"Air Traffic Controller" has an entirely new meaning to me now

Orderville Rappel, Zion Ponderosa Ranch, Utah

Though technically this was a rappel and not a hike (the hiking part lasted only a short time -- about a mile or less), I'm putting this in my hiking journal because I feel the need to memorialize the fact that I actually did it. Outside of the practice rappel down the side of the Zion Ranch activity barn, this was my first real rappelling experience, and it scared the wits outta me.

Jay and Cindy and I hopped in a suburban with Amber and Staci from East Zion Adventures, and drove out to a 150-foot dropoff on ranch property. The road to get there (the same one we used when we did the Orderville Canyon hike on July 6) was a rocky, steep, dry riverbed that required four- wheel drive and a lot of machismo to navigate. It was enough to nearly shake my breakfast loose. Luckily I had very little breakfast in me, because I had trouble eating anything that morning, I was so worked up about rappelling. The terrain we drove on was so choppy I'm surprised we didn't blow a couple tires.

We parked the suburban about 9:15, loaded up some backpacks with our equipment, and hiked about 15 minutes out to our cliff. Each of us rappelled down twice. Staci stayed at the top to check our harnesses, and Amber belayed at the bottom. The first time was down a lumpy, steep rock face. My arms felt so shakey I was worried that I might not be able to trust my right arm to hold myself up.

My left arm was none too steady, either, as it was busy feeding rope through a flimsy-looking little piece of metal that climbers and rappellers (a very witty bunch) have cleverly dubbed an "air traffic controller." Hard to appreciate the humor in the name when you're watching that thing, bug-eyed, wondering if it's going to give way and send you smashing into the side of the cliff.

But everything went fine and I felt pretty empowered at having made it to the bottom of the cliff in one piece. When I finally landed, I realized that I had been gripping the rope so tightly with my left hand that I could barely pry my fingers open. My hand ached for several minutes and felt like it might fall right off my arm.

For the second rappel we switched the ropes over to a "keyhole," a deep crevass in the side of the cliff, and rappelled down the inside of it. At first I didn't think I would do the second rappel, because my hand hurt so badly the first time, but everyone else talked me into it and down I went. Peer pressure is an amazing thing. I'm really glad I did it, though; it was so cool to be inside of that crevass, looking up, looking down, and really enjoying the experience rather than just breathing through the terror (which is all I did the first time). My left hand was fine, but I had to keep reminding myself to loosen my grip.

High point: Conquering my fear of rappelling. I feel pretty comfortable with this now and would actually do it again. Would even be interested in something higher or more challenging. (Did I actually say that?)