Greetings earthlings!Hope life is faring as well for you as it is for me. Lots to tell and little time to do it in. So I guess I will start where it always seems to start... the beginning. Shortly after my last blog was written and posted I hit the road. Packed up all my worldly possessions and headed to Zion. Hard to beat a good road trip when adventure's in the sights. I got myself one of them iphone contraptions, so my pictures might be of higher quality than those of the past.
This black and white here is just a photo of some rocks I thought were cool around lake Powell. Never been there before and when I saw a sign for it I couldn't pass up a chance to do a bit o' skinny dippin'.
The drive to Zion took a bit longer than I had expected, so I rolled in after it was already pitch black (probably for the best for other drivers considering how easily distracted I can be driving through a place like Zion).
For those of you not familiar with Zion, there is a pretty famous slot-canyon hike called The Narrows. It is 16 miles from start to finish, but you can also hike up from the bottom and just turn around wherever. The hike is in and out of the Virgin River the entire way. The water is freezing, and the first pool you encounter at the bottom is also the deepest, bringing the water to about stomach level.
The nature of my stay in Zion was to play all day, find a place to poach some free camping when it was pitch black out, and then wake up to a beautiful surprise. You can see my van is packed pretty full. There was a delicate move you had to make to get into bed at night that might impress a yoga instructor. On this particular day though I decided to go for a mountain bike ride. I got up and made some coffee and blueberry pancakes on the stove and went for a sweet 3 hour ride. Two hours of unsure navigation on an old jeep road led me to a sweet hour long downhill single track ride, right along the sheer cliffs of the Virgin River.
It was such an amazing experience and we were lucky enough to have the route entirely to ourselves. People usually line up to do this climb, and on an average day it not uncommon to see three or four groups climbing the route. Bliss. Pure bliss.
After recovering from the climb I said my goodbyes to my friends and headed further east into central Utah. I met up with my aunt Annie Bonami in some middle of nowhere place in Utah. We got to check out some cool national parks and I savored my first shower in a week. I spent the night on a real bed and was on my way again the next morning, Moab bound.
Here is another place I was pleasantly surprised to wake up in one morning. This is near Castle Valley, and the Fisher Towers outside of Moab. That is frost on a fence post with some cool desert cliffs in the background.
I was suppose to be meeting up with Johnny Ray and his niece Athena again but due to some miscommunication I spent most of my time in Moab flying solo. No worries though, I can find a good time on my own. This is my victory smile after solo-aid climbing that tower behind me (dont worry mom, its safe). The tower is not a very popular climb compared to some of the other towers in the area, so I had the whole place to myself. It was great. It was a beautiful day and a very unique climb. All in all it is about 200' tall. The rappel was free hanging the whole way and gave some very cool exposure.
Man... seems like all I do is play. That's not true though. I do work too, but it ends up being more like just getting paid to play.
Lately I have been in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I have been working with a company painting the Brewers stadium. It has also been an awesome time. More often than not I wonder how I am getting paid to do what I do. Here is a picture of me hanging from my toes, painting the underside of a beam. We actually had a few of the local newspapers come out and cover the story. We made the front page of one of the Milwaukee papers. Here is the link if you wanna check it out http://www.jsonline.com/business/thrillseekers-take-on-miller-park-girder-painting-1s33hhs-134161878.html
So anywho... that about catches you up for now. I am currently back in MN for a long thanksgiving break. I will be returning to Milwaukee to finish painting. Then I will go back to Denver where I will spend most of December climbing mountains. Sounds like in January I will be going to Florida for a month to paint a light house, so that is pretty exciting. Its a strange life I live, but I'm in love with it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
The drive to Zion took a bit longer than I had expected, so I rolled in after it was already pitch black (probably for the best for other drivers considering how easily distracted I can be driving through a place like Zion).
For those of you not familiar with Zion, there is a pretty famous slot-canyon hike called The Narrows. It is 16 miles from start to finish, but you can also hike up from the bottom and just turn around wherever. The hike is in and out of the Virgin River the entire way. The water is freezing, and the first pool you encounter at the bottom is also the deepest, bringing the water to about stomach level.
I scoffed at all the "tourons" with their rented dry suits and rented walking sticks, almost too proud to admit that by an hour in my numb feet whispered sentiments of envy between river crossings. I saw a few other people wearing sandals and shorts and was comforted to know that there were other fools out enjoying the day too. If you look close at this photo you can see someone hiking in the water.
The nature of my stay in Zion was to play all day, find a place to poach some free camping when it was pitch black out, and then wake up to a beautiful surprise. You can see my van is packed pretty full. There was a delicate move you had to make to get into bed at night that might impress a yoga instructor. On this particular day though I decided to go for a mountain bike ride. I got up and made some coffee and blueberry pancakes on the stove and went for a sweet 3 hour ride. Two hours of unsure navigation on an old jeep road led me to a sweet hour long downhill single track ride, right along the sheer cliffs of the Virgin River.
I was lucky enough to get to meet up with my old buddy, Johnny Ray. Perhaps the name sounds familiar from very early posts (I was living in his driveway in Vegas for a while). I got to spend a day eating spoonfuls of sand with J-Ray and his niece on some relatively obscure, and clearly not very well traveled climb in the park called Chimney Sweep (very fitting).
I dont need much of an excuse to spend time in Zion, but the real reason I was there is this awesome rock formation. My buddy Colin, from many adventures in AZ, met me out there and we set out to climb this beast called Moonlight Buttress. In the climbing world, this is probably almost as well known as El Capitan in Yosemite. It is definitely one of my most crowning achievements in climbing.
The route is about 1200' tall but it isn't the height that makes it a big climb, it is the technical aspect. Some people (super humans) can climb the very thin cracks that this climb offers, but for most of us normal humans we have to do something called aid climbing. I wont try and explain aid climbing as it would probably just be confusing, but if you are curious there is plenty of information online about aid climbing.
The route is about 1200' tall but it isn't the height that makes it a big climb, it is the technical aspect. Some people (super humans) can climb the very thin cracks that this climb offers, but for most of us normal humans we have to do something called aid climbing. I wont try and explain aid climbing as it would probably just be confusing, but if you are curious there is plenty of information online about aid climbing.
We climbed the first 300' Sunday afternoon and fixed the lines. We rappelled out on these lines and returned to them at the butt crack of dawn the next morning. This allowed us to climb the ropes and make quick progress so that we were already 300' off the ground after only an hour. We still had a lot of work ahead of us though. To get each of us up the roughly 200' sections it took about 2 hours. Needless to say it was an all day endeavour. We ended up finishing the climb right as it got dark enough for headlamps. This awesome picture here is of Colin starting up some of the last pitches, probably about 1000' off the deck.
It was such an amazing experience and we were lucky enough to have the route entirely to ourselves. People usually line up to do this climb, and on an average day it not uncommon to see three or four groups climbing the route. Bliss. Pure bliss.
After recovering from the climb I said my goodbyes to my friends and headed further east into central Utah. I met up with my aunt Annie Bonami in some middle of nowhere place in Utah. We got to check out some cool national parks and I savored my first shower in a week. I spent the night on a real bed and was on my way again the next morning, Moab bound.
Here is another place I was pleasantly surprised to wake up in one morning. This is near Castle Valley, and the Fisher Towers outside of Moab. That is frost on a fence post with some cool desert cliffs in the background.
I was suppose to be meeting up with Johnny Ray and his niece Athena again but due to some miscommunication I spent most of my time in Moab flying solo. No worries though, I can find a good time on my own. This is my victory smile after solo-aid climbing that tower behind me (dont worry mom, its safe). The tower is not a very popular climb compared to some of the other towers in the area, so I had the whole place to myself. It was great. It was a beautiful day and a very unique climb. All in all it is about 200' tall. The rappel was free hanging the whole way and gave some very cool exposure.Man... seems like all I do is play. That's not true though. I do work too, but it ends up being more like just getting paid to play.
Lately I have been in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I have been working with a company painting the Brewers stadium. It has also been an awesome time. More often than not I wonder how I am getting paid to do what I do. Here is a picture of me hanging from my toes, painting the underside of a beam. We actually had a few of the local newspapers come out and cover the story. We made the front page of one of the Milwaukee papers. Here is the link if you wanna check it out http://www.jsonline.com/business/thrillseekers-take-on-miller-park-girder-painting-1s33hhs-134161878.htmlCheck out the photo gallery to see a few more shots of us working.
So anywho... that about catches you up for now. I am currently back in MN for a long thanksgiving break. I will be returning to Milwaukee to finish painting. Then I will go back to Denver where I will spend most of December climbing mountains. Sounds like in January I will be going to Florida for a month to paint a light house, so that is pretty exciting. Its a strange life I live, but I'm in love with it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Bugs and fishes,
Dan
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