Today
was the last Saturday I would have before chemo, if everything went like we
have planned. The goal is to finish the fertility preservation and have the
chemo port put in next week so that we are ready to start chemo next Friday. If
that was the case we needed to do something really epic to commemorate it.
Luckily we know a guy.
One of
my good friends from school is also an experienced caver. Meaning he climbs into
holes in the ground to see how deep he can go. He has invested a pretty serious
amount of time and money into getting good at it to. He offered to take Chase
and me on a caving expedition if we were interested. Not knowing what we were
getting ourselves into we took him up on the offer. We figured we had tried so
many other outdoor adventures in those mountains this one seemed like a good
thing to try.
Our
first clue that we might be in over our heads came when we meet up and saw that
his trunk was full of climbing gear. When we asked about it, he mentioned that
we would be rappelling down into the cave and then go on foot farther in. It was
only about 20 feet he said so it shouldn't be too hard. Spurred on by some
strange desire to do crazy things while I still could we agreed and drove up the
mountain. 
To get
to the cave we hiked through more snow than I had seen all winter. Even though
it had been a dry year, there was still well over 3 feet of snow up that high.
At the mouth of the cave was a large tree that we used to anchor our rope to.
The decent was terrifying because of the amount of ice frozen along the wall.
Once we got in to the cave it was not much different. Even my friend was
surprised at the amount of water and ice in the cave. It did make for some
amazing ice formations though. 
The
scariest part of caving was the squeezes. To get from one “room” of the cave to
the next we had to pass through several passages that didn't look big enough
for anything to get through let alone a whole person. It took some coxing by
our guide, but we both made it all the way through to the end of the cave. To
experience darkness like that was incredible. Within minutes your brain tries
to create images for your eyes to see to make up for the lack of stimuli. While
we may have only traveled about 300 feet back and 70 feet underground, it was
like some other world.
Climbing
back out of the cave was even harder than I had expected. Because of the amount
of snow above us the rope was soaked through, and the whole climb was spent
with water dripping on us from the icicles that hung down. We were already cold
and tired from our hours inside the cave, and that climb out of the hole was
one of the most miserable things I have ever done. Looking back, now that I am
dry and rested, there was something incredibly satisfying about pushing myself
that far.
All
that being said, nothing has ever felt better than the hot shower that followed
that day of climbing through cold dark places. Once we had gotten all cleaned
up it was back to Salt Lake for even more medical fun the next day.
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