My Rock Climbing History

Every since I moved to Rexburg, Idaho in 1994, I have been intrigued with the sport of rock climbing. It all started when my good friend, Ken Klingler, invited me over to his house to climb on his small rock wall that was fastened to his dad's shed. The wall seemed tall for an 11 year old. The wall was probably 15-20 feet tall, but we used ropes. I though Ken was Spiderman when we would climb to the top of the wall without a rope. The funniest memory I have of climbing on the shed was when Ken taught me to rappel off that wall. I looked like an idiot rolling my body over the edge in order to hang on the rope.

After I got hooked to the sport, I had to wait for friends or scout groups to take me. I had no equipment and no knowledge on how to even start. Sadly to say, I don't think I even earned the rockclimbing merit badge. What was I thinking?

I would hound Ken and Jedd Mumm into taking me to the local crags (Heise Rock and Paramount). I was lucky that they took me and put up with my wimpy efforts to top-out. Heise and Paramount is were I started to get into the sport and learned how to climb.


In 2001, Ken, Jedd, and I drove to Pocatello to try our hands at the Pocatello Pump climbing competition; I ended up placing second to last. Here I was, a novice climbing and an avid snowboarder that decided to compete in a rockclimbing competition before ever competing in one for snowboarding. Even though I placed really low, I fell in love with the competition and the free swag that they give to all the participants.

After my two years of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in Brazil, I bought my own harness, shoes, and quickdraws. In 2004, I joined my my friends and some others in participating in the Pocatello Pump, which is now an annual favorite. In 2005, I was given a phone number of a girl that claimed to be an avid climber. When I called her, I found out that she indeed had an extensive climbing background. Our first date was watching a climbing video, with our second date being a session on the Paramount wall.

I have since married that girl, Jennilyn Fisher from Upland, CA, and have learned a lot about climbing from her. One of the best lessons I have learned from Jennilyn is how to have a strong passion for the sports I participate in. There is more to a sport than just doing it, you have to also love it, think it, breath it, sleep it, and know everything about it. Jennilyn and I now share rock climbing as our favorite thing to do together, even with our children.

I can now say that climbing is more than a sport to me. It is a social opportunity as much as it is a form of recreation or exercise. I have created some great friendships through rock climbing that I know will never end. Rock climbing has made us more than just friends, we are a support group. We don't compete against eachother, instead we encourage and work with one another to accomplish our goals.

Somebody asked my wife if she climbs in all the national parks. This caused me to reflect back on my climbing history and the places I have been and climbed. This list is not to brag, but to remind me of the great memories with friends and family.

• Heise Rock - Rexburg, ID
• Paramount - Rexburg, ID
• Ross Park - Pocatello, ID
• Box Canyon - Arco, ID
• Blackfoot Canyon, ID
• Hot Potato - Idaho Falls, ID
• Logan Canyon - Logan, UT
• Mapel Canyon - Nephi, UT
• Joshua Tree National Park, CA (we were only able to boulder for a couple of hours)
• Teton Canyon - East of Driggs, ID
• City of Rocks State Park, ID
• Massacre Rocks State Park, ID
• Black Wall - Boise, ID (I could be wrong on the name)
• Derkies Lake - Twin Falls, ID
• 26th Street Boulders - Ogden, UT
• South Park - Rexburg, ID
• Midget Widget Wall - Ririe, ID
• Baxter's Pinnacle - Grand Teton National Park, WY
• Grand Teton, Owen Spalding Route - Grand Teton National Park, WY
• Darby Canyon - Victor, ID
• Moab, UT

I have also started to compete more in local competitions:

• Pocatello Pump - 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Sticks and Stones Boulder Competition - 2008, 2009
• USAClimbing SCS in Pocatello, ID at ISU Reed Gym - 2009
  
  
  

Now you see it...Now you don't.

As a kid, everything is magic.

I always wanted magic trick sets or prank sets when I was a kid. My father loved magic and would entertain our family of seven kids with the talking hankie or the flame throwing paper match. One of the best tricks that he did was the "secret message".

My father, Anthony Eaton, would pull out a piece of scrap paper from his pocket and call one of us to tell him a secret in his ear. He would then write the secret on the piece of paper; not letting anyone see what he wrote. He then placed a match under the note and in a half-second flash the paper was gone; never to be seen again.
I always loved that trick, because it would surprise me every time. The paper would be consumed quicker than fire normally burns paper. It was awesome.

Because of my Dad, I liked and still like to watch things disappear. When living in Saratoga Springs, New York, our house had a random bucket of tar sitting to the side of the house. Every day, my brothers, friends and I would approach the bucket with an object; sometimes is was a rock and other days it was a toy.
The cool thing about this bucket was you could place the item on the tar and it would just sit there. So we would leave and come back to find the item gone. Sometimes we would come back to soon to see Luke Skywalker half way submerged in the tar. It was like quicksand but black and glossy.
If anyone wants to find some collectables or antiques, you could probably find them in that cold bucket of tar. I always had the desire to dip my hand in that bucket and see what I could grab and pull out.

The first time I felt the STING

When you look at this pictures, what do you see? If you say a kick-stand, then you are a boring person. I look at it and I see a weapon. Anything can become a weapon, but not everything can become a prehistoric tool for destruction.

When I lived in Rigby, ID (ages 0-5) I loved to play with the kick-stand from my mom's old bike. For some reason it was off the bike and in our back yard. When I placed that piece of metal in my hand, I became a cave man. This shiny thing was my club.

One day I went into the back yard to find my club. I didn't have to search far nor long, because is was sitting right outside of the back door. I reached down to grab "artifact", anticipating the transformation of body and personality. As my fingers curled around the shaft of the "club" a firery sensation burned my hand. It wasn't because the kick-stand was hot, it was due to the yellow-jacket with whom I tried to shake hands.

That was the first time I got stung by a bee. I don't know how old I was, but I do know that I was 5 or younger. My mom dumped Arm & Hammer baking soda onto my hand, this was the coolest part of it all. After it dried on my hand, it started to crack and I couldn't help but look at the cool patterns made as I opened and closed my hand.

I Double Dog Dare You

My story of of last year's Christmas eve is an enjoyable one that involves stupidity and toughness. As my family feasted on homemade pizza, a Christmas even tradition, my brother Joe dared Fred and I to a challenge. Now this wasn't one of the usual challenges of who can do the most push-ups or you can do pull-ups using the decorative trim above the doorway, this dare required a lot more courage.

The Dare: "Let's see who can run the farthest out into the field with our shoes off. The last person to turn around wins." Now this was on Dec. 24, 2007, we had about a foot of snow in the farmers field as that time.

We stood on the back porch of my parents house looking out into the night at the snow covered potato field. Each one of us loosened the shoelaces of our boots while trying to remain calm. The idea of having to run so far to prove your man hood and then run that same distance to return to safety was a hard one to swallow.

The signal was yelled and use boys threw our boots and socks off and took off through the snow. Joe started off in a dead-sprint, while Fred and I ran side by side. After 100-200 feet, Fred screamed like a girl and said, "see ya." I could tell that his retreat was because he was smart and not that his toes were already frozen. But I didn't want to be smart, I wanted to be tough. I kept my pace and slowly overtook Joe, as he started to get winded. By the time I passed Joe he was breathing hard but going strong.

Every step I took just made it worse. It's easy to know far you can go, but it's hard to tell where that half way point is. I knew that I could have ran across the whole field barefoot, about 300 yards, but the idea of running back across it was death. I finally turned around after 200 yards.

As I turned around, Joe was way behind me. I thought that the sight of me giving up would let him tot he same. No, he kept shuffling his feet till he got to my turnaround spot. He took three steps pass that and then turned abound. This made it so that he was the one that ran the farthest and for the most time.

I eventually got back to the house and was dead. I couldn't feel my feet. It then dawned on me that if my feet were dying, then Joe's feet had already fallen off. I came into the house as if the world was going to die. I tried to recruit family members to go and rescue my brother.

He eventually got back to the house and received all the "Dude Points" for the night and the year. He totally topped us all.

All I have to say, is that I couldn't sleep that whole night. My feet had a hard time thawing out. Even on Christmas morning, it hurt to walk on my feet. It took about 24 hours for my feet to feel normal again.

Stuck in the Blizzard

Last night, Dec. 22, I was enjoying an evening with my family over at my parents house. All the grandkids sat at the kitchen table and cut out sugar cookies. They were so dedicated to the cutting out of the cookies that they didn't realize that we, the adults kept eating the cookies as they came out of the oven. They had no clue.

We had a fun night at my parents house playing games and hanging out. No one was rushed to get home, because of the crazy snowstorm that kept us inside. The wind was blowing the snow everywhere. The roads were covered and driving didn't seem to be an option at the time. We shut off all the lights in the house and watched the snow dance under that street lamps.

It reminded me of one Christmas Eve when a storm hit and good old "West 1000 South" got totally covered by the snow drifts. Seeing how it was Christmas eve, many people were still on the roads trying to get home; This left many people stranded on our road as they were held captive by the snow drifts.

We spent the good part of our Christmas eve night, not eating homemade pizza, but digging people out of the snow on the road. My two sisters had invited their boyfriends over for the festivities and they were practically stuck at our house. Their parents called and threatened us to get their sons home, because it was their last holiday before going on their missions for the LDS church.

I will never forget that year, I spent my Christmas eve out in the middle of the road playing in the snow and serving others.

Mt. Glory - The Summit Between Idaho & Wyoming

It's been two years since I last strapped into my snowboard for a good ride down a snow-capped mountain. I've participated in a couple jib-sessions during those years of inactivity, but those don't compare to the moments when a man can take advantage of gravity and swiftly float down a white mountian ridge.

On Dec. 16, 2008, my friend Dean Lords asked me to accompany him on a hike and ride adventure on Mt. Glory. We drove to the parking lot on top of Jackson Pass, 8,400 ft elevation. The drive in and of itself was great; it wouldn't quit snowing and we couldn't quit talking.

After we parked and suited ourselves up in ski and snowboard gear, we took off on a 45 minute hike up to the summit of Mt. Glory, 10,086 ft. elevation. This peak is located on the north side of the road and parking lot. The trail was a nice snowpacked foot trail, there was no need for snowshoes. The trail was easy to follow and hike, though we did stop multiple times to stop ourselves from sweating. We didn't want to get all wet and then have it freeze us out of having fun.

The wind started to pick up and our cheeks got a little chilly, but that didn't stop us from hiking the 1,700 vertical feet to the top. From the top we strapped our glorified pieces of wood to our feet and headed down the west side of the mountain that takes us to "First Turn". The riding was great and well worth the hike. The snow wasn't the best I've seen, but after 2 years of no snow-riding I was very happy.

Overall, I loved the hike. Just being in a winter wonderland and getting my heart pumping to see some spectacular views was what made the trip awesome. I couldn't stop myself from talking the whole way up. I was asking question about avalanche prevention and detection. Dean was a good sport and educated me on the subject. I do have to say, I felt a lot better about being up there knowing that I was equipped for an avalanche with a beacon, probe and shovel.

I hope there are many more of those moment to come this year. Maybe I can convince my hard-core wife to hit the slopes with me.