On Our Way Home, Via Zion National Park, The Rock Climbers :: Winter Sojourn 2014/15

Copyright 2015, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

THIS POST IS GRAPHICS HEAVY.

Today, Man and I took a little country drive, 250 miles of mountainous roads from Leeds, Utah to Cedar City, over 14, to Utah 89, a little detour to Bryce Canyon National Park, back out to 89, where we headed south, and came home via Zion National Park.

After we paid our fees, we drove through the tunnels, heading west on Utah 9.  We stopped at a pull off after the tunnels.  Everyone was looking back at the tunnel area, of course, but, they seemed to be intently looking at one particular area.

Out came our binoculars and Sony Too.  With a LOT of zoom, the assistance of the steadiness of the back of Jolly and holding my breath, I bring you - - the rock climbers.  Not all photos are in focus, a few mis-fires, but, I am giving you every last photo I took, all 22 of em!  LOL

Man looking for the climbers,  hint, they are about in the middle of the photo from left to right.  Man tells me he thinks they were about 1/3rd of the way up.  

Zoom:

Zoom more:

Zoom more:

Backing off the zoom once again:

And, again, ZOOM:

Back off the zoom once more:

Let's watch the guy in the green t-shirt:

Back to the person in the red, I think it was a guy??

The guy in the green, check out the gear tied to his belt:

Person in the red does not have all those hooks and things:

Dude in the green, starting to move:

Almost looks easy with this much zoom, eh?

Stretching:

This one is a bit out of focus, truth, it was a fat finger, shutter went off a bit unplanned.  Excitement driven.

More stretch:

And, now, we cross the chasm.

More stretching, reaching for that "crack" on the left:

ALMOSTTTTTTTTTTT - - - - - 

Just about:

OK, Carol and Sony Too almost did not get the climber in this shot, sorry:

AND, we made it, err, he made it.

And, Man and I left, we were exhausted and could not wait around to see what these two did next.

Whew, wiping our brows!

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THE Trip, Rock Climbin' in Moab Utah

CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Moab is full of rocks, and therefore, it is full of rocking climbing enthusiasts. Some prefer the 4-wheeling experience, but others like, mmm, the hands on experience.  I shared our first encounter with hands on rock climbers is here.

On another spectacular weather day in early May 2011 Man and I decided to drive 279, as it came highly recommended by MOC friends, Steve and Vicki, and we were told that there were LOTS of rock climbers out there.  And, there were!  The hands on type of rock climbers.

Below:  the rocks, or formations, or walls, whatever you want to call them, tall, and taller, steep and steeper, hard, and mmm, unforgivably hard, eh??  See the cars??  Ya, they look like little matchbook cars don't they? Shows you how large these rocks are.  Could not even get all the formations in the photo, that is how tall they are.

Another view, could not get all the rocks in this photo either.

And, here are some of the "tools of the trade", zoomed in with the Sony, climbers use these chains and hooks and hardware.   From the ground, from the perspective of a "non-climber", aka, ole lady who would NEVER attempt this, these tools look mighty SMALL!

Something of interest to note, several of these groups of climbers were visitors from Europe, it was not American English they were using to communicate with each other.  They were very enthusiastic about their visits here, Man asked.  They really liked rock climbing Moab style!  We enjoyed watching them and appreciated their skills, and no, I am not gonna try this, ever!  I don't do climbing well, even ladders, can't get past step 3 or 4, cause my feet and legs freeze!  LOL

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