Rock and Bone

Jason and I are extreme sports enthusiasts. We gladly put ourselves in potentially painful situations again and again for the thrill of speeding through the trees or the challenge of a beautifully chaotic gravelly slope. However, we didn’t expect our first experience with a new extreme hobby, rock climbing, to be quite as wild as it turned out.

Jason was a good monkey boy
Jason was a good monkey boy. Those long legs and arms came in handy as he searched for crevices to aid his ascent.

Jason’s grandparents spent many of their retirement years repelling down cliffs and setting up ropes courses so when they passed away they left behind a lot of climbing gear. Jason and I ended up inheriting this equipment; I think mostly because everyone in the family thought we were the only ones that might actually use the stuff. They were probably right. We supplemented our inheritance with some new gear and we were ready for our first outdoor climbing adventure.

You might recognize that rope from pictures of Nana and Gramps
You might recognize that rope from pictures of Nana and Gramps repelling. Yup, it's the same one.

One of my good friends, David, is an avid climber so we were happy that he agreed to take us climbing with him. For our first climbs we went up American Fork Canyon to the south face of Hard Rock. There are two great walls for beginners in this cluster of cliffs: Rockapella (5.7) and Stoic Calculus (5.8).

Don
Jason and David may look like goofs but when it came to climbing they were all business. David made it up Stoic Calculus in under 2 minutes. Yup, he's a crazy spider monkey.

That morning David also brought his brother, Danny, and a buddy, Hamilton, with him so we had a good climbing group and we had a great time scaling 80 feet up those two sheer faces until our arms and legs could take no more. Compared to climbing in indoor facilities, which we have done before, it was pretty exciting to clamber up real rocks. I’m mildly afraid of heights so I thought that phobia might decrease my enjoyment of this sport but I didn’t find those elevations nearly as terrifying as I thought I would. Sure, looking down from 80 feet up was a little intimidating but looking around you at 80 feet up was amazing.

Rockapella is only a 5.7 so it was
Rockapella is only a 5.7 so it was a relatively easy climb even for a beginner like me but the view from the top was still spectacular.

On my second climb, which was on Stoic Calculus, my rope got caught on a ledge when I was about 50 feet up and I couldn’t free it. A few minutes later, while it was still jammed, I slipped. (Yeah, it figures that the only time I lost my footing while we were climbing happened to be when my rope was stuck.) When I slipped the caught rope made me swing down and around and slam into the wall. I won’t lie, it didn’t feel awesome but I just got a few cuts, scrapes, and bruises from the affair so my injuries weren’t anything out of the ordinary for me.

Stoic Calculus was a little trickier than Rockapella but it was still completely doable, even for the wholly unskilled.

When we were ready for a new challenge we decided that an adjacent wall, Eight to Eleven, looked pretty sweet for the climbing. Danny began to lead the rope for this climb but when he was about 30 feet up, and trying to reach the next bolt, he slipped and fell roughly 10 feet onto a small outcropping. Although this wasn’t a big fall, he landed funny and immediately started yelling in a panic that he had broken his ankle. (Yeah, that’s the edited version of what he said. For the sake of the children I will leave it at that.) No one questioned whether he actually had or hadn’t, we simply got beneath him and helped lower him to the ground. It was instantly apparent, upon inspection, that his ankle was already swelling and did require medical attention so our next task became getting him back down the narrow mountain trail we had traveled to reach Hard Rock. We hadn’t hiked too long to get to these cliffs but still, getting Danny back to the parking lot was not a simple or easy task. Jason and Hamilton both took a side and supported him, David held his injured foot up as much as possible, and I brought up the rear carrying as much gear as I could. Our strange group slowly made its way downhill and where the pathway tapered here and there we became odder still. When the trail narrowed too much to allow our makeshift man-crutches to squeeze through Danny had no choice but to slide on his bum while David continued to walk backwards in front of him struggling to elevate his jacked-up appendage. Finally, after a very laborious descent, we got Danny back to his car and off to the hospital.

Danny was showing off his Tom Cruise moves
Danny was showing off his Tom Cruise moves just minutes before he fell.

It turned out that he had done more than just broken his ankle bone-he had shattered it and severed his ligament almost all the way down to his big toe. He had to undergo emergency surgery the next day to screw his bone back together. Poor guy.

Both Jason and I
Both Jason and I had a blast climbing but, sadly, he was faster than me. Sigh.

While all of this made our first outdoor climbing experience a very eventful and memorable one, I hope our next time will be a little less exciting. But this accident didn’t frighten me and Jason into giving up our newfound hobby, as it might have with lesser noobs. We plan on going climbing again as soon as David will take us. After all, the beautiful things in life are worth a broken bone now and then…but I do think I’ll get a climbing helmet. I’d prefer to have my cranium remain in its unbroken state.

Give ‘Em the Bird

Shawn, another coworker of Jason’s from India, is currently out here in Utah for the first time. We couldn’t let him leave the state without spending a while in our beautiful mountains so we took him on a little excursion to Snowbird Resort. Prafulla, Jason’s last visitor from India, we also took to Snowbird but in the middle of a snowstorm so he didn’t get to enjoy the practically perfect weather and blossoming hillsides that Shawn did.

Shawn enjoyed his first alpine slide ride
Shawn enjoyed his first alpine slide ride ever but he seemed a little disappointed that it didn't zoom him down the mountain faster.

We got all day activity passes so we could spend the day hanging on the slopes…and hang we did. We rode the alpine slides and zip rider first. Then we took the tram up to the top of Hidden Peak. Unlike the last time we were at this peak with Prafulla, there was no blizzard swirling the spectacular view into a sea of white so the grandeur of the surrounding mountains could be properly appreciated.

The view from Hidden Peak was pretty impressive.
The view from Hidden Peak was pretty impressive. With three separate valleys sprawling out below you it felt a bit like being on top of the world.
The scenery at the top
The scenery at the top of Hidden Peak was gorgeous. The far spreading green was interspersed with the bright colors of mountain flowers and the rusty texture of stone.

From Hidden Peak we went on a little hike along the ridge overlooking Mineral Basin and Gad Valley. Although Utah’s dry summers have usually scorched most of the green out of the landscape by this time in August, the hillsides were surprisingly still very lush and fresh with dainty purple, white, yellow, and red wild flowers punctuating the green strewn slopes. It was actually quite charming.

I think the men were trying to look tough
I think the men were trying to look tough and victorious here. Did they succeed?

After we rode down from the peak we decided to check out the ropes course. The ropes course looked rather pathetic from the ground but once you were up there among the tightropes and tricky obstacles the fact that you were safely strapped into a harness didn’t stop your heart from pounding away.

The ropes course was a little nerve racking until I got
The ropes course was a little nerve racking for me until I got used to the height. I definitely didn't miss my calling as a trapeze artist.
Jason is happy to pose moronically for a
Jason is happy to pose moronically for a picture below or above ground.

Shawn was excited about riding the mechanical bull like an American cowboy but he was concerned that it would make him sick so we saved this activity for last. We all had a go on the bull but we were no match for those iron innards; none of us were able to stay long on its motorized hide.

The mechanical bull proved to be a difficult
The mechanical bull proved to be a difficult adversary. None of us could keep our hind ends on it for long.

Luckily, the bull didn’t buck away Shawn’s appetite so we stopped at The Pie on the way home to give him a taste of some real American cuisine: Italian pizza. Shawn was more than happy to eat pizza as long as it was loaded with plenty of meat, which apparently isn’t plentiful enough in Indian food for his taste.

Shawn apparently thinks India is meat deprived
Shawn apparently thinks India is meat deprived and is trying to make up for a lifetime of lack while he is here in the U.S.

Shawn seemed to enjoy his time up at Snowbird and, unlike Prafulla, he didn’t have to worry about his fingers freezing off. That’s sure to increase anyone’s level of enjoyment.

Two Years and a Half Marathon

In a couple weeks it will be two years since I had my peroneal tendon repair surgery. I decided that running the Provo River Half Marathon, which is 13.1 miles, would be an excellent way to celebrate this anniversary. I ran this baby years ago, before I hurt my ankle, but since my injury made running more than about half an hour too painful to stomach, I haven’t even considered running it since. It therefore seemed like a very fitting way to commemorate my ankle being back in the big time.

I have been training for the last few months with Jason for this race. We started our training by jogging our usual 3 mile runs and then upped the distance we traveled each run by about a mile roughly every week. This strategy seemed to work very well though I did get a few complaints from Jason when we progressed to 9 and 10 mile runs; he had never attempted to run anything that long before. Although a half marathon is a somewhat daunting undertaking, surprisingly we were able to find a few crazies interested in running this long race with us: my dad, his friend Steve, and my friend Fran.

Looking down from the hills above
Looking down from the hills above the runners were a beautiful stream of color.

The Provo River Half Marathon was last Saturday. We had to meet at the finish line at 5 AM to catch a bus up the canyon to the starting point. Man that was early! The bus drop-off, which was at the top of South Fork, was already crawling with many of the 2,000 race participants by the time we got there.

I saw a couple of unusual things while we were waiting for the race to start. First, a deer that wasn’t afraid of the masses of people at all was wandering around and actually trying to get people to pet it. Never seen that before. I also saw a man turn around in a field that was just off a section of a road where over 1,000 waiting runners were clumped together; he pulled up his shorts on one side and urinated. Sure, I don’t think anyone got a good view of his parts but come on! There were trees everywhere so all he had to do is go a few more feet into the trees and no one would have been able to see him. Seriously dude, no one wants to see you taking a whiz. Have some dignity man!

The race started at 7:00 and the first 10 miles down the canyon were lovely. There was a nice cool breeze and the sun was still hiding behind the mountains so it was very pleasant running weather. The last few miles things got a lot more challenging. At that point the sun started blazing down, the wind stopped, and it became very hot. The increasing temperatures combined with the strenuous ten miles I already had behind me resulted in some serious dehydration that last stretch so when I finished the race I wanted nothing more than a tall glass of water. I have been a runner for many years, certainly long enough to know from experience not to drink a whole bunch of liquid after a tough and dehydrating run like that. Unfortunately, my thirst won over my common sense and I pounded down a bottle of Gatorade a few minutes after I finished the race even though I thought it would probably make my stomach hurt. To my surprise I felt fine after chugging it…until I got home about half an hour later. Then, all of a sudden, my stomach started severely protesting its lot in life. This wasn’t the first time I’ve felt sick after a run though so I thought it would pass. I guess in a way I was right because it did eventually pass but only after I had thrown up almost all of the Gatorade I had stupidly drunk.

Besides the last few miles being a crap fest and my post-run vomiting episode, which was a first for me, the race was an enjoyable experience and I don’t think I would be opposed to doing it again. I was about 10 minutes slower completing it this time than I was the first time I ran it but I was a lot less sore afterward this go around. I may be older and slower now but I guess my muscles are tougher.

All the determined
All the determined people I ran with did excellent! Jason was the fastest. With his long legs he came in at 2 hours and 6 minutes. Everyone else finished within 10 minutes of him, except for me. I completed the race at 2 and a half hours almost exactly.

How did my moody ankle hold up? It handled the race pretty superbly. I had very little issues with it while I was training and during the race itself it didn’t complain at all. After the event it started swelling a bit and it is still a tad more swollen than normal even now, days later. The overexertion also made it achy for a couple days after I put it through that race madness but all in all I’m happy with its performance. This race reminded me just how much my ankle has improved. It is much more resilient and content than it was last summer when I was training for just a 5 mile run. Now, a year later, I’m able to run 13 miles with no pain and just a few days of swelling and tenderness afterward. That may seem like a hollow victory to those of you who have two fully functioning ankles but from where I’m coming from it seems like a pretty sweet success.

So final ankle analysis at the 2 year mark? The doctor told me all the swelling in my ankle should go away after a year or two. Here I am two years out and it is still swollen, though less so than it used to be. My ankle also doesn’t have its full range of motion back yet; it continues to get that rubber band feeling when I stretch it from side to side. But I’m playing soccer again with very little discomfort and running longer than I have been able to in a decade. So, although I wish my repaired ankle performed and felt like my other one, I am so grateful to not have any restrictions on my activities anymore that I don’t mind a little aching or inflammation now and then so much.