Trips: Zion National Park II (Angels Landing)

May 5, 2011

Two words: Angels Landing.

What is Angels Landing?  It is the hike at Zion.  It is a 4-hour and over 5-mile round-trip hike with a near 2000-foot change in altitude, with final altitude just shy of 6,000 feet.  We read about Angels Landing in the pamphlet provided at the entrance.  I read about it in the hiking book I bought from the gift shop.  Each time we read the descriptions, we shuddered.  Then keep in mind my brother Jay had completed his first hike when we first arrived at Zion only twelve hours prior.  That might be a bit much for him, I thought.  That might be a bit much for me, I thought.  Then I looked up Angels Landing on Wikipedia.  Sure, the picture was inspiring/terrifying.  Again, repeated phrases such as "fear of heights" and "any reservations" suggested not doing the hike.  But here was what really got me.  The first section in that Wikipedia page was Fatalities!  SERIOUSLY??  Fatalities was the first section??!!

We hiked to Angels Landing.

The day before we hiked we saw the shirts in the gift shop.  Different ones for those who attempted (failed) and for those who succeeded (triumphed).  I initially thought we weren't going to do the trail, for all those aforementioned reasons.  I had gone to bed thinking, One day I'll make it ... but not tomorrow.  Before I knew it we were attempting the trail.  

It was tremendously cold.  After the first half hour, we found ourselves at slowly increasing slopes and grades.  I was dressed in a winter hat, t-shirt with a black sweatshirt, shorts, and boots.  I had four bottles of water on me.  The hat come off.  The first bottle of water was finished.  Then we ran into a couple making their way down.  They insisted we make it to Angels Landing.  It started as "We'll see what happens."  It increasingly turned into "Why the hell not?!"

The heart was pumping.  All muscles were working.  Forty-five minute mark: we hit Walter's Wiggles, a series of 21-switchbacks leading up to Scout's Lookout.  We managed to slowly but surely negotiate Walter's Wiggles.  (I remember our way down, passing people making their way up.  The magical catch phrase was "Holy crap!")  We arrived at Scout's Lookout.  I was hunched over and pursed-lip breathing.  We took a break. 

Decision time.  Despite numerous signs, again reminders with warnings against those with children or fear of heights, I felt we had gone too far to turn back.  Since we're already here ... As is always the case, the adrenaline rush was there.  Jay was agreeable.  We took pictures of the warning signs.  Not sure why.  Perhaps a reminder of our stupidity if we survived.

The spine leading towards Angels Landing was steep and narrow.  There were a series of chains to support your way up.  I didn't even want to think of the prospect of coming back down, which was always much harder.  Psychologically, at least.  The first mind-fuck (Angels Landing Mind Fuck #1): The chains aren't continuous!  There were spots where you are only on a few feet of ledge with nothing but thousand-foot drop-offs on either side.  Which leads to the second mind-fuck (ALMF #2): THERE ARE THOUSAND-FOOT DROP-OFFS ON EITHER SIDE!!!  That's right!  You look to your left and see you the pencil thin road below.  (For a moment, you remember how safe you felt on that road thousands of feet below.)  You look to your right and you see the pencil thin river, which up close is not so pencil thin.  You look ahead and the trail seems equally pencil thin.  A woman was behind me and she reminded herself that she was afraid of heights.  Which then reminded me of my fear of heights.  I tried to put it past me ... until we ran into a twenty-something year old girl who was shivering.  She said she was petrified and couldn't go forward.  Fantastic!  And then I realized the next mind fuck (ALMF #3): Not only do you have to negotiate narrow space, but you have to negotiate with people going up, going down, or stopped in their tracks!  Twister, if you will, to the extreme!  Despite all of these factors, the adrenaline rush still trumped all the reservations and fears, and we pushed forward.  Jay had the adrenaline rush.  He went from hesitant to start, to leading our charge.  The trail seemed to get steeper and steeper, requiring increasing upper body strength to reach this mysterious place called Angels Landing.  We took frequent stops.  The views got better with altitude.  So did the hike.  Which made taking pictures or videos that much trickier.  It's hard to rock climb and pull yourself on chains when you have a camera in one hand.  The ALMFs, all of them, kept repeating and reminding us of their presence: you'd see a drop-off only to realize you had to tango with people coming down.  Then with increasing altitude came ALMF #4: BLOWING WINDS!  We'd keep climbing and climbing and just when we thought we were making our "final push" a rock cliff had been hiding another several hundred feet of mountainous spine to climb (ALMF #5).  We made several final pushes.  Until we finally made it to Angels Landing!  We celebrated!  We took photos.  We took video.  And then Jay said, "What's over there?"  Premature celebration.  We hiked the final five minutes.  At exactly the two-hour mark we made it to Angels Landing.  

Angels Landing is an amazing hike.   

I always love the camaraderie with hikes like these.  Angels Landing was no exception. 

Jay edited a video; he took footage with his handheld camera.  I received the video in the mail a few days ago.  I watched it.  What were we thinking??!! I thought.  The shakiness of the video (through no fault of my brother; consider hiking and taking video with this dramatic change in altitude) added to the tension of the hike.  In fact, I was more stressed by the video than the actual hike itself.  And I knew the outcome!  

I had been searching the web for other people's pictures.  Then I found a picture off of the web site Joe's Guide to Zion National Park.  This picture is the precise moment of where my fear had peaked; one of the most narrow points during the hike coinciding with a pause in the chains, a bit of a skip-jump to the next step, and drop offs on both sides.  This is a priceless shot off of his web site: beautiful yet terrifying ...

The hike down was simpler.  It was still tiring though.  It took a toll on my knees.  But the chants of "Holy Crap!" down Walter's Wiggles made me laugh.  So did watching two teenagers attempt to run up all 21 switchbacks of Walter's Wiggles and predictably fail.  Back at Zion Lodge Jay and I indulged in a victorious meal.  Jay got his victory burger.  I got my victory bratwurst.  We soaked it all in.  But not for too long.  Bryce Canyon was calling ...