The Time Had Come....
Oct. 5-7

We decided to go back again to St. George to see Dan's family. There was a lot going on, it was his nephew McCoy's baby blessing, his niece and nephews birthday party and it was conference so we figured it would be the perfect weekend to go. On our way we stopped to say hi to my Mom then we also stopped at Jamie's to visit her and to see her new baby girl Eva Jill Ventura, born September 20, 2012 then it was off to St. George, a very familiar drive to us.

To begin this tale we must go back to Fall 2011. Fall 2011 had consisted of many adventures; bear country, reptile gardens, Mt. Rushmore, Devils tower, California, and Zions. After all those adventures the itch for more awesomeness was there. We needed more adventures! So, Dan and I decided we feed the beast and add a little more adventure in our lives, but the question arose, what to do? Should we, sky dive? No, that is for another time. Go diving with sharks? No sharks were available. Do the biggest adventure of all and have a kid? Yeeeeeaaaahhhh NO. We decided to flirt with death and conquer the cliffs of red in St George. We decided to climb a 400 foot cliff in Snow Canyon. So, Dan, Hector (Dan's brother), and I set off on the adventure to climb the mountains of high and attempt the 400 ft. multi-pitch climb known as Leopard Skin. We started the climb, the three of us climbed up the first hundred feet and the problems started. Most multi-pitches are done in pairs of two but with three of us there we went for it. We started the second part and we started having issues, so after a few nerve racking mishaps, I gave up on the climb. When I got to the ground I immediately regretted my decision to quit. I gave myself one year to finish the climb. I have done a little bit of climbing since then but nothing too big. Then I decided enough talking, it was time to do it. My year was almost up and I was feeling ready. We got into St. George around 1:30 a.m. Friday night and got up at 7:00 a.m. Saturday to get there before it got too hot. I was feeling ready. It took us a little bit longer than planned because of the St. George Marathon but we eventually made our way there. It was the perfect day, the weather was beautiful, nobody was around (unlike last year when there were a lot of climbers there puttin on the pressure) I was in my climbing gear as opposed to pajamas (I thought they would be comfy last year ha ha) and the camera was ready to go (or so I thought). I took a moment and sat, taking in the cool morning air, and said to myself, "self, you will not quit." I stood, took a deep breath and it began...

Dan was the lead and helped me through the first pitch which is the trickiest because it overhangs so you feel like you're gonna fall, but when you get over the hang it is a very secure ledge. That's when the go-pro died. We had left our phones and our video camera at the bottom and I lost our regular camera. It was too late to go back and I was seriously so bummed out because I now couldn't record my epic adventure.

Dan climbed to the second pitch which is a little tricky as well because you have to traverse (climb sideways) first then go up, you step off a very secure ledge onto the wall about 100 ft. up, it was about this time that I started to get nervous but Dan is a great sensai and I trust him and his wisdom completely. I stepped out off the ledge and that's when I got the feel of it, I felt like I was actually doing pretty well, not just clinging to the wall in sheer terror. On the other pitches you are anchored into the wall and you belay the person from that anchor, so I'm up a few hundred feet dangling on a wall with Dan's life in my hands....that made me sweat just a little bit but I tried to play it cool. After I really started climbing I wasn't nervous anymore (as long as I didn't get a good look below me). We reached the peak and it's not too big of a ledge so you don't unharness yourself but the view was beautiful and it was so quiet because it was just us two up so high. Then we had to rappel down which was actually a lot of fun, I even rappelled myself on the last one as opposed to Dan lowering me from up top. I felt so revitalized after that. I was outside in nature overcoming a fear. It was a great 3 hours.

The rest of the weekend was also great! We went to Dan's little brother Jethro's football game and to the birthday party, Dan took me shopping and we were able to watch conference and spend time with his family. It has been a while since we have used our drive to talk the whole way, usually I get really tired and sleep while Dan listens to his book on tape but we talked the whole way and 5 really fast hours later we pulled up to our apartment....Logan is freezing compared to St. George and after a hot shower, hot chocolate, sweats and two blankets later (not to mention the fight to who gets to have their feet warmed up by the other) we watched "The Middle" and went to bed, very content from another great weekend.