A day at Lisa Falls

 My brother Bryce came in town for Labor Day weekend and we were able to spend one day climbing with Mark and Tori at Lisa Falls in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I'd never climbed there before and it was pretty fun. The weather was nice and being next to a little waterfall made it extra nice. Some moderate sport routes that were a lot slabbier than they looked kept us entertained most the day. Then we went around the corner to climb a mixed route that was a lot harder than it looked and even got to top rope a ridiculously hard route up a blocky face. The moves Tori's doing in the last few pictures are way harder than they look.

Leading Steort's Ridge with Andy

I've climbed Steort's Ridge so many times I can't count them all. But I was finally able to go and lead the entire thing. All 3 pitches. That last one had eluded me but I finally did and even ran it out at the top. My brother Andy came with me and made it an interesting day. At least we made it out safe even if we had to leave behind my beloved yellow mastercam I bought just for my Squamish trip last year. The weirdest stuff kept happening. First he dropped the nut tool at the beginning, then the cam got stuck, then he left the whole anchor behind including my ATC so he had to give me a sketchy lowering job so I could try and get the stuff, then the old solo climber came up behind me and gave me some gear of our that the party behind us had. (at first we thought Andy had dropped that too, but it turns out the other people took it out of my pack at the bottom on accident) We never got the cam out, but everything else worked out ok. And I lead it all so I was happy. That's Andy down there working on the stuck cam. I will give him credit for finding and bringing up my headband when it blew off my head. I can't see climbing without one with all my "chicken" hair in my face.

...if I don't invest in a gear sling soon my harness is going to slide right off my hips from all the gear clipped to it. I'm saggin!

My dad turned 70

I kinda felt old when I turned 30. Since I'm the youngest in my family, I always wondered if it made the rest of my family feel old too knowing their baby sister was 30 but who knows. My parents came through town on their way Nauvoo where they'll be on a temple mission for awhile and my dad was at my house to celebrate his 70th birthday. It didn't seem like it affected him too much, but I think it sure made all us kids feel older. We had two of my brothers over and I baked him some of his favorite desserts. He always loves my marshmallow surprise cookies so I made a batch of those. They brought me some of our beloved tangelos from the tree in the backyard so I made him some mini tangelo bundt cakes which are just incredibly good. And of course no table of dad's favorites would be complete without a lemon meringue pie. It was my first try at one and I have to say it was fantastic. I think it was the home grown lemons from their yard at home that gave me the beginners luck.

I think he liked the hugs and kisses from the grandkids the most though...

Deep Snow at the Cabin

My sister's family was in Utah for a visit and I took them up to the cabin to play around for the day in the deep snow. It was just the girls and Josh but we had a ton of fun. Somehow we managed to get everyone outfitted for the snow. I packed up two backpacks (mine with important supplies and Kjirsten's with cheese and crackers...actually that makes hers the more important backback) Josh got to ride in the sled and laughed the whole time and cross country skiiers we passed on the way would be laughing too by the time they reached the source of our sounds. It's always odd going to the cabin in the winter since everything that used to be so familiar suddenly gets skewed when you realize you're not following the trail you do in the summer...or are you? You're 6 feet off the ground and it's surprising how different things can look from a little change like that.

We made it! The cabin is always such a nice friendly welcoming sight no matter the season.

First Things First....Dig out the door at the top of the stairs (I've never had to dig out this door before, that's over a one story of snow)

Next...dig out the electrical box so we can have some light

Next...melt some snow for hot chocolate (also pop some popcorn and eat the fancy cheese and crackers from Kjirsten's backpack)

Then finally it's time for some fun!

I made the first ascent to the top of the roof using the avalanche shovel as an ice pick and to cut steps behind me. Thankfully it got easier every time we went up because it wasn't easy the first time.

Kjirsten following me. Being the second person through fresh snow is almost as hard as the first.

Me and Kjirsten on the top of the roof. I like this picture and the picture my sister took at the same time from the bottom.

Katrina inched her way up and we made our way to the porch roof...

The jump down to the porch roof is scary. It's a lot shorter than the final jump off but since it's the first thing you do you're not quite sure what to expect.

The first jump! I was so proud of my nieces, they agreed to jump all three of us at the same time. I thought for sure they'd make me go first or after I got to the bottom I'd look up to see at least one of them still at the top chickened out, but they did it!

I never managed to talk any one else into doing a flip though. It'd been a couple years since I'd flipped off anything so I was a little nervous and kept saying "You've done this a dozen times" out loud before I could go. The last time I did a flip was this time. And surprisingly it doesn't appear that my good form has suffered from the break in time....or my outfit or hairstyle either....

After the girls and I had a few more turns (more for the girls than me) we got Jailynn to make a jump. Unfortunately we'd packed down the snow quite a bit by then and I think she got whiplash.

We played around some more behind the cabin rolling down the hills....

...burrying eachother and making half snowman bodies...

...we even did a little backcountry sledding down the snowshoe trails in the trees which was pretty fun.

Then it was time to lock the place back up. Easier said than done since once you open a door all that snow puts a bit of warping pressure on the door frames.

(This is the mighty expedition picture) Josh was happy to get back in the sled for the ride back.

almost there...

...I don't recall there being an exciting follow-up to this picture but it sure looks like there should be.

The End