There are certain times in your life when moments really get solidified in your memory. I can think of several times where a day seems to get remembered more than others and becomes a staple of things that you remember enjoying and loving. One of those things for me was going to the National Park in Zion. Zion is a beautiful place that has some of the most incredible views I have ever seen. One thing that also stood out to me when was planning this trip was that I also have a stoma. The first thing I wanted to do was to make sure that I was going to be safe and happy on my adventure. And I can happily say with good planning I was beyond safe from my stoma and the only danger was falling to my death from the crazy hike we went on.
The fun part about hiking is that it can have some danger to it. It can be dangerous to fall down a trail or to slide down a hill near my home but out West, in the Mountains, the stakes are a bit higher. Now I wanted to make sure that my stoma would not even be a thought during my trip and hike and with the right ostomy gear and a good backpack I set up a kit for myself and didn't give it a second thought. Since I was ready for any emergency with my gear I didn't have to think about it and that was really necessary when my life was on the line.
So I was lucky enough to go out to Zion with my brother and we decided to hike Angels Landing in the middle of winter. The park was still open and there was ice over the entire trail. In fact, you could not even get to the top of the mountain unless you had ice cleats on. So we ended up renting a pair of ice cleats between us and at 5:00 am we started to ascend the mountain. It took several hours to get through the original trail to the mountain and then to go through the switchbacks which were straight up. Then you get to the stair of mini switchbacks which take you many hundreds of feet up in elevation and since these were all covered in slick ice we had to climb up them with the cleats on. We finally reached the top after about 3 hours of nonstop elevation hiking.
When we got to the top the hard and dangerous part begins. The trail gets narrow as you can be within 6 inches on both sides of you to falling to your death thousands of feet. I was climbing with ice cleats in areas that most people find super dangerous with no snow or ice in non-windy conditions. We got all the way to the top and then after enjoying teh incredible views had to find a way back down teh ice. Downhill is so much harder because at times you are sliding off the side of a mountain and jamming your shoes and ice cleats into the ice to stop from dying. But sometimes you hit rock and the cleats glance off and you are still sliding. It was amazing and I didn't think of my stoma once and that was perfect!
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