Lady Mountain

In the 1920s, folks decided to make a trail going up to the peak of Lady Mountain, one of the highest points in Zion National Park. The trail was comprised of scrambles over rock with small foothold carved into the rock, ladders, cables, and railings. It stayed this way until the 1960s when it became no longer sanctioned by the Park Service, most likely due to - what shall we call it - liability issues. After our experience on the mountain, I could see why anyone would want to build a trail there in the first place, and why it would be both extremely difficult to maintain and hazardous for many hikers.

We set out early, catching the first shuttle of the morning to the trailhead. A short lovely stroll to get us warmed up and before I knew it, we were in the business. Roughly the next 3 miles and 3,000 feet of elevation were all careful footsteps, scrambles, and climbs without any of the former luxuries of things like cables and ladders.

We made it to the top and rested just long enough to enjoy the view, eat a few snacks, and recuperate briefly. Then we started our slow and steady descent, carefully down climbing all of the sections we had just gone up. The sun had just begun to set when we hit the valley floor and waited to catch one of the last shuttles out.

The trek was beautiful and plenty interesting, but it was also incredibly challenging for me. Honestly, my absolute biggest physical fear is falling. With all of the activities I pursue, I've been doing a pretty good job of facing this fear and keeping it in check. But on this trip, I really struggled with trusting my footing and frequently had to convince myself that I wasn't going to fall off the side of the mountain or even just slip and stumble to the next ledge.

As usual, Brian was very patient with me and helped guide me through the difficult sections so I didn't have a total freak out. But I've certainly got my work cut out for me to feel comfortable traversing in these situations and place more confidence in my movement. Luckily, there are plenty of mountains in the world for me to get more practice.