Skydiving

Here's a sweet video of me skydiving last week. It's pretty long, so hopefully you have fast internet...



Here are links to Travis and Kelly's dives.

Loss of Reason

So today, to celebrate T-Rav's birthday, we went skydiving. It was incredible! I was scared, but it was worth it. It was an incredible rush, even beyond the 'WHAT THE FREAK AM I DOING!" phase I experienced at the door. Eventually I should be getting a video here in the next week or so, but until then, here's a sweet picture of me right after landing.


oh, and i didn't tell my parents until after i had jumped. turns out they weren't upset at all!

dirty utah

If you feel like torturing yourself...
Utah
I felt like throwing up after about 30 seconds... 3:30 was too much. Makes the handlebar look good by comparison.

Handlebar

So, life's been CRAZY the past couple days. But two important items:
1) Over the years, many have wondered where the nickname RyRy came from. Well, it came from a friend named Mike Taylor, who's blog has now been added to my blogroll. Welcome Mike and family.

2) I had a sweet handlebar going on on Saturday. It's gone now, but you can't help but miss it.

Tyra

Here'a another sweet link. You'd better check this out, or else.
Tyra Banks

In Zion

So life has been crazy busy the past few days. This past I went to Zion National Park with some friends from Salt Lake. On Friday I hiked the infamous Angels Landing hike, where you go up this narrow spine several thousand feet in the air. They have chains to help you not fall off and die, for which I was very grateful. I also saw the IMAX film Shackleton's Antartic Adventure. Awesome. Incredible. Then hiked to an overlook called the observation pt.

That night we all met up, then drove to this cow pasture where we spent the night. It rained off and on thru the night, which since I didn't have a tent sent me scurrying into a car at 3:30AM. Then we woke up and hiked the narrows.

Now, I realize that not everyone is quite the outdoors enthusiast that I am - and that's OK. However, regardless of what you're doing in life, you should be prepared both mentally and physically. Some of the people that came to hike the Narrows with us were not prepared, and it wasn't fun dealing with them. We eventually convinced 2 to head back to the trailhead, and things got a lot better from there.

The Narrows was sweet. Doing it in 1 day (16 miles in water) was tough. But it was definitely one of the most prized hikes I've ever done in my life. Beautiful, challenging, and fun.

Alive

I'm alive. Exhausted. I'll try to give a full report tomorrow.

Off to Zion

So I'm off to Zion National Park for the weekend. I'm kinda nervous about it - we're hiking the Narrows, something I've always wanted to do, just never got around to it. But it's with a group of people from Salt Lake, most of which I don't know, so we'll see how it goes. Regardless, it should be sweet to hike it, and a fun chance to make some new friends. I'll let you know how it goes...

Adventure of the Day: Backside of Y Mtn

Happy Labor Day!
I suppose I should be grateful to the AFL and other Labor Unions for the day off... but the capitalist in me thinks those organizations generally benefit people who are unwilling to work hard and efficiently. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the day off.
On my day off, I went to breakfast at this diner here in Provo, called Nate's Diner. It was OK. I thought their biscuits and gravy was a little bland. Kinda turned to paste, which was cool when I was 5.
Then I went hiking around Y Mountain. Pretty sweet hike, one I've done several times, in most every season. Basically, from when I left the Y I didn't see anyone else until I was halfway down to Rock Canyon - pretty empty back there. But! At least there were lots of people hiking the Y (most of which I think were disgusted with my pace as I passed by them...)
Right now I kinda have a headache - we'll see how the night plays out.