was all downhill. This didn't prove to be as delightful as I would have liked it to have been. At this point I was just really watching the people passing me and trying my best to not let anyone in my age division do so. One did. Then as I neared the end another tried his best. I wasn't going to allow that sort of behavior. I paced him for a while and as we neared the finish line I really turned it on and beat him by only like a split second (he is the dude in the red in the picture where I am approaching the finish line). The clock in that picture began when the olympic races started. My total time was 1hr 25min. Overall, I feel good about today. I came in 6th out of 15 in my age division, and 57th out of 288 in the sprint distance. There is definitely room for improvement, but I am so glad I did this today. I had a blast, and now I can't wait until the next one. Peace.

Days 15 & 16 - Wed. and Fri. July 18 & 20 - Oh, Mexico

You sound so simple, I'd just like to go... I went to Mexico this week with Stacy and my family. On Wednesday we went to Tulum, an ancient Mayan city. There was a private beach which it opened up to and so I took the liberty to do a little bouldering where if I fell I would simply fall into the ocean. This was probably a 5.9 to 5.10 difficulty depending on where you decided to climb up. I didn't make it for very long, however, due to the incredibly sharp rock and cutting my hand open prematurely. On Friday we went to Xel-Ha, a natural amusement park filled with excellent snorkelling, cliff jumping, rope swinging, and you guessed it - a little bit of rock climbing. All it was was climbing the cliff you just jumped off instead of walking all the way around. It was probably a 5.4 maybe even a 5.3 difficulty, but fun to do nonetheless. It was a great vacation and I was glad to fit in even just a little bit of climbing. Peace.

Day 14 - Saturday July 7 - Yep, Two In One Day

After attending Kaleb's first birthday party this afternoon and spending the remainder doing work in the yard, Stacy and I met up with Crazy to go for a climb. We just hit up Dogwood crag for a quick shot. It looked like it was going to rain so there weren't many people there - which was nice. I hurriedly led a 5.8 more to the East side of the crag and then Crazy took a turn on toprope. I, once again, walked him through the process of removing the gear from the top of the climb - tie in with at least two points of contact, tie the rope off, remove the rope from yourself, etc. - and he finished and came down just in time for the rain to really start coming down. Stacy was not terribly bummed out that she wasn't able to climb so it was not a big deal. It was enjoyable to get up there, and I am certainly glad we went somewhere with virtually no approach hike. We were able to then go to dinner and see a movie. It really was a great day today. This is officially my very first day ever when I skied and climbed on the same day. How can you beat that?

Day 57 - Saturday July 7 - Christmas in July

Well, it's July, and I am not going to have a ton of time to get out this month so I figured now was as good a time as any. I headed back up to Wolverine with CJ this morning. We started a little later and we were not in any huge hurry to get back down, so I was able to really take the time to enjoy it out there. I don't know if it was the later start (and therefore, softer snow) or what, but the skiing was way better today than last week. I really had a great time skiing today. Last week I said that summer skiing wasn't all that great, but today I take that comment back. I had some good solid turns today and things just went well. There wasn't as much snow today as last week. I suppose that is what 100 degree heat will do to your snowpack. We started in Granny's chute but due to snow meltage we could not ski all the way down that one. We went as far as we could, then climbed back up the chute to skier's left and skied all the way down that one. The skiing was quite enjoyable. I did have some pole problems - I am trying out this new pair of poles I got for free at work (not Voile poles), and I love them on the up because they are so light, but they are not terribly strong nor do they have a great locking mechanism for the down - but I got over it. The first part of the hike out - when we exited wolverine to get back up to Patsy Marley - was interesting. You climb all over these rocks and boulders that you think are solid, but every now and again you step on one that totally slides and it is a little scary. I am happy to say that I did make it out, though, and the hike down was quite enjoyable. We received several admiring looks from hikers as they saw how cool we are with our skis in July. Yes, you should all be proud to know me.

Saturday June 30 - The Mountair Mile

Stacy and I volunteered at a children's "triathlon" race today. A dude she works with puts this on every year in his neighborhood. It is a fund raiser for The Sharing Place - an organization that helps families and kids cope with lost loved ones. Stacy's sister, Shellie, and her husband, Jeff, supported us by bringing their kids along. Kaleb was in the first age division (he is just under a year old) and Brinton was in age division 3 or 4 (I can't quite recall - he is 5). We helped set up the transition areas before the race and then we handled the finish line during. The kids did three different disciplines to complete the race - bike, scooter, rollerblade, skateboard, tonka truck, run, whatever - or the youngest ones just got pushed by their parents in a stroller. Both Brinton and Kaleb took third in their age division. We were all so proud. Kaleb looked so adorable up there on the podium. Brinton was a little bummed out because he wanted a red ribbon (second place), but I am sure he will get over it. It was an enjoyable morning. It was fun to see people out raising money and having fun. We will probably be a part of this again next year.
Check out the video here: http://www.kutv.com/video/?id=26969@kutv.dayport.com