More and more, we are hearing directly from people we know about living with COVID-19.
Parkite Julia Geisler is self-isolating with her partner, who developed relatively mild symptoms, and she wrote about their experiences on Facebook. She is also active in the Wasatch Front climbing community, and has some advice for her fellow recreationists.
Geisler told KPCW that her partner, a server at a Summit County restaurant, came into contact with a group of Australian tourists. This was in mid-March, before the county’s lockdown orders came down.
“He had symptoms, and we called the national hotline for days. And they said he wasn’t sick enough to get a test. And then when Quinn’s opened, we went over there, and they said "We can give you a test” to my partner, Blake. But they would only test one of us. Assumed that I had it, if we were living together, which we are. So I did come back positive.”
She said he was showing mild symptoms—that is, no fever or shortness of breath.
“It was more the same as mild cold symptoms. But he did lose taste and smell, and that was kinda was a different feeling than having the regular flu or cold, which prompted us to try to get a test—to try to get him tested.”
In addition, she said they had heard that most of the Australian group had tested positive.
Currently, she and her partner are still self-isolating.
“The test results that came back, they advised that we didn’t need to self-isolate, cause we had been past the time of the virus being spreadable. But we’ve been doing that pretty much anyway—self-distancing and maintaining all of the recommended CDC guidelines that they put.”
Geisler is also Executive Director of the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance. And she is advising her colleagues it isn’t very responsible to get out on the crags right now.
“We’ve been asked to stay in place. Most often times right now, climbers are headed to the desert. And rural communities are asking us to stay put. They’re usually depending on our tourism dollars to come to southern Utah. They’re saying, “Stay home.” Climbing gyms are closed down. And with all this comes a lot more people along the Wasatch Front and the Wasatch Back looking to get outside and go to climbing areas. And there’s a lot of us, and a finite number of climbing crags. And more than anything, the shared surfaces of climbing, from holds and ropes, are a way that we as climbers can potentially spread the virus. Not enough is known about outdoor surfaces like climbing holds to really make an informed decision to climb. So let’s try to be responsible and think for the greater good.”
Geisler added it also isn’t wise to create risks for volunteers who might have to respond to mountain-climbing accidents.
In the meantime, she said that the Climbers Alliance is struggling like many other non-profits. They recently had to cancel their June fundraiser.