HMI Traverse
The St. George section of our semester of adventures started on the fourteenth of November. We arrived to our camp at Snow Canyon campground in the late afternoon, wiped out from our Grand Canyon adventures. As we set up our new base camp, the I-team gave us the very exciting news that dinner would be Chipotle. With a newfound excitement, we finished camp set up and sat down for a burrito dinner, one of the first dinners we’d had around a table in too long. All climbed into sleeping bags with full stomachs and thoughts of rock climbing in their dreams.
We awoke the following morning, had a quick breakfast of leftover oats, and hopped in the bus headed towards the Smiths in St. George for some ration shopping. All were very happy with the quality of the grocery store, and after some interesting interactions with local St. George citizens, we all met at checkout with two full carts per cook group. Both cook groups hit their budget perfectly, and had so much food that it didn’t fit in the bins and coolers we had brought. The day concluded with lunch, advisor check-ins, and a test in the strength of our community.
We started off the next morning with a community meeting, and proceeded to walk to our climbing site, The Circus Wall, which was right around the corner from our campground. Sam and Gabby set up three awesome climbs for us and everyone got their climbing shoes back under them. The day concluded with our first dinner in our new cook groups, KQCC, and circle.
The following day, we returned to circus wall, and climbed some more routes further to climbers left of the ones we had climbed the previous day. Thrown into the mix was multiple climbing lessons as well as one about Ecology from Sam. For dinner one group had dumplings and ramen, a new meal for our group and a new fan favorite. We continued our climbing progression the following day at Black Rocks, a local climbing site that consisted of Basalt climbs, a nice variation compared to the sandstone we had been climbing throughout Moab and at the Circus Wall. Our day finished with our first First Aid class in preparation for the upcoming Student Lead Expedition.
The following day we woke up and had a class about cleaning anchors taught by Nicholas. Following some practice cleaning on the bolt board, our Leaders of The Day decided to take us to the Circus Wall’s neighbor, The Sand Dunes area. The I-Team set up two climbs for us both being super fun and technical. The day concluded with massive dinners from both cook groups which left a few student lying on their backs in an attempt to digest faster.
Sunday the 20th, the state park geologist hosted a hike up a local volcano, so we had a rest day and went on a short hike/geology lesson from the State Park naturalist, Phoenix. We learned what felt like everything there was to know about Snow Canyon and the surrounding area. Following the hike was a hot lunch and a relaxing afternoon. Feeling rested and rejuvenated, we were right back climbing rocks at Black Rocks. The I-team set up four climbs for us, as well as a lead climbing and lead belaying demo. At the end of the day, Courtland and Drew, successfully cleaned climbs with I-team supervision. The two following days of climbing, the final two of the expedition consisted of much learning and skill practice in Lead Climbing, Lead Belaying, cleaning and climbing technique. Both days were at a limestone Crag near LaVerkin, Utah which presented the group with an awesome range of climbs from easy to-moderate, to hard. Our First Aid progression also continued with some scenario practice, and Gabi taught an Environmental Science class surrounding land rights and development.
On Thursday, Thanksgiving day we finished our expedition with a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. Thank you to Gabi for spearheading the meal prep and planning, Jill for hosting us at her Airbnb, and the whole I-team for putting it together for us. It was awesome to be inside for an afternoon and celebrate together. A wonderful end to a successful expedition!
