Bouncing Marty

Matt Elley and I have had a long standing plan to climb a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountains this summer. As usual, getting both of our busy schedules to correspond has been a challenge, so here we are at the end of September, and no mountain has been climbed. The rock of choice is Mount Russel, a 14,086ft peak, that has no moderate route up it, but several classic lines that look very appealing. We are planned to head up the classic Fishook Arete, 5.9, on the weekend of October 14th.

So Matt calls me last night, leaves a message something like this:

“Hey man what’s up, good trip this weekend…(bla bla). So, hey, I just got done going for a good run, you know, training up for our big climb in two weeks. Just wanted to see if I could…uh…motivate you to get out and do a little running too, you know, counting on you and all. Big mountain you know, two days over 13,000ft and all….”

TRANSLATION:

“YO FATTY! I SAW THAT GUT THIS WEEKEND! YOU BETTER GET RUNNING SO I DON’T HAVE TO DRAG YOUR BUTT UP THAT STINKIN’ MOUNTAIN IN TWO WEEKS.”

Heh. Well, that’s how I took it at least. I must admit that I have been enjoying the ‘finer’ things in life possibly more than I should. Those being doughnuts, coke, and all things sugary delicious. That in combination with extreme laziness and lack of motivation to get out in the Vegas heat has lead to some ‘inflation’ of my pristine physique.

So, I spent 40 minutes running, sprinting, and giving Mollie enduro piggyback rides until I ran out of steam last night. I’m inspired (guilted) into give up soda, and to eating correctly at least for the two weeks prior to our climb. You think that I would have gotten the message earlier from several of my friends simply referring to me as ‘Marshmallow’, and my Mollie’s tendacy to call my fatness ‘cute’. Looks like the only thing that really motivates me to get into shape is the thought of dying of exhaustion on one of California’s 14′ers.

Oh well. I have two weeks of brutal training to get where I need to be. Let the games begin!

Every year Matt and Sally put on a National Parks weekend, where they haul out some friends for a weekend of fun and adventure. This is the third annual year, and I had the pleasure of it being at my local Park, Zion. Slot canyons were the flavor of the adventure this year, and we chose a long, spectacular, and moderate canyon called Orderville. The highlight of the trip for me was the always generous, fun, and adventurous crew of Matt and Sally, Skeet and Sara, Sally’s friend Emily and her boyfriend Joe, and wrapping it up with Mollie and yours truly.

The San Diego crew arrived in Vegas at 10:45pm on Friday night, still 2.5 hours away from Zion proper, so we decided to crash on my floor, and depart early. As scheduled, we drug ourselves out, and were driving by 5am to make it to the ranger station, collect our permits, and shuttle cars to the trailhead.

Orderville Canyon starts wide and flat with a 2 mile treck down a dirt road, eventually dropping into a small wash. Travel along the wash is pleasant, with sparce narrows for an hour or so, increasing in frequency until the narrow sections dominate. Beautiful sculpted sandstone walls, awesome lighting, and fun times. The canyon remained dry for the first half of our day.

Eventually, the canyon became wet, and cold, and took on a new personality. A trickle of a stream turned into puddles to jump over, and then pools to wade through, eventually becoming a natural water park of fun-ness. Except for the fact that the water was sub 50 degrees. Painfully fridgid, the water surely added to the ‘gnar’ factor of the whole experience. Here’s Matt, fighting his way into the first of our deep pools.

We froze and shook our way out of the final stretches, which dumps into the Zion Narrows itself. Another hour of pristine river travel brought us to the Temple of Sinawava, and the trail to the shuttle, bringing us back to our cars. Matt and I took off in his Rolleroo Corolla to get my Land Cruiser from the trailhead, returning to find a bountyful feast before us.

Chicken, vegetables, cous cous, salad, and brownies!? of all things completed the wonderful day. We drove to the Northern end of the park to find our campsite at the Kolob Resevior, which turned out to be less hospitable then I remembered. Years ago Keith and I stumbled upon a sweet sandy beached lake that had camping, benches, etc…and I thought Kolob was it. Well, Kolob turned out to be 40 minutes further up the road, and far less accomodating than the resevior I had remembered. Still, we made the best of it, and slept the best we could for 30 degrees and 8100ft of elevation.

In the morning, we headed for a day hike to stretch our legs, and view the North West rim of Zion, a view I had never seen. Gave me the chance to scout out the approach to The Subway, another semi-famous Zion slot canyon. Awesome views of the sandstone valley!

We loaded up and headed down the long road home.

Great trip, thanks for everything you guys!

Yeah, that’s it.