Utah Trip, September 2011

Page 3  (click here to go to page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6)

 

Angels Landing Hike (WTF OMG!)

We were apparently done with thunderstorms (or were we?), so on this Friday morning we set off to hike to Angels Landing.  Here's the description from the National Park Service:

The route to Angels Landing involves travel along a steep, narrow ridge with support chains anchored intermittently along the route. Footing can be slippery even when the rock is dry. Unevenly surfaced steps are cut into the rock with major cliff dropoffs adjacent.

A few people tend to die on this trail every year, like this woman in 2009:

A California woman died in a fall Sunday from the popular site in Zion National Park known as Angels Landing.

The victim, 55-year-old Nancy Maltez of Glendora, California, was reported to be hiking with family members early Sunday when she fell at about 8:30 a.m. The accident was reported by another hiker by cell phone.

She was believed to have stumbled and fallen from the north side of Angels Landing. Media reports indicate she fell a distance of about 1,000 feet, and search-and-rescue crews reached her body before noon.

And check out the very interesting comments that follow this story (here) like this one:

This woman was my sister. She was an experienced hiker and she and her family had hiked this trail numerous times in the past. I am told it was one of their favorites. By all accounts she simply stumbled and fell. She was a very grounded person so I am sure there would have been no horseplay up there. I also believe that she would not want this place closed because of this.

And this one:

The chain was to my back against a wall. Your feet are barely inches from the sheer cliff taller than the Empire State Building. When people coming from the opposite direction needed to pass by, I held the chain with one hand, and grabbed a rock hold on the wall with the other. As I was holding on, allowing people to pass by, the fragile sandstone rock in my right hand actually broke off of the cliff and fell down the side. It was here that I had my first and only panic attack in my entire life.

But the odds of one of us dying were only about 3 out of 79,000, so off we went.  First, we had to ride to the start of the trail.

That picture is fun, because I took one in the same location two years ago, when I rode here with Lena:

When we got to the trail's starting point, we changed from biking shoes to hiking shoes (OK, OK, running shoes).

At the base of the trail, we were greeted with our final warning.

The hike starts at the bottom of the canyon.

 Switchbacks start the climb up the sides of the canyon.  Here they are from below,

and above.

A few miles of gradual climbs come next.

Finally, you get to the starting point of the gnarly part of the climb.  You can see how high we are at this point.

Here's the route we followed:

I had my bike GPS with me, so you can also see this route from above.  Note that the GPS unit lost contact with the satellites when in canyons, hence the long straight lines.

What the pictures don't show is that there is sand on the rocks, which makes it slippery.  Fortunately, as long as you have a death grip on the chains provided, you are OK.  This picture is the best one for showing how one stumble or slip could be the end.

But we made it to the top,

and saw the great view.

I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but I was very glad when we finished the scary part.  On our way down, we noticed big thunderheads rolling in, and we rode our bikes back to the campsite in a total downpour.  A nice ride, actually.

The shower was relatively brief, and the day ended with some hamburgers and caramelized onions.

Lena and I woke up early the next morning.

Jenny, however, is much better at sleeping "late."

We used the combination breakfast cooker and shoe dryer to heat up some bacon and eggs.

Our shoes were totally soaked from the ride in the rain.  But in this area of the country they have this thing called (Dr. Evil quotes) "evaporation." 

"Evaporation" is something we don't experience at our high-humidity home: In Zion, something wet becomes magically dry (William Shatner emphasis) just by sitting around!  Amazing.

Meanwhile:

A note on our aging tent.  One of the zippers occasionally fails, so to keep the rain out we need some high-tech accessories:

Here's an overall view of our campsite.  The trees holding the hammock were covered with ants, but I put a little bug spray on the ropes, and they didn't bother Jenny.

The car organization tends to get a little desultory after a while,

so we periodically had  to reorganize.  Note that for extra space, I removed the rear seat.  Whoever was in the back would sit on a number of pillows.  This actually worked well.  For me, with my longer torso, it meant more headroom.

Then Jenny woke up, had tea, and we packed up and headed for Bryce Canyon.

Click here to go to page 4, and see Al get slapped around by a waitress!