Spring Skiing with the Winter Family

Jacqueline's parents flew out to Vegas than drove up to Springdale from Michigan for Easter Weekend. Like good church going folk, we headed up to the mountains around Salt Lake City to get some skiing in. There were lots of other Easter holiday observers in the mountains around Salt Lake City. On Sunday, we went to Snowbird, where Jacqueline's brother Paul works as a waiter at the Steak Pit. He got us mostly free lift tickets, as we had to pay for part of one or two of the lift tickets. Snowbird is not a beginner's mountain and unfortunately I would still consider myself a beginner. The rest of the crew being Paul, Jacqueline, and their dad Tom are all experienced skiers. Paul spends most of his time snowboarding, but he was trying to ski on this day. The mountain was rather packed and all the runs were really steep. We started with Big Emma and I liked that one because it was the only green that I could get to that actually had somewhat of a long run. Then we went to the other side of the mountain through the only ski tunnel blasted out of the mountainside. I was not particularly happy as there was insane steep drops all around as I skied down a cat track. I was about ready to go sit in the lodge and wait it out until finally I was able to ski one of the greens on that side. The rest of the crew came with me for many of the runs. I apologized for my whining as I was nervous for most of the day, but I could finally relax and enjoy skiing. They went off and skied some blacks while I stayed on my steep green. We finished the day with a ride down the tram, which was me taking the wussy way out since I did not want to ski the blues all the way from the top of the mountain. I was so incredibly sore from turning ten times every twenty feet that night. We had a great dinner at the Steak Pit with all Jacqueline's family. (Paul was our server) We got to check out the porcupine that they feed every night and he was sure loving the crowd around checking him out. The next day we did the same thing, but instead of Snowbird, we went up to Alta. This time it was just Jacqueline, Tom, and I. After a few frustrating moments trying to go uphill, I spent the rest of the day really enjoying myself. We got to try some longer runs because I dropped a bit of the wussiness and went on some blues. By the end of the day, I was feeling good enough to take some blues that did not even say the easier way. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend my birthday. I was glad that the people around me were patient with me, because I was a pain thinking I could drop off the slope at any time. By the end of Monday, though, I was excited to go up skiing again sometime soon.

Lazy Saturday Stroll

We did not have the whole day on Saturday for a hike, so I figured that we should go out to Cave Valley. We got a couple of friends, Eric and Izzy, to come with us. It was not until about 2:30pm when we hit the trail. We parked at the head of an old dirt road and walked on down. I had not spent much time in Cave Valley, being there twice and doing the same thing each time. This time we were down to do something a bit different. We headed past our turnoff and found ourselves in a highly eroded arroyo. This lead us to the slickrock. I looked to the right and said that it would go, so that is the way that we went. At the top we got a great view of Zion that was unique. From there, we scrambled on down into Lee Valley. The first shot did not work, but we stuck to it going right instead of left. This dropped us down. From the top, we could see an old road down where we now stood, but once we were there we found ourselves wandering through sagebrush and gambel oak. I just wanted to go to a point overlooking the dropoff. It was a fight to get there and the view was alright. Then we wandered on back. We hit the road toward the end of the point and we took that on back. I took a small trip to check out Wolf Spring Wash and I know that I want to try to explore it down to the Subway. That was left for another day. This old road lead up near the way we came. It was even blasted out of the slickrock at spots. That was kind of neat to find. There was so much left undone on this day, but it was more of a day to spend with friends. We got in a dinner at Pizza Noodle and some victories for Pete in Euchre and O' Hell to cap off the night. I was hoping to get out and do something else the next day, but instead I awoke to see that it was snowing in Toquerville. Oh well, I guess I would have to wait out another week at the Block.

Badger - Soap

I had a great trip with Brian and Angela Hays this weekend. Jacqueline headed up to Salt Lake City and I met up with the Hays' at Lee's Ferry. After getting off work at 6:30pm, I drove a little over two hours from Hurricane to Lee's Ferry. Brian and Angela left from Flagstaff about the same time and arrived at about the same time. Thus, this was a perfect spot to meet up for the two of us. We chatted for a while and I made some dinner, then we crashed out for the night. The river parties waking up early served as an adequate alarm clock for the three of us. I could hear them talking loudly at sun-up from the back of the truck. We had some breakfast then headed out. Our plan on this day was to slide down a rope through Badger Canyon, then head five miles across on the Colorado, and then pop out of the next canyon over, Soap Canyon. When we arrived at the first downclimb, we came upon two other people who seemed more surprised by us than we were by them. I think they were rather disappointed to not have the canyon to themselves. The first rappel did not even have an anchor set up, so Brian got that job done in no time at all. We found a nice holy outcrop with which to wrap some webbing around. It was a money rap, with a near vertical wall to walk down. Just around the corner was the next rap. A forty footer off one bolt with a piton backup. It was a difficult start, forcing us to drop off almost immediately. We all handled it easily. This dropped us into the narrowest part of the canyon. It was not much of a slot canyon, unlike Zion, but it reminded me of my youth and all the side canyons in the Grand Canyon. We walked down the ledges and mud filled puddles to our last rappel. We ran into a slight problem considering that the rap was only 20 feet, but the anchor was 65 feet from the bottom. We set up a single line, which Angela and I were going to rap off of. Angela did not like doing it single, with no gloves, on my skinny 9mm static. So in two seconds Brian came up with an ingenious design. He turned a single into a double by tying a butterfly with a figure eight rewoven attached. It was a great idea. I went off it first and it felt like a double. The rap was easy and after Angela went down, the other group showed up. They had a two hundred footer, so they just untied for us after Brian rapped off. There was a good sized block that Brian could have rapped off, but to not have to use any extra gear is always great. From there, it was smooth sailing down to the Colorado. The river was going nuts. They must have been releasing from the dam. Badger looked gnarly and we had a quick lunch by the rapids. From there it was time to get our cross country hiker on. The beginning was frustrating with large, black rock to navigate through. We put our bouldering skills to the test. It was a hot, sweaty, buggy experience, but soon we were popping out into much less intimidating rock to scramble through. This trip was unique, as most people don't do this loop. It took a couple of hours, but soon we were able to boulder hop our way to Soap Creek Rapids. From there it was just six mile out through Soap. Having done Soap before, I remembered that it was at least a bit interesting. The first three to four miles were just flat walking. The last two to three were boulder climbing. It was mostly easy to navigate with some short quick moves. One spot there was a rope in place that Angela and I used. Brian was a little bit too tough. There was one more spot where a rope could be used. I chose to go around and the climbers in the group chose to try it. We boulder climbed our way the rest of the way out to end an exhausting day. Eight hours total, but it always seems to fly by when you are doing it with friends. It doesn't matter if you are hanging off a rope or balancing perilously on the edge of a boulder, you still have to throw in a joke or put your two cents into the conversation. I had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with my newlywed friends. I wish my fiance could have come, but we will have many, many years to spend hanging with the Hays.

Cottonwood Creek

Another Sunday hike for Jacqueline and I. I was hoping to enjoy the warm weather that we soaked up the day before, playing tennis in the seventy-five degree heat. Instead, after getting battered by winds through the night, we awoke to a forty degree morning. Still, we put on our down jackets and were off to the Red Cliffs Reserve, a beautiful area only minutes from our house that Jacqueline and I just discovered. This weekend we were going to hike up Cottonwood Creek. We were all excited at first because there were trail signs and everything. Soon, those disappeared and we found ourselves following a cairned route. 

We ran into a gentleman in the small side canyon that was also lost. He asked about a tunnel and I told him we saw it about a mile back. He pointed out that we were in the wrong canyon and we figured he was right. Still we continued upon our way believing that there was most likely something up this way. 

We continued following a cairned route, which lead us over slickrock for a splendid side journey with amazing views. It ended with us running down a sandhill into a slickrock bowl. The trail disappeared from here and we spent quite a bit of time playing on the rocks and enjoying the Moqui marbles and crazy iron deposit rock formations everywhere. I suggested a sojourn down the next canyon over and it popped us out into Cottonwood Creek. I was glad we took our little sidetrip because the views were good, but not great within the creekbed. We went about as far as we felt like walking through the sand seeing just about the same thing throughout. Jacqueline was still feeling a bit sick, so we did not want to over due it. We made our way back down, finally popping out into the harsh, strong wind again to get back to the car. We were gone 5 hours and probably did around ten miles. We enjoyed spectacular views and we will be sure to return again to this new found area for exploration.