I spent friday night in a cave

long one today!!

So you may wonder what i do on the weekends. Here is one good example:

Last saturday when the fam was in town, Eric went hiking up Squaw Peak by himself and said he found a tight cave on the way up. He then decided it would be a fun idea to go and camp out in the cave. When he first told me about it, i said it was stupid and i wasnt doing it. Then 530 rolls around on friday afternoon, about 15 minutes before he was going to leave, and i decide that i'm in. I throw together some clothes and blankets and we're off! It was me, Dillon, Eric, and Colton. The hike turns out to be slightly...aggressive. Instead of hiking switchbacks all the way up, this trail went straight up the mountain. it was tough, but i guess it got us there pretty quick! it was about a 1.5-2 hour hike, and we got to the cave just as the sun was setting.

Once we got there, we decided to start a fire. not a good idea. We made a sweet little fire ring so that the fire could not get out and lit it ablaze. i kid you not, 7 minutes later, we were huddling around it and colton notices some light flashing us from the parking lot of Rock Canyon Park a long ways below. it was not head lights, but rather a single flood light, the kind you often find on Police cars. We then realized this particular light was flashing three short, three long, three short aka SOS. It dawned on us he thought we were in trouble or something. We then called BYU PD and had them patch us over to Provo PD and then after a long little while they patched us into the officer that was flashing us and we told him we were alright and we had put the fire out and not to worry. He told us have fun, no more fires, talk to ya later. We also observed that between 4 and 6 other cars had pulled into the same parking lot and parked right by the flashing officer, so we think we were getting close to having a rescue party come visit! We should have told them to bring up some smores or something.

After chilling and overlooking the valley, we went to bed. Well, Eric did. Colton, Dillon, and I laid awake, trying to sleep. it wasnt working. It was a little chilly, so it was tough to fall asleep. At 330 , dillon got up to go to the bathroom outside the cave and when he came back in the three of us just started talking. Eric eventually woke up and we decided to try and hike squaw peak. at 430 in the morning.

...after hiking through steep knee to mid thigh deep snow for a while, we paused to think if this was the smartest thing to be doing. just then, the wind started blowing and it started snowing, and dillon thought he heard two thunder claps. we then decided to turn back and head back to the cave. literally as soon as we turned around, the wind and snow stopped. divine intervention? perhaps. we decided not to walk down this deep snow, so we traversed over about 500 feet to a really long shale slide. i'm not sure which was safer, but the shale was fun sliding down and didnt get your pants wet and cold! We got back to the cave around 6 and hiked over about 200 feet to this other cliff that overlooked the south part of the valley. we all laid cuddled in our blankets for about an hour as we waited for the sun to come up. we were all kinda fading in and out, but around 7 we got up and packed up our gear and hiked/slid on down the path to the car. we left at 715 and were in the CANC eating at 815. I then went to bed and slept from 9 AM till 7 PM. what a saturday!! my sleep schedule is so messed up right now!

It is a great thing that i am still alive to write this post, and next time, we'll definitely fall asleep so we dont do something stupid like try to climb squaw peak at 430 through snow deep and steep!

i am also working on a list of 101 ways i could have died this week. skiing with the fam, i took a new fascination of jumping off large rocks and cliffs. that is about 15 reasons right there.

mitch says my three minutes are up. i have to go work on our magnet documentary!

adieu.
this is us yodelling. fantastic, eh?

here are pictures. just click here, you dont need facebook.

Flyin Hawaiian Park City

This is sweet.


'nuff said.

The new and improved cave!!

Putzer may be the only one that gets this one, but its the logo of Big Black Security from my favorite tv show, Rob and Big. its great, but no one but me and putz will appreciate it for its true value. i think an appropriate analogy would be the gangster version of napoleon dynamite. anyway, i tricked out my dollar DI hard hat in Rob and Big fashion. I am pretty proud of my work.

So i have been sleeping in my cave about two to three nights per week for the past month. The cave, for those who do not know, is a little nest i have created under my bed. I struggle to sleep with lights on, so having a roommate that stays up later than me is not good. I got a little mattress from the lobby (its actually a cushion that is about two feet by 4 feet) and put two blankets on top of it. i then laid out my sleeping bag on top. I then strung my hammock from bed post to bed post pretty loosely so that it would adequately support my feet. I then draped my fleece permanently over the end of my bed and would drape my comforter over the side to block out all light when i slept there. it was perfect. well, i made due with what i had. here is the old cave (i pulled out my storage bin and shoe pile that is usually in the foreground of this picture) :

as you can see, the mattress is tiny and there is sparse leg room. not good.
here is the new:
you'll notice i have retained my food storage at both ends of the bed. I eat well.
you'll also notice my slippers ready for me to slide right out of bed into.

New features of my bed include the new fleece ceiling and specialized Great American Insurance headphones designed and implemented specifically for my cave. in other words, i have two sets of ear phones, and this one will stay in the cave. I also have the old christmas lights still, always a great thing. It also has transferable cell phone and Ipod chargers that can go back and forth between upper bed and the cave. i am set.
this is my pillow and sleeping bag... this is what the inside will look like as i sleep.
this is the aforementioned fleece roof's extension, the bed skirt. this is what keeps 68.3% of the light out. the other 32.7% will be blocked by my comforter that i will hang down over the bed as i drift off into dream land.

Yes, i work hard to ensure a good night sleep. I think this may be my pinnacle, and i might be in danger of sleeping all day. good thing for my transferable alarm clock that can go on the ledge by my upper bed or in the cave with me! (i have never set an alarm on the clock... i always use the cellular. but its good to know i can if i need to!)

the end.

speaking of videos that blow my mind...

So here is the scoop. we went to sundance with a bunch of kids from our floor and ward. Unfortunately, i went to bed at 345 and woke up at 7. i was not tired at all until i took off my boots and sat on the bus. Thats when i totally crashed. the weather was mid-40s, but the snow was alright. it was supposed to rain/snow all day, but it just started snowing on our last run.

While at sundance, eric and i struggled to find stuff that challenged us. But then we found a cliff. an 8 foot, rocky cliff. i gave it a try, and crashed because the snow at the bottom was so deep and heavy. Me and eric then took three more runs each, and your boy landed it on his 4th try. take a peek!