When I started climbing in St George, it felt like every climber in town knew every one else.
It was the year 2000. My older brother by two years had gotten into climbing with some friends from high school. I was fifteen years old. My older brother and his best friend (Kyle Freckleton) invited me and one of my best friends (Matt Freckleton) to join them at Chuckawalla Wall.
They set up "Apostasy" (5.10.a) for us to cut our teeth on. I think it took me fully 30 minutes to climb the route. As was proper, my brother and his friends wouldn't let me come down until I'd kissed the chains at the top of the climb. By the time I made it back to the ground my hands were bleeding, flaps of skin were hanging from several of my fingers and my feet were screaming from being crammed in too tight, borrowed climbing shoes.
And I was absolutely hooked.
After several more sessions climbing with my brother, it was clear that he and his friends climbing knowledge was... questionable. But who else did I know that climbed?
And then I remembered. When I was in 8th grade I had a geometry class from Mr. Paxman at Dixie Middle School. In that class with me was a 7th grade math prodigy named JJ Cieslewicz. I got to be friends with JJ because I needed to pass the class and clearly he was the one to help me do that. As JJ helped me decipher the mysteries of sin, cosin and tan, we also talked about what we liked to do. It turned out that he liked to hike, and I liked to hike. He also mentioned rock climbing on several occasions...
At the end of that year he signed my yearbook with this caption: "JJ Cieslewicz - let's hike!" Accompanied by his phone number.
Now a sophomore in high school, I dug out my yearbook and found JJ's number. I called him up and told him that instead of hiking, we should climb.
And we did. In addition to being a math prodigy, JJ was also a climbing prodigy. While me, my brother and his friends were flailing on the 10s at Chuckawalla, JJ was casually cruising up the 12s... barefoot. In fact, the only climb he'd ever put shoes on for was Three Bars Black, the 5.13.a at the end of the crag.
Although younger than me by a few months, JJ became my mentor and patiently taught me and my friends what we needed to know about climbing. But more than that, JJ introduced us to the climbing community in St George.
Everyone knew and liked JJ. It was very cool to see a 15 year old kid climbing with and having adult conversations with men and women 20+ years his senior.
The climbing community felt very small back then. Even if you didn't personally meet or know everyone, you knew of them. Todd Goss, Bo Beck, Todd Perkins, Jason Hurst, Lauren Lee, Jorge Visser, Michael Nadd, Jamie Carpenter, Lyle and Rich Hurd, Matt Kindred, Dr Larsen, Dr Andersen... and of course the infamous Ron Olevsky.
The stories, friendships and feuds in this small community still felt fresh and new. As aspiring climbers and members of this community we lapped up every story we could and dreamed of someday having our names added to the legendary cadre of St George climbers.
It felt like the people in these stories were going to be crushing forever.
And now I'm realizing that's not the case. Some of our local legends have already moved on.
Lyle Hurd
Fio Antognini
Ron Olevsky
Others have since gotten out of climbing to pursue other aspects of their lives.
It's obviously a normal part of life. We persist but for a short time in this landscape we occupy.
But hopefully, our stories, and the stories of those that came before us can last longer than our brief time.
In 2009 I left the blessed climate of St George for the long cold of Logan. For three years I studied history at Utah State University, thinking I wanted to be a history professor. Until I fully realized out what history professors do for a living and thought better of it.
But, during that time, I came to realize something very important about history and historical accounts: and that is that history is written according to the recollections and whims of whoever is taking the time to scribe it down.
It was astounding to me to read first person accounts from multiple people about the same historical event and see them directly contradict each other on not just a few, but the majority of the key points about what happened. At first it drove me crazy! Until I realized the reason for this. Which is, that real people wrote these accounts.
Everyone sees things differently. They experience the same events differently. They recall things differently. And that's ok. In fact, it's more than ok! It's exciting! It's funny. And it's real life.
The purpose of this blog, "A History of Adventure in Southern Utah," is not to find out the absolute truth about every adventure that's ever happened in our area. Rather, it's purpose is to provide community members a place to share their stories, as they recall them, and probably in some cases, embellish them ;)
Anyone can contribute to this blog. To do so, simply email your story to desertratsupe@gmail.com. I'm sure that not all the stories that end up on here will be PG, so be forewarned. That being said, we also won't publish stories if they're clearly beyond the pail. Use common sense.
We'll also print out your stories to keep in a binder here at The Desert Rat. We'd love you to come in and read a hard copy of the great adventures that have contributed to our wonderful history.
We can't wait to read your stories!
