SNOW...and canyoneering

Imagine Reese in Sweet Home Alabama... It's SNOW...in August. (It's a baby...in a bar). Anyway, yes - it snowed in the "high country" or is it upcountry? I haven't figured out the location lingo yet but regardless it was in Vail and I saw it when I drove up there (over there?) on Sunday. Ridiculous! And now it's 84 today.

So, went up to Vail Sunday night to stay with Clary and her husband Todd at their condo - which was SICK! Heated hardwood floors. I'd never heard of that before - well, I have, but it's called "socks". I'm definitely not complaining though. So, we hit the road Monday morning at 5:45am to make it to Grand Junction (30 min outside Utah) to partake in our morning of "canyoneering". Which basically means hiking, rock climbing, chimneying, slot rocking, scrambling and rappelling through the desert canyons out there.

The goal of all this to reach the top of the highest, middle rock in this picture and rappell/ hike back down... (keep in mind, I'm not even halfway down when I took this picture).

But, to get to the top, we had to hike up to this place where we had to slot rock (slot? slip? I'm not 100% sure what it is) but basically it's "hiking" up the middle of the canyon in the tiniest space possible - not for clausterphobics...or college football players as Todd found out. Clary has better pictures of it and I will upload those when she gets back home but for now... here is picture of Todd at the widest part of the "slot" rock (this is after we pushed (Clary pushing his ass) and pulled (me pulling as hard as I could on his arm) Todd through an especially narrow part.

More hiking and then rock climbing (Clary has those pictures) and then we had to go through the "lemon squeezer" - which I thought was one of the coolest parts. The Vance's made me go first on everything (the pansies :) so I don't have a picture of me squeezing through but here is Clare-dawg poking her head out. the white thing is her helmet and yes, we both got through that hole... No fat jokes please.

However, Todd was a different story. I'm laughing as I write this because although he gave the ole college try, it was hysterical to listen to him/watch. As Kris, our guide, suggested an alternative route, he saw the space he had to go through and said, "I've got 2 kids"... and that was it - he had to wait down a ways as Clary and I rappelled...

Then, we hiked back down, went through some cool ass canyons and made it back to the car alive with only minor casualities. Good times and I highly recommend to anyone who has the opportunity.

Alright peeps. I'm heading to Estes Park this weekend for a beginner's rockclimbing weekend. Especially after this weekend, I'm totally psyched for it.

As for the blog, Miss Burr requested that I update it even if I have nothing else than one of my random rants... so, point taken Leslie and I'll update it even if I didn't do anything more than work and run out to King Soopers (Kroger) that day... which reminds me... nevermind, I'll save that for later in the week :)