Ice Climbing-Maple Canyon

On Saturday I went with the club to Maple Canyon (about an hour south of Provo) to go ice climbing. It was a blast. Honestly, I was surprised by how difficult it was. You would think that with sharp ice picks and crampons that it would not be too hard, but it sure was. I ended up climbing seven different routes. I sure hope I get to go again soon!

Maple Canyon is absolutely beautiful. In the spring I will for sure be coming here to climb!

The most accomplished feeling of the day was doing "Get Whacked." It was 140 feet of steep ice. It was by far my most favorite route! Below are some pictures of me climbing.

Its kind of hard to tell in this picture, but I am already about 60 feet off the ground.

Almost there!

Economic Equality

I am taking a sociology class this semester about multi-cultural america and throughout the class I have become more aware of economic issues that likely drive much of the social inequality that we see. Here is the article.

Value of Education

An interesting piece by the New York Times on the value of higher education.

Here

Spanish Fork Peak

I decided to take advantage of an opportunity that came up and joined the Utah Climbing Club. We will be doing a lot of very exciting trips this year and I hope to learn a lot. The first trip of the year was a hike that is one of the conditioning trips for the culminating mountaineering trip (Mt. Rainier) later in the year. Yesterday we climbed Spanish Fork Peak (10,192 ft.). We started at 6:00 a.m. and I finished around 4:00 p.m. The 11 mile round trip hike definitely showed me that I am out of shape. About two-thirds of the trip was done in snow shoes. It was a long, hard day but I am glad that I did it.

The weather got a little nasty but thanks to the guys at MountainWorks I had the right gear and was plenty warm. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Picture of Utah Lake just after sunrise.

One of the many (around 7) false summits.

View of the south side of "Y" Mountain.

Looking down on Utah Valley.

Staying warm and enjoying the trip.

Other members of the club who are clearly in better shape than I am.

At least there were some people behind me though...

A husband and wife team--Dave and Katie-- that we spent most of the day hiking with. Okay okay, I spent most of the day following them.

Alex and I just after we put our hard shells on as we saw the storm clouds getting closer.

Willis (owner of the Quarry where I do a lot of climbing these days)

I really loved how with the right gear I was able to really enjoy the trip despite the weather. Acknowledging my lack of experience, I estimate that at times the wind was around 20-30 mph with temperature around 0 degrees (maybe lower?).

When I got home and was relaxing my sore muscles in the hot-tub I could not help thinking about how I could view this experience symbolically. At times we are really afraid of the world around us. Parents fear for their children, and youth question with trepidation what their future will hold. What struck me is that Heavenly Father intimately knows the conditions of the world and the desires of our hearts. He has provided us with everything that we need to be protected and still enjoy the world around us--even when the wind is blowing and the clouds have moved in!

On this trip I had many different layers of clothing so that as temperature and conditions changed I would be able to regulate my body temperature accordingly. I would like to think that life is very much the same. At times we need to hunker down and put on our element proof jacket. After the wind and snow leave we can take the jacket off and enjoy the beautiful scenery in clothing that is lighter weight. How unfortunate it is, in my opinion, if we walk around in beautiful sunny weather without any clouds in sight with all of our protective gear on! This trip has helped me realize and affirm that we do not need to be fearful. If we seek the Spirit we will have the proper protective equipment and the knowledge of when we need to use it.