The Speedy Ice Effect: Rockin out in Moab

I went rock climbing this past weekend as part of a rock class I took through the U. It was soooo much fun! Never climbed anything like it in my life. They said climbing on sandstone would be different than the granite here in slc and now I believe them, lol. Its weird when you put all your weight on what you think is a good hold then it turns to sand right under your fingertips!

The first day we all got stuck in a traffic jam on the road to Moab because some guy going to the Jeep Safari also in Moab that weekend totaled his Jeep in the middle of the road somehow. We all got there late but that night we just went over basic skills so as not to kill each other the next day. Then we set up our tents in what looked like a beautiful weather. Clear skies, stars were out in force. We made a campfire and smores and a couple people brought guitars so we got some live music, it was fun. Then as soon as we went to bed the wind came in. It came in bursts and made it sound like the tent was gonna blow over. Super noisy that night so no one got any sleep.

Day 2 we climbed an area called Wall Street. It was SUPER fun. Got there early and climbed till about 3. I climbed the hardest route of my life there! Its the one in the picture with the overhang. As we all know, speedskaters do NOT have arm muscles. Also as we may all know, my arm muscles are worse than any speedskaters, therefore giving me negative arm muscles. Climbing an overhang requires arm muscles. Me+overhang= epic fail. LOL. Got some cool pictures trying to climb it though! One of my instructors totally killed it, he was doing splits and other crazy maneuvers and holding on in places where there was nothing to hold on to! Looked like he was hanging on by his fingernails at some points. Got back to camp, ate smores, went to bed early because it started raining on us (in the desert? what??!). We still got to listen to music though since the guys who brought their guitars were playing in their tents, haha. That night the wind was SUPER strong. even though we had our tents zipped and our rain flys up the wind would blow dirt through the tent onto us. I woke up at one point with my face completely covered in dirt and sand, it was all in my mouth and caked in my hair and in my sleeping bag! Every time a burst of wind would come through, we would have to hide our faces in the sleeping bags to keep from getting a face full. Dont think anyone got sleep that night, haha.

The last day we went and repelled Corona Arch, which is probably the most badass thing ive ever done in my life. Its about 140 feet tall. The craziest part about it was when you started at the top you would repel like on a normal rock wall, then suddenly the wall is gone and your out in the open with that view!! You could repel as fast or slow as you wanted, and what some of us thought was fun was to go super fast then completely stop right in the middle of the arch! It was like flying. What a rush!! I could do it all day! It was fun watching people repel from a bit of a distance because it looked like a spider coming down on a string.

This is ME REPELLING CORONA ARCH!!!!! so cool!

So that was my adventure. Got some souvenir sunburn to remember it by.

Wall Street.

This was taken at a weird angle, but you can see it better in the next pics, this wall is completely vertical!!
Also in this pic, my humungous skater butt hanging out the harness. Obviously spandex was not the right choice for this sport. The guys below me disagreed.