I still can't believe that he went over the edge...

My friend Brian and I have been on many adventures together. We have hike in just about every part of the mountains surrounding Orem and Provo. When it is just me and him we often go on adventures that others wouldn't want to come on. For example when we went camping up on the base of Timp in early Spring. His sister said we were crazy and that it was too cold. We just looked at each other and smiled and commented how it wasn't going to be nearly as bad as the time before. Oct of 07 we backpacked up Slide Canyon and we almost died. It rained and rained until we got high enough and then it snowed and snowed. I have never been so close to hypothermia in my life. Needless to say, we push our limits when we are together.

Yesterday I went on a repelling trip with Brian and a couple other friends. Brian is getting married soon and so it is important for us to have a few last adventures before he leaves the world of singlehood. There is a cliff up Dry Canyon that has been my favorite cliff for a long time. I have wanted to repel off of it as long as I can remember. I decided that this is where we needed to go. I asked Brian what equipment he had and he told me that he had a 60 meter rope and a harness. So I told him I would borrow all the other equipment that we needed.

As we met in the parking lot and started the hike up I noticed that his backpack wasn't as big as I thought it would need to be to hold a sixty meter rope, but seeing as this man was the best outdoors man I knew, I didn't worry. We hiked to the top of the 150 foot cliff. And Brian started setting up. When he finally got his rope out I told him that I didn't think it was long enough. He hooked it on anyway and threw it over the side. It was hard to tell from leaning over the edge how far the rope went down, but I knew it didn't go to the bottom. We decide the rope was probably a 30 meter rope rather than a 60 meter rope. We pulled the rope back up and tied a smaller rope on the end to see if that would make it long enough. After throwing both ropes tied together over the edge it was still hard to tell if it made it to the bottom, but we didn't think that it did.

This is the Cliff that Brian went down

Question: What would you do in this situation? Would you unhook the ropes and find a smaller cliff to repel? That was my thought (which is what the rest of us ended up doing later). There were plenty of cliffs close by. All of us who aren't Brian might choose that option. Brian, he took the path less traveled, and it made all the difference.

This is the cliff the rest of us went over. It was much smaller.

Brian decided he was going anyway, and I wasn't about to stop him. He was shaking a little as he backed over the edge of an 150 foot cliff with ropes that were probably about 125 feet combined. After he was half way down and decided he wasn't going to make it with the rope where it was. So he anchored himself to a bolt on the cliff and had us unhook the rope and drop it too him. He then anchored the rope from there, but he had to double the rope up so that he could retrieve the rope after he was down. This made so he had to anchor himself in one more time and repeat the process before he made it to the bottom.

First let me say that I was blown away by the extent of Brian's skill in getting himself down safely and retrieving his equipment. But the thing that impressed me the most was Brian's audacity to go over the edge. Brian was so confident that he knew that whatever happened after he went over the edge he could deal with it. He did have quite a bit of equipment strapped to him - he wanted to be prepared. Still, he went over the edge!

I think if I had more of Brian's confidence and attitude in my life then I could do so much more with my life. I think most of us are so afraid to go over the edge. We are so afraid to take chances that we don't know how they will end. Brian probably wasn't sure how he was going to get to the bottom when he backed over the edge, but he knew whatever happened he would deal with it and succeed. I hope that someday I can be as amazing as Brian. I hope that someday I can have the guts to take risks that are worth taking. I hope that I can get better at taking a step or two into the darkness only to find that the way is lighted for a step or two. Until then I am glad I have friends like Brian who show me that it can be done and it is worth doing.

sorry

I know I just posted something. I decided it was too personal and needed to be deleted. Too bad, I think it was one of the best things that I have ever written. Life is like that I guess. If any of my good friends would like to read it they can email me a request and I will send it too them. Of course my good friends already know what it is about if it is personal.

I just love a good adventure

Last week I had some good adventures that need to be mentioned. I went elk hunting with Zack. It was the muzzle-loader hunt and we were trying to shoot a male elk without more than one point on its rack. Well we rode the horses all over the face of Timp and I don't think that we even saw any male elk at all. We sure found the herd and chased them all over the mountain. It was some pretty intense riding. And, for that matter, it was pretty intense pulling the horses down steep slopes that they really didn't want to go down. I was a great adventure. I can breathe up in the mountains. I sure love spending time away from it all. We may not have even fired a shot, but it was a day well worthwhile. I sure appreciate my friend Zack and his adventures.

I also had a couple of quality dance parties. We just played some music and danced our hearts out. I realized that you can become very good friends with people when you dance like crazy together. I feel much closer to all of my friends from the dance parties we had. Thanks for a great time.

Hot-tubs are one of my favorite parts of winter. I love being in a hot hot hot-tub when it is cold outside, especially if it is raining or snowing. One night two friends and I stayed in a hot tub for a couple of hours (despite the warnings to only stay for twenty minutes). We talked and let out everything that was inside of us. It was very therapeutic for the whole team. I foresee a winter filled with hot-tub adventures. Let me know if you want to join in.

I think my best adventure from last week was my Nauvoo Reunion with all my old friends from Nauvoo. I was surprised at how many people came. I think the farther we all get from that experience the greater that we realize it was. We sure had a great time and gained life-long friends. It was fun to look around the room and see that some people hadn't changed much, some had progressed and a little and some had progressed an enormous amount. I sure like seeing the progression in my friends. I was very impressed with a couple of people who had become so great in the last three years.

The Nauvoo party was also great to get in touch with old friends. I am glad that I got some phone numbers of some of my long lost friends and I have already started talking with them more often. I sure like old friends who are still your friends regardless of how much time has passed. I think things are looking up for me in my life if for no other reason than the fact that I have great friends who are there for me in my time of need. I am sure glad that even though life gets hard sometimes I am never all alone, all alone in my time of need.

Halloween, caving, and roommate adventures

I have had many great adventures recently. Since it was the week of Halloween I took the opportunity to wear a cape almost daily. Since I was dressed as Neck-Brace Boy (a lesser known super hero) I got a chance to give him some publicity. I enjoy representing a great hero that defends our quality health care. We need more heroes like him. I guess I wear capes all through the year, but I have worn a cape in public recently. Since Halloween I have enjoyed my first serious spelunking adventure. We repelled down into a cave in Rock Canyon. We then explored the whole of the cave. Then we ascended out of the cave using devices called (appropriately) ascenders. That was a sweet adventure, even if it was a little claustrophobic at times.







I think my favorite event of the week was my Saturday night activity. I had a little reunion with two of my favorite roommates of all time. My roommates from my second year at Snow College: Albert and Darrell. They brought their wives, they told me I could bring a date, but I opted out. That would be a really great first date if I brought a girl to hang out with my old roomies and their wives.

I had a great time just chillin' with some of my best friends of all time that I haven't talked to in over a year. It was enjoyable getting to know their wives too. I had gotten to know Janell a little bit a year ago. However, Albert's wife Jenny I had only talked to a couple of times previous. She was mostly quite so I didn't get to know her really well, but she is high quality for sure. I am sure glad that Albert married an awesome girl, because Albert is freakin' awesome.

I am not sure what my favorite part was. I loved hearing about their lives. I loved telling some good stories from mine. Perhaps the best part was retelling good stories from long ago that affected our lives so much then, but now we are able to laugh at them. Albert and Darrell were great roommates back in the day, and they are now great husbands to their wives, great employees at their jobs and great friends to everyone else. I appreciate them a lot and I think they are continuing on the tradition of being great. I sure am a huge fan of Albert and Darrell. I hope they continue to dominate life.