Trip to Moab, Utah

My brother got a hold of me and wanted to vacation. Since I'm not too busy these days, I flew down to his place in L.A. and we drove up to Moab. The plan was to rock climb. Moab has some amazing climbing. We were mostly prepared though, my brother forgot his big gear and we didn't get to try a certain route I wanted to do. So it goes... We did drive further, down to Indian Creek, and climbed pretty exclusively on the Scarface Buttress. Two amazing climbs to try, if you are there, are Scarface and Wavy Gravy. I didn't do Scarface clean, but I think I could get it to go with a little more practice on it. It's a very tricky hand crack size and for my hand is very rattling. It would be an intense lead climb. Wavy Gravy had novelty appeal. It has an undulating overhanging quality, finishing with a vertical hand crack in a corner. My brother posted a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zruPxddD2CI . The whooping at the end was in honor of a woman who lives on the Colorado River at Wall Street climbing area. She kept calling out to geese floating by on the river. The locals call her "The Goose Lady". We climbed a little there on Wall Street aka Potash Road. It's all too easy to just climb what you know when you go places like this. I'm proud that we climbed a fair amount of new stuff, even if it wasn't the best or hardest we'd ever climbed.
We went skydiving one morning. It was early. Since we were both first timers, we had to tandem jump. Perhaps this isn't the best experience, but at least now I know I wouldn't freak out and not pull my own 'chute. The whole experience is a story of anticlimax. I was nervous all week leading up to it. "It's gonna be scary... I'm gonna freak out... The 'chute will hurt when it pops open... The landing will crack my ankle..." All these worried voices played broken-record style in my head. The morning of we were both numb about it. I wasn't really feeling anything. The guy I was strapped to wasn't gonna settle for that. He kept trying to elicit a reaction. We took our agreed 30 minute plane tour of Moab and the door flung open. Unfortunately, this was the pinnacle of my excitement. I looked out the door and nothing really stood between me and the ground. I put my feet out on the step and my tandem rocked us out of the plane. It seemed like we tumbled a few times, but it may have been just the once. When we leveled off, I put my hands out. We looked right and (as if governed by the laws of physics) we rotated clockwise. There was no real sensation of falling. Weightless is all I felt. The wind was rushing by very fast. It was exhilarating. I did enjoy it all. After 35 or so seconds, the 'chute popped and I was pulled back into a vertical position. It didn't hurt. It was even softer than most of my lead falls. My instructor was nice enough to let me control the canopy and we did a tight right turn that made my stomach drop through my feet. The landing was awkward since Paul, my tandem, didn't bother to tell me what to do until it was too late. I got into "landing position" with my legs lifted high and out of the way. Paul put his feet down and took a couple steps. At this point he was holding all of our weight. Then he calls out, "Run Run Run Run it out Run!!!" I tried to put my feet under me, but I would have had to lift Paul up too considering he was a foot shorter than me. I plowed six feet of soil and we came to a nice stop at which point I stood partially up. I unbuckled, turned and watched my brother try to land as well. NOSE DIVE! I'm surprised we didn't nose dive either, watching it from that angle. I probed my brother for a recap of his experience, but I got very little. He did say that the similar experience of anticlimax happened though. It all happened so fast. There was too much to take in. My tandem kept trying to get me to look into the camera. Pain-in-the-ass! I wish we could have gone solo.

After the jump, Steph Davis was sitting on her tailgate outside the hangar. I tried to chat her up. She didn't seem to interested in it. In hind-sight, I may have interrupted a conversation she was having with someone else. It's hard to say because the other person remained in the conversation when I joined them. For those who don't know, Steph is an awesome climber and BASE jumper. Although, I'm not sure how you rate BASE jumpers. Steph was an early inspirational character when I started climbing. My brother joined us but didn't really say anything. I tried to give him an opportunity to chime in but he didn't. Later he said, "I didn't want to seem like a stalker or something". Hmm.. Not my approach at all.

These trips we take always involve a lot of talking. Dusty recommended that I post more photos due to the rather bland quality of my blog. Criticism received. I'll try to improve that situation. These are of my brother and I, Castleton Tower, and Me in front of the Bridger Jack formation.