Skiing...Without Snow.

If you are ever craving a little downhill skiing and you find yourself saying "I can't wait until winter," then don't wait. Pick up a $5 pair of skis from a thrift store and head to the mountains even if they're bone dry. All you need is a decent incline. Trust me, your skis will go faster than you are comfortable going on grass and rocks and dirt. While you're at the thrift store, pick up a nice sports coat so at least you look classy while making a fool of yourself. If you happen to be in the Provo area, I might suggest the enormous mountain right off the highway going down into Deer Creek Reservoir. If you've driven up Provo Canyon to Deer Creek Reservoir, you've seen it. While you're there, you might enjoy a nice calm float from the dam (turn off after mile marker 17) down to Vivian Park.

 Here's the top 1/4 of the hill. See if you can find Caleb and me in this picture.

Caleb and me looking classy for our river rafting.

Alex and Caleb with our air mattresses.

Video courtesy of Youtube user calebsl1. Subscribe to his Youtube channel to see more.

Wakeboarding, Skiing, Tubing, Four Wheeling in Coalville

After spending a weekend in Coalville, I feel like a local. I know Tommy and Ronny, I know how to get to Dave's if you want to rent a movie, I even know where make out point is. We also got to experience the Coalville night life, going to the trains, the creepiest church in the history of the world in Echo, and Stoners' Tunnel. 

Anyway, here's why we actually went up to Coalville. 

 I didn't land it in case you were wondering.

Dan tearing it up on his first time wakeboarding.

Steph getting some serious air on the skis.

Brittany getting up on the wakeboard on her first try, what a pro.

Just a little extreme tubing. I'll have you know I came out of that barrel roll and kept going. 

My shorts may have almost come off however.

Four Wheeling up at Steph's cabin.

 Yes I was wearing a hard hat. We'd just finished working on the 

railroad, and you can never be too safe. 

Dan enjoying a victory ride on this tire horse swing.

Boating and four wheeling are two very popular activities in Utah. For any out of state college students here in Utah here's a suggestion: make friends with awesome people in the area who will take you out with them. Another key to really enjoying your summer in Utah: keep your Fridays open whenever possible because that's when the craziest stuff goes down.    

Joe's Valley Recreation

Last weekend, a couple roommates and I decided spur of the moment to go down to Joe's Valley to do some bouldering. We'd heard a little about the world class bouldering there and we figured we should go check it out. Our ten minutes of preparation included gathering sleeping gear, food, water, and our climbing gear. We figured out how to get there with our phones on the way down but we didn't actually look up any of the bouldering areas. So it was your typical weekend trip with three college guys. Our good attitude and sense of adventure made it one of the funnest, stress-free weekends of my life despite our lack of preparation. We got there after dark so we just found a place to sleep and went to bed. 

Slacklining with muffin in hand.

After driving around looking for boulders for a while, we ended up hiking to this waterfall. I had to try out the natural tub on the edge of this 150 foot cliff (you can see it better in the video below, and I may or may not have been naked). We finally found some new boulders to climb and got five first ascents. 

Then we hit up this reservoir which was a beautiful turquoise color and was actually pretty warm. There was even a 25 foot cliff we jumped off. Check out the back flip off the cliff in the video below. 

 A sweet cave we found on our hike to the second waterfall.

 The river was breathtaking. Literally. It couldn't have been more than 50 degrees. 

On our way out of the valley, we found all the boulders. We'd driven past them in the dark the night before. No regrets though, it was one of the funnest trips I've been on and now we can still go back and climb some of the developed boulders. 

One of the best parts about Joe's Valley is how close it is to Provo. It took us two hours to drive there, and we spent $30 total on gas. To get there you take Hwy 6 south to Price, then take exit 241 which is Hwy 10 south toward Castle Dale. After 27 miles, take Hwy 29 west toward Orangeville. When you come to a "T" there's a sign that says Joe's Valley to the right. Follow that and you can't miss it...unless it's dark. Right before you enter the deep canyon, there's a turn off to the right which is the north fork of Joe's Valley. If you continue straight through the canyon following the river, this is the west fork. All of the bouldering is before you get to the reservoir, and there is good primitive camping all over. 

Joe's Valley turned out to be one of Utah's best kept secrets in my opinion. It was absolutely beautiful, there is boating, climbing, hiking, four wheeling, and hardly anyone there. If for some reason I settle down in Utah, I will buy a cabin there. 

Utah Spartan Beast 2012

A few months ago my roommate told me about an ad he'd found for a race called the Spartan Beast. After watching the video on their website, I was sold. Twelve miles with thirty obstacles including rope climbs, mud pits, eight foot walls, carrying heavy objects, and running through gladiators who are trying to beat you into the ground had me convinced that it was the craziest race ever and I had to do it. I signed up immediately and started training.

Here's a breakdown of the obstacles on the course. 

1. 100 yard sprint through six inches of mud right off the starting line

2. A series of walls in which you had to jump over one, go under the next one, over, under, etc. 

3. More walls, this time jumping over one, going under the next, and jumping through a small window on a    third wall, repeated twice. 

4. A sandbag carry around a 200 yard loop

5. A steep downhill mudslide into a mud pit with fire hose attack

6. An angled rope net climb up one side and down the other

7. A muddy enclosed trench crawl

8. 20 foot rope climb starting from a mud pit

9. Cement block hoist 30 feet in the air

10. 15 foot vertical rope net climb up one side and down the other

11. Tractor tire flip

12. 50 feet of mud pits

13. Fireman's pull where you pulled a cement block up a hill and around a loop by a metal chain

14. Monkey bars

15. An angled rope net climb onto a bridge

16. Tire pull, pulling a tire up to the level of the bridge with a rope

17. The slippery wall starting in a mud pit, scaling a 12 foot angled wall with a slippery surface using a rope

18. 100 yard uphill barbed wire crawl

19. More mud pits, one of which I just swam across

20. 100 foot tire hop in which your legs were fastened together

21. Walk across a series of wooden cylindrical posts that were in a straight line all at different heights. It's amazing how hard it is to balance when you're that exhausted. 

22. Scaling two sheer eight foot walls

23. The bucket carry. You had to fill a five gallon bucket with small rocks and then carry it up a hill around a 300 yard loop. It was so heavy that I kept losing traction going up the hill and my quads were on fire. 

24. A rifle shoot were you had to hit a target the size of a quarter from 20 yards

25. Spear throw into a bale of hay

26. 30 foot horizontal rock climbing-type traverse

27. Another eight foot wall

28. Barbed wire crawl

29. Two mud pits followed by another short barbed wire crawl

30. The gladiator pit to finish it all off

There was no flat running on the course, you were either going uphill or downhill. None of the uphill portions were terribly steep and they had water stations ever two miles so it wasn't too bad. The obstacles were not evenly spread through the course. They packed a lot of them together down by the spectator area for the spectators' sake. There were eight obstacles in the last quarter mile of the race. 
The mud/water obstacles were the most refreshing as it was 97 degrees outside. My favorite obstacles were the rope nets and the rope climb. I felt like I did the best at the over, under, through walls, the eight foot walls, and the barbed wire crawls. The most difficult for me were the fireman's pull and the bucket carry. What made the fireman's pull so difficult was that the block of cement would get caught on rocks and roots as you were dragging it. I found that holding the chain with both hands at the lower back and leaning as far forward as possible made pulling it uphill much easier.  The uphill barbed wire crawl was the most painful obstacle. The water flowing down washed the mud away so it was basically like crawling on rocks. My knees and elbows got ripped to shreds although I didn't notice until after the race. My under armor shirt also got half a dozen tears in it from the barbed wire and I got a couple good gashes on my back. The fact that I was getting gunned down by a fire hose from the side also made this obstacle especially difficult and painful.This was by far the funnest race I've ever done.

The starting line

Climbing a rope net onto the bridge, then pulling a tire up to the bridge with a rope.

 You had to jump into a mud pit, then climb out over the slippery wall with a rope to help you

Hoisting a block of cement 30 feet in the air using a rope

 20 foot rope climb starting in a mud pit

Carrying 80lbs of rocks in a bucket up a hill and around a 300 yard loop

A 30 foot rock climbing-type traverse across a wall using sections of 2x4 for hand and foot holds. This was especially difficult because of the mud everywhere.  

Army crawling under barbed wire

Going through the gladiator pit right before the finish line

Coming through the finish line

Enjoying a hard earned banana at the finish line

Group showers after the race

This was definitely the most physically challenging thing I've ever done in my life. I finished the race in 2 hours and 10 minutes and was 70th overall out of 2375 people and 11th in my age group. I had a splenectomy three months before the race and had to wait a month after than to start my training. For two months leading up to the race I did interval workouts with weight lifting between intervals every other day, and long distance training with lots of hills on the days in between. I also did pushups, pullups, and burpees during any free time. I felt like none of the obstacles were particularly challenging except for the bucket carry, but the twelve miles were VERY long. I was comfortable running 13 miles in my training, but with all the obstacles I felt like I should have been comfortable running 20. I signed up for next year already and I will be better prepared. 

Check out the video at http://spartanrace.tv/?v=midway

Climbing Rock Canyon

Rock Canyon is an awesome place to go climbing for people of all ability levels. There are routes for the absolute beginner all the way up to 5.13c (borderline professional). It is right above the temple in Provo and there are more than 400 bolted sports routes within a half hour walk from the parking lot, a couple hundred of those being only a 15 minute walk. I just counted recently and I've climbed over 100 routes in the canyon on 25 different walls. 

"Fluffer" 5.11a at The Jobsite

"Dr. Teeth" 5.10a at the Mouth Boulders 

"Radidudical" 5.10c at The Wasp. The Wasp is one of my favorite climbing areas in the lower canyon. It has a quick and easy approach, hosts my favorite 5.11b "Green Hornet," has some great photo opportunities, and I've only seen another group climbing there once.

"Excessive Bail" 5.11a at The Zoo. The Zoo is a really cool area to go climb and hang out.  I've camped up there twice. There is a little flat area for a tent, a great fire ring, an abandoned mine that goes back 40 feet or so, some bouldering, and seven bolted routes from 5.8 to 5.11c.

 "Simple Simon" 5.11b at the Superbowl Wall. This is my second favorite 5.11b in Rock Canyon. It is the most overhanging route at this grade in all of Utah. It also hosts one of the best photo opportunities in the canyon.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures actually climbing it since there were only two of us there. Climbing with two people is faster and more convenient but you don't get any good pictures. 

 "Bosko Loves Barbed Wire" 5.10b at Bug Barn Dance Wall. This is one of the best limestone walls in the canyon.  It hosts twelve very long single pitch routes that have fun roof problems as well as very crimpy sections. The routes are all pretty close in difficulty, from 5.9 to 5.11b. Not a wall for beginners, but a lot of fun for the comfortable 5.11 climber. 

V4 boulder problem at the Heroin Hut

 "Bloody Ruby" 5.11d at Treasure Island. This is the highest quality rated

5.11d in the canyon and is the hardest route I've ever led. 

Clipping off of three fingertips at the crux.

"Pirate Booty" 5.10b at Treasure Island

Despite all the misconceptions people have about the dangers of rock climbing, this is the worst climbing accident I've ever had: a little cut on my knee requiring 11 stitches. Climbing is dangerous when people aren't familiar with the equipment, or other technical aspects of climbing. If you want to get into climbing, start by going with experienced climbers.

If you ever want recommendations on which walls to go to at certain times of the day or year, with certain difficulty grades in mind, or a place where you're not going to run into any other people, or just a cool place to go with a group and hang out, feel free to send me an e-mail with any and all of your questions. I'll probably be adding to this, or creating more posts about the climbing in Rock Canyon as I'm there about three times a week.