A C H A P E L TA L K
by Yolanda Dong ’17 April 11, 2017 voces
Angels’ Landing T
here’s an old Chinese saying: “读万卷书,行万里路”— “Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles.” So, over spring break, I decided to get started on the latter part, but I did not expect to almost lose my life in Utah. Early that day, our tour guide, Geath, drove us to Zion National Park and told us that Angels Landing is a must-see. So, four young and eager teenagers enthusiastically went to the bottom of the mountain. There hung a wooden sign: Angels Landing, 2.5 miles away. We thought that it was going to be a peaceful, fivemile meander in the mountains, with birds, lake, trees, and beautiful scenery. Not bad. We had charged our professional cameras the day before, wore some extravagant and cumbersome clothes and shoes, and decided to see this Angels Landing. However, as we proceeded, the slopes got steeper and we realized that we had to climb several mountains to get to the destination. The pathway was smooth at first, but soon became so rocky and narrow that we could only walk in single file. My delicate friends, who are precious, only children at home and never do sports, slowed down and dragged behind. We had never actually done any hiking before and were not planning to try it out that day. “Are we almost there?” my friend Chen Xi asked. Geath said, “It says on the GPS that we’ve traveled 0.5 miles. Just two more to go.” The nice plateau path became hills; hills became mountains. After we got to the other side of the mountain, we realized that it was just the very beginning of many more rocky mountains and precipitous cliffs. Soon walking became climbing, and climbing became crawling. Just as we reached what we thought was Angels Landing—after two hours of hard walking—another
narrow path appeared with chains attached to the sides of the mountain. The clouds cloaked the peak so we couldn’t even see the summit. It was horrifying. Later on, I saw a description of Angels Landing online. It said, “The Angels Landing Trail is one of the most famous and thrilling hikes in the national park system. Zion’s pride and joy runs along a narrow rock fin with dizzying drop-offs on both sides. Such an intimidating path is rarely frequented by hikers. This narrow ridge with deep chasms on each of its flanks allures only the most intrepid hikers. Climbers scale its big walls; hikers pull themselves up by chains and sightseers stand in awe at its stunning nobility. The actual Angels Landing Trail is only a half-mile way, but it is a spectacular half-mile. Kids should not be taken there.” Since 2004, six people have died falling from the trail. Just a month ago, a female climber lost her life because she slipped while taking photos of the scenery. Now, in case I haven’t mentioned this before, we four are not professional hikers; in fact, we had never actually hiked before nor were we equipped at all that day for this kind of hiking. As it turned out, our tour guide Geath confessed to us that he had never reached the actual summit because he had only taken old Chinese tour groups to Zion. He himself had never seen the actual Angels Landing. We got to the two-mile point and saw the scary, chained, halfmile path. He advised us to only take a few photos and return, even though we were only half a mile away from the summit. “We’ve come so far. There was no going back the moment we stepped on this trail. I am not going back until I see this Angels Landing,” a friend said. Our boldness and wild hearts made the decision to take on this seemingly impossible challenge.
www.groton.org
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