CLAS Ropes Course

Very recently I have moved into a new area in Utah Valley. For the last year I have been living in Orem, but at the very start of August I moved back down to Provo and I couldn't have been happier with that choice. There really is a huge difference between just normal student housing vs BYU approved housing. I definitely learned that the hard way, one year full of pregnant roommates (yes that is plural), threatening letters full of expletives along with miss-spelled words, and literally living in a pig sty (okay not literally but some of my roommates were pretty messy). Anyways the moral of the story is  I love living at my new apartment in Provo.

Along with my new apartment I got a new ward, 137th Provo, and it has been really amazing so far. I love how wards can become so close like a tight knit family. They help turn strangers into brothers and sisters. I haven't lived here very long but I am looking forward to getting to know my ward better.

For family home evening, on Monday, my ward, along with one other ward, got to go to CLAS Ropes Course. Thank you activities committee for coming up with this idea, because it really was so much fun! If you have never been to a ropes course before it is just a park like area full of team building exercises, some are just obstacle courses where you have to figure out how to get your whole team from point A to point B without touching the ground, or random things like that. The only things they had available to us, though were the "high ropes" which include a zip line, rock wall, giant swing,  and a thing called the leap of faith.The whole point of it is to over come fears, build communication, and gain self confidence. It is a really cool idea and such a blast to do!

Blake my boyfriend, Sean his brother, and I got there just in time to miss the instructions, which I am sure were really important and informative. This lead to some confusion as everyone broke up to go to the various stations. After observing everyone putting on their harnesses we decided to flow suit and grabbed our harnesses from a box sitting on the ground. One size fits all harnesses, while being a good idea, are the most uncomfortable things in the world on top of being semi tricky to put on. Eventually I mastered the art of putting it on and we jumped in line for the zip line. 

It was so much fun! You just clip into a rope, and start climbing up a pretty tall, wooden pole, as you get belayed up from the top. When you get to the top, the girl working that station just clips you into the zip line and then you are good to just jump off of the platform. It feels like you are flying through the air, it is awesome. The zip-line we were on was long enough that you start to go pretty fast. At the end of the run there are people waiting for you and you think that is where you are supposed to stop, but then you terrifyingly shoot past them. Which kind of freaked me out. After that part you start to slow down, stop, then coast backwards to the spot where they stop you and help you get unclipped. 

After the zip line I helped belay my friend Kaci on the rock wall. I am pretty bummed that I left my phone in the car so I actually didn't take any pictures! But just to give you a visual I took some pictures off of their website so don't be weirded out by the random nouns! :) 

 Towards the end of the night the lines for all the stations calmed down so we went over to what they called the leap of faith. For this station you got to use full body harnesses instead of just the regular ones. I was pretty happy about this because full body harnesses are way more comfortable than our one size fits all! How the leap of faith works is you climb up a tree to a plat form. 

Once you are on the platform you jump off as far as you can, trying to get a ring (in the picture it is a handle) that is hanging in front of you. Since you are attached to a rope the whole time it is really safe. 

By the time that Blake, Sean, and I got to this station though, it was already pretty dark outside. They had one light up in the tree, across from the platform, shinning on the ring so you could see where to jump. Sean went first, there was an option to wear a blind fold just to make it that much more challenging and of course Sean was going to pick the hardest way because he is awesome. When he jumped for the ring be almost grabbed it! I was next but I am not as daring as sean so I skipped out on the blindfold. Climbing up the tree was no big deal but once you get onto the platform it is like you are in your own little world. 

Everything around you is pitch black except for the blinding light shinning right in your eyes and the outline of the dark ring in-front of you. You can't see the ground or anyone around you and I will be honest I was terrified! It was the weirdest thing, I have been a thousand feet off the canyon floor rock climbing on multi-pitches, but 25 feet off the ground completely secure in a harness, attached to a rope, with a competent belayer, was so scary to me! All I wanted to do was get off the platform so I didn't even jump for the ring, I just did a sad looking little baby jump off the platform. Holy cow, was it a relief to get back on the ground!

Blake followed after me and like his brother took the challenge of the blindfold. When he was up at the top he just jumped and grabbed the ring. Hello, what can this boy  not do. He is seriously amazing at everything he tries. So naturally I had to do it again. Even though I was still shaking from the first attempt. 

Once I got to the platform for the second time I had the exact same feeling, my stomach dropped and I just wanted to get off the platform, unfortunately it was my second try to I had to have something to show for it! I lunged at the ring, and missed pathetically! :) It is okay though I at least feel good that I tried again and that is all that matters right?

Even though I got scared out of my mind the ropes course really was so much fun. I almost would like to go back and try the leap of faith in the light just to see if it scares me as much! All in all it was a fun night, full of friends, and conquering fears, definitely a success! Thanks again to Provo 137th ward! :)