Tales from the Trails

Taylor Creek, Kolob Canyons, Zion

Wow, can you believe that Labor Day Weekend is already here! I feel like it was just the 4th of July and I thought I would never make it to September, but here we are! And the best way to celebrate....a paid 4-day weekend courtesy of the U.S. Government- who doesn't love paid holidays?? Looking back at the summer I just cannot believe how fast it has flown by. There have been SO many ups, and a few downs, and overall I feel blessed to be living, working and recreating in this special place surrounded by some amazing folks. Some exciting news for me today is that I have officially logged over 600 miles of hiking and over 100 hours of climbing for 2013. SCORE!! I thought that for this post I would finally upload the pics I have been taking during the long work days at Zion and talk about some of the things we have been doing this season, so here goes....

West Northgate Peak & Pine Valley Peak, Zion Backcountry

The first month of working at Zion National Park was filled with activity and adventure. Our crew performed "drain runs" on a huge chunk of the trails in Zion including the West Rim Trail, Wildcat Trail, Hop Valley, East Mesa, East Rim, Cable Mountain, Deertrap Trail, Angels Landing, Kayenta, Chinle, Riverside Walk,
Watchman Trail, Hidden Canyon, LaVerkin Creek.....to name a few. Drain runs are a chance for the entire crew to get out and hike the trails in the park and perform general maintenance to clear the trails. This includes carrying loppers to remove obtrusive brush, hand saws to remove branches sticking into the trail, shovels for cleaning out water drainages, and cross-cut saws and pulaskis to extract larger trees that are blocking the trail. This may sound like a lot of tools and work, but with a large group covering desert-terrain trails (i.e. not forested trails where there are tons of trees, shrubs, etc.) the job moves pretty quickly as we leap-frog past one another on the trail and tackle individual projects. This was my favorite part of the season because we were logging some serious mileage in the more temperate weather of May before the heat-wave of summer hit and we were exposed to the variety of terrain and trails that Zion has to offer.

Example of CCC wall on upper Angels Landing Trail

Moving into the month of June our crew began a 3-month long project that we will (Finally!) be done with next week. The project is located on the Lower West Rim Trail just below Angels Landing, one of the most famously popular trails in the park. In fact, this trail receives 500-100 hikers on average every day from all over the world! I would take a stab at saying the only 1-4 out of every 10 tourists we interact with are Americans which is pretty cool because on any given day we are interacting with hundreds of people from all over the world!! Anyway, on this project our task was to build a sturdy retaining wall to address a section of trail that was being washed out by water and subsequently used as a social trail to access the river. Stone-work masonry is a historic and integral part of trail work in Zion National Park and if you have ever been or decide to go you will notice the amount of beautifully intricate stone-work masonry on display in the park. It is cool to hike up the Angels Landing Trail and see the work of the old Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's still standing strong today. The CCC crews were established during the Great Depression as an outlet for young men to participate in meaningful service projects that helped bolster the economy while sending their paychecks home to their families. If you have been to any Federal park you have probably seen or heard of the legendary work of CCC crews. For more information about these interesting and amazing CCC crews that were the founding fathers of modern day conservation groups follow this link.

Zion Trails Crew Stone-Masonry Workshop @ Coal Pits

Stone-masonry is a surprisingly simple yet sometimes complex artisan skill and I am glad to have learned how to do this legendary trade. Stone-masonry is how the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, and the beautiful cathedrals of old Europe were built and it is that time and attention to detail that have made these world wonders last for thousands of years. While I don't think I am going to become a professional stone-mason it has certainly been an interesting, and sometimes difficult, undertaking. Let's talk about the process!!!

Shannon & Larson cutting rocks at Coal Pits

At Zion National Park we receive our material rock from outside quarries located in areas surrounding the park. The rock is harvested into huge chunks then placed on pallets and sent to our outside storage facility near the Coal Pits drainage on the southwest side of the park. After some detailed planning our crews drive out to Coal Pits to select rocks of all sizes and colors (pinks, whites, reds, browns) to cut and drill for our project site. We use power tools like Rock Saws and Rock Drills that cut through these large hunks of sandstone like butter and from there we use dolly's to wheel the rocks onto pallets. The pallets are loaded onto a trailer using a large Bobcat machine and from there we drive the trailer to the Grotto parking lot which is located at the Angels Landing Trailhead. Wow!! Our next step is to load the rocks from the trailer into our Cany-Com machines that are like little army tankers that you can actually drive on the trails. This is the fun part!! We have to drive through the parking lot, across the little bridge spanning the Virgin River and down the trail to our project site. Whew! Who knew so much machinery could be involved in trail work???

Cutting rocks at our project site on Lower Angels Landing Trail

After we secure our rocks at our project site is when things start to get ugly...or fun...whichever way you look at it. We begin the task of playing Tetras to figure out which rocks are going where and how they need to be chiseled. Yes, I said chiseled. While machinery is heavily involved in the beginning processes of our masonry, it is somewhat lacking during the final stages. We are building a "dry-stone" wall instead of the typical "wet-stone" where you would use a mortar or cement to hold the rocks together. Why?? Ask the tourists?? Why are you doing it this way?? The answer: history! The Trails program at Zion is headed in the direction of keeping with the "like and kind" of the old-school methods and wants these walls to last forever! Plus in a climate like Zion where flash-flooding is an integral part of life, wet-stone walls get washed out quicker because the mortar creates a solid barrier whereas a dry-stone wall is more porous and allows water to flow through. The simple answer, though, is that we are just bad-asses. So away we go with 2-pound single-jack hammers and carbide-head chisels sculpting and molding the rocks into each-other. We work every single side of the rocks until they are perfectly flat and locked into the rocks surrounding them linking them like legos, and crushing in filler rocks behind to keep everything sturdy. More and more we have also been chiseling notches into the rocks so they really link in together. CRAZY right??!! 

Example of a rock the I notched

Lower Tier of our Retaining Wall

And so, for 12 weeks now it has been a song and dance of chiseling, lifting, chiseling, lugging, chiseling, sawing, some more chiseling, some heaving & ho-ing....toss in a little lower back pain, some sore wrists, and the "chink-chinking" of rocks lulling you to sleep at night and you (almost) have yourself a super legit, authentic Zion Retaining Wall! Pretty wild if I do say so myself. 

We have also done a fair amount of "re-veg" on the Lower West Rim Trail near our project site as a means of escaping the rock-wall project every so often. This entails playing Landscaper and rehabilitating the dozens of social trails down to the river which are very destructive to native plant and animal life. We have worked to establish several official paths to the water (because man it is hot and who doesn't want to jump in the river after peaking Angels Landing on a 100+ day) by choosing the best access points and closing the winding, destructive ones. We rehab the trail by transplanting prickly-pear cactus (watch-out these will stick you every time!), planting bunch-grass plugs, vertical mulching (placing dead trees in the ground sticking up as a vertical barrier) and placing rocks and other brush on the ground trying to make it look natural as if humans had never walked there.

Throughout the season we have had some days of other trail work to break up the tediousness of being "on-project" for weeks on end. Monsoon season brought rain and sand gushing into the main canyon and on days following a massive storm we got out to perform more drain-runs on popular canyon trails. Every now and then a storm would blow a tree into a trail and we got a call to go and remove it which is probably our FAVORITE thing to do. Using cross cuts and axes is very authentic and we love getting out and showing off our sweet muscles by axing out a tree. These days have been my saving grace and are always the days where you stop and look and up realize that you are getting paid to work in one of the most geologically unique and beautifully spectacular places in the world. The deep, winding canyons, the lush vegetation, the expansiveness of the wilderness and the clear blue water of the Virgin River all come together to remind you to feel blessed to live and work in Zion. My absolute favorite moments of the summer, however, have been swim breaks in the Virgin which runs right along our work site. During monsoon season the river got mucky and full of sand but any other day you better believe we were headed full-speed, pulling off uniforms, and plunging into that river like it was going to grant us entry into heaven. And it did, in its own way. As soon as my head plunged under that cool water and I came back up, clean and dust-free, I always had that moment where I looked up at the megalith of Angels Landing floating right in front of me and felt like there was no where in the world I would rather be than floating in the river next to good friends feeling the warm

breeze blowing through my hair. 

Looking up at Angels Landing from our Project Site

Crossing the bridge to our Project site in the morning light

The boys cutting sawing a tree out of a trail

The Boys!! Musky, Kenny & Larson at Northgate Peaks overlook

The girls! Shannon and I in the Zion backcountry

View of Zion backcountry from Lava Point, highest point in the park!

Kenny & Adam Cross-cutting a downed tree

Weekly hike to Scouts Lookout to freshen up the back-country toilets. Dirty job but an epic hike!

Shannon chain-sawing a downed tree. The two of us ladies wrangled that bad-boy to the ground!

~Mary Lane~

Toquerville, UT

8.30.13

Sunday Brunch & Backcountry Fare

Backcountry Fare
This past weekend Reuben and I decided to backpack into the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness on a 16-mile overnight. We like to think of our backpacking trips not just as a way for us to get out and be active while exploring nature, but as a cleanse for our systems mentally and physically. There are SO many food temptations in our society and living in SW Utah is no different. Every day after work I pass by all sorts of restaurants in Springdale advertising cold ice cream, pizza, and beer but the biggest temptation of them all is the Maverick Gas Station in LaVerking. These stations are basically the go-to for locals in the area and people actually eat meals here every day. With options like taquitos, burritos, cookies, sweetened coffee drinks, candy, fresh Krispy Kremes and 64 ounce sodas galore, I really have to work to tell myself not to get a sweet treat on the way home. Even so, junk food slips into our diet or the long days of work leave us not getting enough excercise so I really look forward to heading into the wilderness for some time away from all of these food temptations thrown in our faces every day.

We packed pretty light for the journey and tossed in lots of high-energy food items like apples & grapes, KIND Granola bars, Clif Kids Fruit Ropes (I love these- SO juicy!), Almond Nut-Thins, and homemade trail mix with raw cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts, dried cherries and dried blueberries (totally over the standard peanut and raisins, plus this mix is loaded with superfoods & antioxidants!). Before we embarked on our journey we filled our bellies with delicious salads from a local cafe packed with spinach, nuts, berries, fruits, salmon, and other veggies plus we scarfed down Naked Green Machine Smoothies at the trailhead. I can hear my mom now saying that we didn't pack enough protein, but we felt that we had a nice balanced diet for our trip and like I said, we like to think of these trips as a sort of cleanse. We push our bodies physically and only supply high-energy foods back into our systems and find that we are never really hungry or full, just perfectly balanced, which is a hard thing to come by these days right? Think about how often after a meal you feel "too full" compared to the amount of energy you have expended in exercise that day. Not very often in our society are people exercising appropriate amounts to keep up with their level of food intake which is why we have such a problem with obesity! You cannot expect to eat at Maverick everyday and maintain a healthy weight if you work in an office and go home at night and watch television until bed. Which leads me to my next point....

I have recently started to try and re-integrate cooking and baking back into my life. While I have worked very hard the past year or two, I certainly was spoiled living on farms and working part-time jobs at Co-ops that allowed me the time, energy, and fresh produce to cook with. Since moving to Utah I have found that after long, strenuous days it is easy to pick up take-out on the way home or just have sandwiches and snacks for dinner, because it is so hard to motivate yourself to prepare, cook and clean-up when you are just mentally drained from working full-time. I can imagine it is espcially hard for families with kids to find the motivation to feed and clean for a crowd every night because lets be honest- it is a lot of work!! Cooking tasty, fresh meals can involve a lot from figuring out what you want to cook, to food preparation, chopping, and dishes- but it CAN also be easier than you think. I have found that meal planning is essential to eating healthy and having the time and energy to prepare quality meals. I have been following some food blogs (Food Babe & 100 Days of Real Food) that often stress the importance of meal planning  and have helped rekindle my love of cooking and remind me that cooking things yourself with fresh, natural ingredients is absolutely the way to go!

Sunday Brunch
After returning from our backpacking cleanse Saturday night, Reuben and I were ready to have a lazy day around the house and decided to utilize our free time (possibly the only day this summer where we have both stayed home the entire day) by making some delicious meals! Reuben decided that he would scratch up a garden-fresh brunch while I took on a baking project. Having a garden this summer has been such a blessing and we are so happy that our housemate Kara has a the greenest of thumbs and planted a wonderful garden! She is gone every weekend and Reuben takes over care of the garden in her absence so I have especially enjoyed getting to share in the fruits of their labor. In addition to the garden, the property we live on has 15-20 different types of fruit trees that have been showering us with deliciousness since May. When we first arrived the mulberries were in full swing, in June the apricots, July brought the yummiest of grapes, and now we have arrived at peach season!! There are a couple of peach trees on the property that (literally) have branches snapping off of the tree because they are so loaded with fruit. We had a bucketful in the laundry room that needed to be used and since I was not in a canning mood, I decided to utilize a Vegan Muffin recipe that I had been working on the week before. I had previously had a bunch of quickly deteriorating bananas but no eggs or dairy products so I wanted to try a Vegan banana bread/muffin recipe which ended up turning out fantastic! Our house is equipped with ZERO measuring cups or spoons and so it was kind of an "on the fly" baking session which turned out wonderfully! I forgot how much my baking skills had really been honed this winter while I was working at the Bozeman Co-op as a Bread Baker and Pastry Chef. What a wonderful and useful experience that was!! 

So this time around I wrote down the approximate amounts of ingredients that I added to make my very own Peach Pocket Muffins using tons of fresh orchard peaches, coconut oil as my butter replacement, and flax meal as my egg replacement so that I could share the recipe on this blog. If you are not used to baking Vegan options then I think you will be surprised at how moist your baked goods turn out. The texture of the batter will be much different than you are used to but I think it is pretty cool to bake items using no dairy ingredients (although we all know I am a Dairy Queen) and see them "rise" to the occasion just like their dairy counterparts. My recipe has been tailored to fit our needs and palates and I would recommend adding more sugar if you are making these for a crowd or for kids. My intention was to make a bunch of hearty muffins for Reuben to be able to take to work with him (hence the name "Pocket Muffins") and provide him the energy he needs to get through his long days of trail work. I wanted a flexible recipe that I could add whatever fruit was in season to or whatever dry goods I have in the pantry. Maybe you like shredded coconut, or maybe you prefer oats. I had oat bran on hand, but maybe you have buckwheat. Reuben doesn't have a big sweet tooth and prefers stuff like this to actually be less sweet (unlike me!) so I designed this recipe around that as well. Also, the peach flavor doesn't shine through like you might want it to, but you can use any fruit that you have seasonally available. It is more about using what products you have that are fresh and available in large quantities than having a sweet treat. I recommend wrapping 2 muffins in plastic wrap and putting them in the freezer so that every morning you have a healthy, energy providing grab and go snack to get you through the day. Here is the recipe for Pocket Muffins.

 

While I was baking, Reuben rounded up some green bell peppers, jalepinos, onions, Thai basil and summer squash from the garden. He chopped up all of those yummies in addition to some garlic from the local market and let the veggies simmer in coconut oil (our favorite!!) until they were nice and tender. The summer squash usually gets tossed in last because we like it crunchy still. To the veggies he added delicious Chicken, Mozzarella, & Spinach Sausage and let that all brown together. Once the sausages were nice and cooked, he cracked local eggs right into the skillet and sauteed that all together. For a finishing touch he added some Pepperjack cheese at the last minute! We enjoyed our Skillet Brunch with fresh Pocket Muffins and Naked Mango Smoothie with a dash of Sprite- yum!!

~Mary Lane~
Toquerville, UT
8.23.13

Pocket Muffins Recipe

This is an EASY RECIPE!!! Things always sound complex at first.... maybe you aren't used to some ingredients like coconut oil or flax meal, but trust me, I can whip these together in a snap!! Dare to try  something new and different and don't be shy....play around with the recipe and add ingredients that you have on hand. If the batter seems a little dry, add a drizzle of water, if it seems too runny, add a pinch more flour. Baking doesn't have to be an exact science and playing around with things will help you become a better baker. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't come out like you want, test it and try it again!


ALL MEASUREMENTS ARE APPROXIMATE

Dry: Combine all ingredients

6 c AP WW Flour
2-3 c. Sugar
1 c. Oat bran
1/2- 1 c. shredded coconut
3 Tsp Soda
1-2 Tsp Salt
Pinch Baking Powder
Nuts Optional


Wet: Combine oil and fruit then add flax paste. Combine wet with dry. Batter will be thick and oily.

1.5 c coconut oil (This can get a little pricey if you are buying coconut oil at Whole Foods but we stock up on the Costco size jar which is apprx $20/ 78 oz. container vs. $8-$12/12-20 oz container @ WF. Additionally if you keep your house well air-conditioned, your coconut oil with solidify. This recipe needs the oil to be in oil form so zap it in the microwave for a few seconds)
3 c. mashed fruit (Peach, banana, strawberry, huckleberry....just go for something in season that you can find at your local market or orchard!)
1/3- 1/2 c. flax meal thickened with water (The trick here is to SLOWLY add warm water to the flax meal until it is the consistency of a thick paste. You don't want it to be runny. If you add to much water just remedy the problem by adding more flax meal)

Topping:
1/2 c. oats
1/2 c. shredded coconut
1/3 c. sugar 

Spray muffin tins with PAM and fill no more than 1/2-2/3, they are impossible to pull out of the tins if the muffins rise to far over the top of the hole. Apply topping liberally (lets not hold back here!!) Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degree oven until toothpick comes out clean and the topping is starting to brown. Let sit for 5 minutes before pulling out of the pans. These freeze extremely well and you will be shocked at how moist they are!!

Notes on Rock Climbing

Zion Wilderness

**As Always- Remember to click any of the photos to see a bigger, better version!**
Whew! I made it halfway thru my season at Zion!! And what a bumpy ride it has been- from magical afternoons hiking in the backcountry to miserably long days of chiseling a singe-jack into a rock for 8 hours this has been one of the most amazing and trying experiences of my life. Getting used to working 40 hour weeks in the intense southwest summer heat has been a whole other battle after frolicking in single-digit temps in Bozeman this winter. But everything is relative and before you know it you are thankful for the days when 98 is the highest temp and you don't need an entire tray of ice cubes to accompany your water- just half. : ) And, just in the nick of time, monsoon season swept in to wash away the hottest days and the thick, lofty clouds pushed south from the northern ranges of Utah sheltered us from the blistering sun for almost a month and provided some of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen. With the rain came flash-flooding on a daily basis and at least some canyon in the greater region was washed out. The sandstone rock here retains no moisture and does not soak up water like regular soil so when a micro-burst storm occurs a five-minute downpour can turn into a raging torrent of water colliding down steep canyons and gullies endangering anyone exploring below. To see an EPIC, short video of a local flashflood click HERE.

Zion had a record number of SARs (Search & Rescues) for the month of July and it seemed almost daily that we were hearing about someone falling off a rappel in the backcountry or being trapped by high flood waters. Canyoneering can be an extremely dangerous sport and a lot of tourists seem to take it too lightly. They don't understand that 30% chance of storms means DO NOT got into a canyon, that sometimes you just have to accept the facts that maybe you don't get to go canyoneering if you visit Zion in the middle of monsoon season which happens to be the middle of summer. I have been quite content with my hiking, biking and rock climbing, which also have their risks, but hearing about all of the SAR incidents happening all over the world during the seasonal height of outdoor recreation during the summer time has definitely made me stop and think about all of the adventuring I am doing and how much I want to keep myself safe while doing risky things. In fact, I had my own little micro-burst of injuries during the past several weeks and have made more trips to the doctor this summer than I have in 3 or 4 years. I had a nasty encounter with a seemingly nice Golden Retriever who took a chunk out of my leg while I was out for an early morning bike ride: I was biking up a steep hill to get some exercise and because of my slow pace, the dog was able to bite my leg before I could successfully maneuver the bike back down hill. I had four stitches to accompany the tooth hole in my leg and luckily everything has been healing up nicely.

Earlier in the season I injured my left knee after a bad landing jumping off a trail to access our work-site in Zion. For almost a month I had to rely on my right leg to get me through my long days of hiking in the mountains but my ability to utilize the strength of my right leg really allowed me to continue recreating while recovering. And then there was the friction burn, probably my most painful and scary incident that occurred after I took a 15 foot fall leading a rock climb in Crawdad Canyon on an extremely humid day. While I love monsoon season, WOW, did we have some humid days that reminded me of Tenneesee so frizzy hair and all we decided to climb the sweating rocks, leaving wet handprints of the walls as we went. 
 
I will begin the recount of the story by saying that I fell at the absolute WORST time right as I was clipping into the anchors.
For those of you unfamiliar with this lingo, let me explain- in Sport rock climbing one person has to lead the climb. The belayer uses an ATC to connect the rope to their harness and the climber creates a double firgure-8 knot to secure the rope to themselves. The climber hooks quickdraws onto their harness which are 2 caribiners connected by a short piece of webbing. 
 

Figure 8 Knot

ATC

 

 

 

Quickdraw

 The climber begins the route by taking a quickdraw and clipping one of the caribiners to a bolt that has been drilled into the wall by the route-setter and then clips the caribiner on the oppsite end of the quickdraw to the rope that they are attatched to. Hmmm....this sounds more confusing than it is. Pictures would be better. Anyway- so the lead climber is protected from hitting the ground (in case of a fall) because they clip into these pre-established bolts on the wall. They are usually anywhere from 3-8 feet apart and when you are leading if you fall right after you have clipped into a bolt you don't go far because you are so close to a bolt, but if you fall right before you clip into a bolt then you fall further because you will fall down to the last bolt you clipped which could be anywhere from 3-8 ft below you. In climbing you are using a dynamic rope which means that the rope has a lot of stretch so in case of a fall you will bounce, whereas a regular rope would immediately pull taught and you would smash into the wall. So when you fall during a lead climb you are going to fall the distance of feet that you are away from your last bolt(x2) because of that dynamic rope. The stretch in the rope + the force of your body makes it so that you actually fall twice the distance. Clear as mud?

So on this particular occasion I was at the very top of the 40-50ft route ready to clip-in to the last bolts which are called "anchors" and usually have a set of chains coming off of the bolts to make it easier and more secure for you to finish on. The last section of this climb was on a bulged out section of rock right above a large pocket- envision the #8 and looking at the number notice how the number is pinched in the center then bulges out to the top- that is how this section of rock was. I had taken 3 or 4 little falls just trying to get up to the anchors, probably no more than 2 or 3 ft down the wall back into the pocket, and my adrenaline was running high. It was a scary spot and the bolts had been poorly set because the holds were small to get up the bulge, but because of the bulge your body is pushed forward while your feet are still in the pocket below the bulge which leaves you feeling very exposed. After I fell a fourth time I was starting to get riled up. I knew I could do this maneuver and I was SO close to the end! I must have been within arms reach of the anchors every time- arg!! I was totally pumped (meaning my forearm muscles were huge and hard as rocks) but I had the mental determination to finish it so I decided to make one last go at it knowing I would just have to ignore the momentary pain that was about to be induced. I pulled myself back up to the final section and YES! I made the grab for the hold that I needed with my left hand. I felt like my left arm was solid on the hold so I made to move to clip into the anchors. To do this you have to pull the rope up to you, because gravity is naturally pulling it down, so you put the closest bit of rope in your mouth to free up your hand to grab more slack to reach up and set the rope into the anchors. One, Two handfulls of rope came up from my buddy Josh belaying from below. Perfect! I was there, I was putting the rope into the anchors and inside my head I was estatic! "YES!! You have it, you have it, you have....."

WHOOSH! 
My left hand slipped off of the hold.
The culprit....
HUMIDITY! Even though I was pumped and holding my entire body weight with my left arm there is no way in hell I was going to let go of the rock with all that slack I had just pulled. The moisture content in the air was so thick and combined with my sweating palms, my hand just flew off the hold in the blink of an eye and the next thing I knew I was dangling a solid fifteen feet below the anchors in disbelief. In the distance below me I could hear people from another party of climbers yelling "OOH", "Oh my god", and "NICE FALL!", my friends were silent though, waiting for me to give the next direction, hoping I wasn't going to come off the rock with a dislocated shoulder. I remember nothing from the actual fall but judging from the wounds I fell hard into the bulge with my right arm causing extensive bruising on my upper arm and my right elbow was pounding from clearly taking the brunt of the fall and is still the most lingering pain of them all. Because I had the rope in my mouth, part of it whizzed past my upper lip and the rest caught my shoulder and under to my armpit where a pretty intense looking rope burn left the most volatile evidence of the fall. My knees were pretty banged up as well. 


Once I was back on the ground the surge of energy and adrenaline from the entire episode was running high and the pain didn't really set in for a while. My heart beat was soaring and my head felt a crazy rush like I just didn't even know what to do next. After about an hour of recouping though, I went back to climbing on top-rope (not leading) and had a successful day of climbing. It wasn't until 24 hours, and then even worse the 48 hour mark where the pain really set it. The burn was SOO painful and putting on any kind of clothing was awful. Any time my elbow touched something a sharp pain surged up my arm and I was nervous that these scars might last longer than I wanted. Amazingly enough though, after 2 weeks of epsom salt baths and triple antibiotic you would not believe how fast the wounds healed!! The human body is amazing! 

 This experience has taught me several things: Always wear a helmet when lead climbing (the fall could have been really bad) and DO NOT climb in humid weather. While climbing can be very dangerous it can also be much safer than most people realize and I think all new climbers have to have those teachable moments where they learn from their little mistakes as to prevent future disasters. That being said, since then, I have been performing really well on my climbing excursions (minus the inevitable carpel tunnel from chiseling 40 hours a week) and I have been taking every precaution to be safe in every aspect of my life so I don't end up on the wrong end of a Search and Rescue story. 

Bouldering Rock in Cedar City

Below where I fell

Belay Buddies at Crawdad Canyon!

Josh climbing 11b at the Woodbury Road limestone crags

Climbing Huecos in Zion

Climbing 10a at Woodbury Road Crags

~Mary Lane~
Toquerville, UT
8.7.13