The Hazard Chronicles

I have a confession to make. Today I did something that was totally un-Sundayish. I almost died. And I am an idiot. Seriously. Here's the story:

Right now I am in Las Vegas- the city of sin. I came down for a dental course (LVI for you dental people). Now, a lot of people love Las Vegas for a lot of reasons. Mostly because Las Vegas is one of the very few cities in the world where there are so many different roads leading to Hell. The options seem endless here, and I guess some people are into that sort of thing. But I love Vegas for a completely different reason.

18 miles west of "The Strip" is Red Rock Canyon- one of the greatest rock climbing destinations in the country.

Of course I'm not down here to climb, and even if I were, it is Sunday so I wouldn't be climbing anyway. I had to go see it though. I just couldn't leave Vegas without spending at least a little bit of my time there. So after church I drove myself to a trailhead and started just walking around and enjoying the beauty of the place. And seriously, this place is super beautiful (but it's also very hot and desert-y so I'd never want to live here).

So I went to go for a quiet walk...And those who know me can probably already guess the rest of the story.

I can't just hike next to rocks without doing a little bit of bouldering. I just can't. I think it is literally impossible. And a little bouldering isn't breaking the Sabbath, right? So I started climbing a little bit.

That was mistake #1

It started out easily enough. After a while though the holds started dissapearing and it turned into a friction climb. My thought at this point was- "wow, this would be a great route if I had my climbing shoes and a rope, but I don't so I guess I'll go down now." And then I looked down to discover, to my surprise, that I was about 60 feet up. How did that happen? And then I looked up and I saw the top of the climb about 20 feet in front of me.

I made a judgement call. It would be easier, and more time efficient if I just went up and then walked off the back.

That was mistake #2

The next 20 feet were super hard. They were friction. I was wearing tennis shoes. It was a hot day and my hands were sweating and my legs were shaking. But finally I made it. Whew. I started walking off only to discover...

...There was no way to walk off. Also, there was a crowd gathered at the base of the rock taking pictures of me. Great. I was on a nice little platform of rock with nowhere to go. The only 2 options were to down-climb what I had just done, or to continue upwards (where I saw a definate walk-off area).

You don't down-climb friction. You just don't. It was about 40 feet to the top. The difficulty looked about the same as the stuff I had just done. So I sent up a prayer to heaven- "Lord, I'm sorry I am such an idiot. Please don't let me die today."

And I started climbing- (Don't hate me Rachel. It seemed like a logical thing to do at the time. And I'm still alive to tell about it, so it's okay, right?)

I have to say, I don't think I have ever climbed better. I was totally in "the zone." Nothing mattered except for the next move. Any fear I had seemed to dissapear and, I'm telling you, if I could always climb the way I did today then I would be famous. The moves seemed to just come- one after the other- smooth and measured. There have been very few times in my life that I have been this focused on ANYTHING. Really, it was sort of cool.

When I got to the top, the group of obese spectators all cheered and took more pictures. Seriously. But that's not fair. Not all of them were overweight. Some of them were Asian. 

Anyway, when I came out of my little trance I nearly had a melt-down. All of my energy totally drained and I seriously wondered if I would have the strength to walk off. I later consulted with a climber who had a guidebook. The route I did ended up being a 2 pitch 5.9+ X. Friction. Tennis shoes. Yeah. Scary.

And here's my thought of the week. I had to tie this all in with church stuff so that I can justify the whole experiance. Isn't it interesting though, how Satan lures us along a little bit at a time until it becomes impossible to "down climb" our way out of our prediciment? And isn't it interesting that if we had just "stayed off the rock" to begin with then we would never be in that predicament in the first place? And isn't it great that our Heavenly Father, who knows that we will sometimes be idiots and get on the rock anyway even though we know better, has provided a way out for us in the form of the Atonement? Just some food for thought. Cool stuff.

So, that is my story about how I was dumb and irresponsible. Lesson learned.

Besides this, it has been a great week. The dental thing I went to was awesome. Rachel found cute Halloween costumes for all of our kids. We are moving into our new house next week. Life moves on...

Thankfully.

Here's a pictue of Red Rocks. I am still in Vegas and I don't have our camera. Rachel may (or may not) get on here later and put a few more pictures up after she calls me on the phone and tells me how angry she is with me and how stupid I am and how much she loves me...and stuff.

Until next week!