Canyoneering in Zion

Zion is well known for it's deep and spectacular canyons. Unfortunately many of them are not very accessible or are very technical, so that you need the right equipment and experience to do it. Since Tommy and I don't have either them, we decided to treat ourselves to a little guided Canyoneering adventure with an outfitting company. Although I'm afraid of heights and therefore don't like climbing and rappelling (the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope), I didn't wanna miss out on a great experience. So I decided to challenge myself and just do it. How bad can it be, I thought. Since I'd never done canyoneering before, I assumed the rappels wouldn't be much higher than 30-50 feet (15 Meter) and that I would be lowered by somebody from the top. Well had I known what we were about to do, I would have probably changed my mind about going. After a 45 minute drive, a 2 mile hike in and about 1000 feet elevation gain, we got to our base camp. There we got our orientation and started setting up ropes for the first descend into the canyon. I couldn't really see the edge when we started out, which was probably a good thing. Because the drops were a lot longer than I had expected and I wasn't lowered by somebody but had to do it myself. When the guides told me that, I started getting really nervous. What if I made a mistake and the rope would somehow slip through my hands. I would certainly crash on the ground and die! I wanted to trust somebody else rather than do it myself. The guides smiled and said that it would be a good exercise in self-trust for me. Shit, there was no turning around now. I was roped up and ready to go. So I decided to not look down, try to stay calm and just concentrate on what was in front of me. The ropes are set up with extra security mechanisms, so that my fear was actually unjustified. But since it was my first time. I didn't know that. So I just went for it. The first decent wasn't too bad actually, we just went to a ledge 20 feet below from where we rappelled about 40 feet over a waterfall into the canyon. It was amazing. What a great way to see the canyon from that perspective. It was nerve recking and exciting at the same time. Full of adrenalin, I got to the bottom and couldn't stop smiling. The next rappel was even longer and we also had to go over an overhanging cliff, so that we were actually freely dangling from the rope without any contact to the canyon walls. But the craziest one was the rappel after that. It was over 100 feet (30 Meter) long, where we had to lower ourselves through a waterfall and then swim out of a pool to get out. It was nerve recking enough to descend from that high up, but the water was made it even worse. The outside temperature was about 80 degrees (26 Celsius) while the water was only 40 degrees fahrenheit (4 Celsius). I got completely soaked! Shivering I got out, but I still couldn't stop smiling. I just couldn't believe I just did all that! I felt like I overcame my fear and pushed myself to try something new. I was able to trust myself that I wasn't gonna kill myself and I stepped out of my comfort zone. All around it was a beautiful day. Our guides and the people in our group were a lot of fun and we got to see an amazing canyon in a completely new way. I just loved it!