One of my favorite movies of all time is "Cast Away." I especially like when Tom Hanks' character finally is able to build a fire for himself on the beach of his lonely little island. I love his reaction to his amazing accomplishment when he jumps all around beating his chest and pointing to the fire and saying, "Yaaa, look what I have created! I have made fire. I. Have. Made. Fire!"
Love it.
So....I recently experienced a similar feeling of accomplishment. I, yes ME, Maryanne, went to Zion's National Park and I, yes ME, Maryanne, went rappelling! Down cliffs. Steep gangly cliffs.
It's true. It happened.
So here, look what I have done! I went rappelling.
I. Went. Rappelling!
My practice run. We stopped just outside of Zion's to have our lesson given by my expert-canyoneering-brothers-in-law, Jim and Bryson.
John dangling on his practice run.
The beginning of Keyhole slot canyon where we would spend the next two hours dropping, climbing, sliding, crawling, sloshing.
Our pre-descention salute.
First official rappel into the canyon. I must say that I was NOT prepared for that first step backwards. The human mind was just not meant to be "okay" with stepping backwards off the edge of a cliff!
At the bottom of most of the rappels was a pool of ice-cold water, thus the wet-suit attire. Some are so deep you have to swim through them.
Me and my beau in the narrows.
Looking upward. Ya gotta love the beauty of Zion's, the true definition of awesome.
Hurrah! We made it out! Alive and happy and wet and with my fair share of a few scrapes and bruises (and sore muscles in places I didn't even know I had muscles!).
9 comments:
Wow. That looks awesome!!! Repelling scares me to death, but I always get peer pressured into doing it anyway. Actually, repelling doesn't scare me...just the first initial step off frightens me a bit. Last time I went (like 100 years ago) I was in Zions!! Yay. Way to go. Hopefully your camera made it home in one piece. :-)
I'm totally jelous it's been a while since i was able to go on one of these trips.
Amazing photos! I want to go next time. AND you look fabulous in a wet suit...not everyone can pull that off!
That looks super fun! I can't wait to go next year. I love beauty of Zion National Park!
great fun! You need to come over here, there are some fabulous places to abseil in devon - the cannon was pretty stunning too! Xx
So AWESOME! I dated a few guys in high school that were really into rock climbing and being the "try to impress kinda gal" that I am, I'd go. I remember those shaky legs...but yes, the first step is the worst. Once you've passed that, it's awesome. I'd love to go there sometime. Looks gorgeous!
That looks way fun! I want to try it sometime, too. Cute picture of you and John in the narrows.
Great job, Maryanne! How adventurous and outdoorsy of you! It sounds like you had a wonderful time!
I love the movie, Castaway! "Wilson!!!" Poor guy lost his only friend, the volleyball, or soccer ball, to the sea. What kind of a ball was it?
Anyway, I'm very proud of you and super impressed on your rappelling!
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