Fat Man's Misery

On June 19, 2010 Jarom and I decided to go with the Bergeson clan (those that were crazy enough) to go on the annual Fat Man's Misery hike in Zions National Park. It was by far the hardest thing that I have ever done physically in my life. We had to hike through sand, rappel, go through slot canyons, hike up the virgin river, and climb sandstone cliffs. It was hard! There is a reason why they call it Fat Man's Misery! There were several times that I wanted to just stop and give up but I couldn't it. With this hike you start in one place and end in another. There is no turning back. It was 10 miles long. We knew when we went that it was going to be difficult. I don't think that we knew just how difficult it was really going to be. Although the stories are great and the hike was beautiful we have both said that we will never do it again. So the pictures that you see below will be it for us. I do have to say that it is a great accomplishment and we are glad that we did it but NEVER again!

Jarom and Brooke waiting their turn to do the rappelling.


Those of you that know Jarom know that he is a little afraid of heights. He was very nervous to do the rappelling. Here he is looking a little bit like he is going to run away. The problem with that? There is now where to go.

Brooke getting on her gear for the trek down into the slots.

Go Brooke Go! She's a natural at rappelling!

Jarom starting the decent.

Down the mountain side he goes.

This is Jarom upside down. He somehow got his head over himself to far and he ended up finishing the rappel head first. It was a good laugh. He was a very good sport.

Here I come.

Doing the rappel thing. I have to say I really enjoyed the rappelling. I had never done it but would actually like try it again.

This is a picture of the canyon that we just came out of.

Here we are at the virgin river that we had to hike up.

Jarom sitting in the cool river.

Brooke being the cute bathing beauty.

Here are Jarom's legs after the hike. He slipped when he was going to do the rappel and really scraped up his knees.

Here they are a few days later. They were pretty sore for a few days.

The thumbs up after getting home and taking a hot shower.

Here are both of our legs after the hike. Mine don't show what I really had. Mostly I ended up with a lot of bruises. We were both very, very sore after the hike and could hardly walk. You should have seen us trying to go up and down the stairs. We got some good laughs from family.