October 2023 Utah

I was lucky enough to go to Zion for work in 2023. I had been getting very into climbing outside and always wanted to try multipitch climbing. After my work trip, I found a good Airbnb / climbing campground to stay at. It was connected to 101 Custom Meats, a butcher shop, which was definitely a little strange.

The campground owner's dad drove me into Springdale so I could get some hiking in. I did the Emerald Pools and also tried to look for a few boulders on Mountain Project.

The boulders were a bit too out of the way and there is not a lot of bouldering in Zion. It was getting a bit late, so I took the bus to the end of Springdale. There was a short hike back to the campground, but I was pretty tired. I saw some people that were clearly musicians headed out of town and asked them for a lift. Talking to them, they were from Champaign, IL and were friends with people in the band Hum! The song Stars was stuck in my head the rest of the trip. They generously gave me a ride the few miles back to the campground.

The next morning I got up early and my climbing guide from Rock Odysseys picked me up. His name was Ethan. He was great and showed me a bunch of basics for multipitch climbing. He talked about his experiences, especially how great aid climbing was in Zion. He was super knowledgeable on the geology of the area and how the sand that forms the iconic cliffs of Zion National Park is, in part, a geologic remnant of the ancient Appalachian Mountains. That was super interesting to me because I had been climbing a lot in the southeast recently. We started by doing a few rappels. I had experience rappelling off of Kings Bluff in Nashville, but this was a different scale. We double checked all of our systems and I made sure my third hand was set up correctly. Ethan went first. There was about 400 feet of exposure on the first rappel.

Once at the bottom, we started our way back up with some easy pitches. The views from Lambs Knoll were immaculate.

Climbing in a giant orange lit-up crack was beautiful.

The last pitch was over 100ft and was mostly an overhanging jug haul that felt like a 5.10a / 5.10b. It ended in a chimney where I could push my back against the wall or stem between both faces and walk my way up. The entire experience was unreal and felt like Mars.

Ethan drove me back to the climber compound and I chilled the rest of the day. I managed to get a cab ride back to the airport the next morning, which was terrifying. The cab driver was the worst driver I have ever had and was driving 90mph with her fuzz buster on. Made it to the airport in record time, but it was scarier than Angels Landing.

Photo by Daniel Hernandez

Angels Landing and the Narrows were also amazing.

This trip was unforgettable. Shoutout to everyone at work that made it possible. I can't wait to go on some more adventures with yall.