10.15 Angels Landing #6, a revisit in the dark for sunrise.

First Light at Angels .

A small part of the formal trail prior to the free-climbing slab, up in the dark, down in the light

Jenni greets the sun: "How ya'll doing? We've been waiting, Big Fella"—sunrise and sunset proved to be disappointing at Angels (you can't have it all in one place)

We sat in the car, in the dark at the trailhead at 5:45am on Sunday morning while the wind howled, chasing the temperatures down further. We are enjoying wonderful weather in Zion but not at 6 in the morning, apparently. We looked at each other, thinking we are going to climb that slab with narrow ledges in this wind, reaching 5,800 feet. Why? We didn’t need to say anything, we understood. For a minute, we thought we had lost it—this happens from time to time. However, the dumb thought passed quickly, our minds cleared and we headed up for the peak, reaching it after 75 minutes, a fairly quick time. Not that it was a race but we wished to be there before the sun. With flashlights showing us the path, we hiked to Scout’s Lookout, the base before the sheer climb.

Is this called 'second light'?

The sun appears to be a bit lazy in this part of the world, rising quite late, just before 8am on Friday. They had to push the clock back an hour on Sunday so as not to embarrass it further. We have a suspicion that the sun is finally feeling its age and needs to sleep a little later in the mornings. We concede this may not be a scientific finding but nevertheless, we do make these discoveries ahead of most people. We also admit this is not in keeping with our aim of humility but you know what it is: It’s not always easy to hide such talent.

Sun hits one of many massive walls, simply overpowering

Back on the trail, the wind velocity increased, making the experience a little scary. ‘Do we continue?' We asked our editor, 'It could get dangerous; that wind is making it tricky and the chill is going right through our bodies.' She gave us a look that made us feel like a wimp. We decided not to ask again. The editor, showing a lot of guts, (maybe she should wear a smock), handled the situation with courage and coolness. We were (are) very proud although we were a bit embarrassed that she had to hold our hand when we became frightened. Nevertheless, it was comforting.

Walking on the summit heading down, thinking about the wind

Approaching the bridge to reach the lower peak, this time sun shows the way

It got us thinking about marriage. Maybe, men marry because their mothers have had enough of them when they reach their twenties. A mother sends her son out the house to find a younger woman to look after him, share the burden so to speak. That theory should make one of us very popular in some circles. Man, that icy wind did something to the brain today.

Provides an idea of overpowering masses and woman's spirit

Sunrise over the Angel

There was only one person ahead of us, about thirty minutes or so. We knew this because he too was using a flashlight. It would be suicidal not to have some light. When we crossed, he on the way down, the man looked really cold. He mentioned that he went up early for prayer. We couldn’t think of a better place for tefillah, but would pray for warmer weather. A few hours later, the temperature returned to warm. Timing…timing.

Cheers,

Jenni and Jeffrey

Back down, enjoying sights around the low-water-level Virgin River

Neither an angel nor happy to see us, is the elk

Perspective: Giant slabs, cliffs, mountains, at dawn...cheers to Zion until next time