The Grand Teton

My heritage with The Grand Teton goes back many years to a fact told in passing : "Your grandfather climbed The Grand Teton with one arm". I suppose this was recited to me on occasions during my youth when we visited the Rigby area and we could see the Tetons from the Idaho side.  My grandfather and father grew up in Driggs Idaho in the shadow of the Tetons a scant 30 miles away.  His arm was lost during a farming accident with an auger, I know nothing of the particulars of his climb, he passed away shortly after I was born.

My own familiarity with the Tetons came from visits to Yellowstone when we'd pass through Jackson and drive pass the towering peaks of the Teton Range. We'd always stop at the pull out for a photo and stare in awe and wonder at the massive peaks.  Never did I consider climbing them, they remained a far off wonder.  Many years later I began my foray into mountaineering;  after climbing Rainier with Seth, he moved to Squaw Valley in the shadow of the Tetons.  He came under their spell and he announced that next we'd attempt climbing The Grand. Our attempt last year was stymied by weather and we turned back after only attaining the upper saddle amid 50 mph winds.

This year we coordinated dates between my return to the States and Seth's busy schedule at his new job in Bozeman. The 2nd week in Aug 2011 I flew from Seattle to Bozeman and we drove to Jackson. We crashed at the home of Christian Beckwith, the founding editor of The Alpinist and noted climber himself.   We hit the hay around 10pm and woke the next day around 6:30 and were on the go to arrive at the Ranger station at Jenny Lake by 8am.

Getting a climbing permit can require logistical planning. Normally you have to get your permit 24 hours in advance of your climb and during the busy summer months they can go quickly. We were unable to arrive in time to get a permit and Seth called upon his association with legendary retired climbing Ranger Renny Jackson, now an Exum Guide. Renny was able to get us a permit at the lower saddle, the  highest spot on The Grand Teton.  We used the number Renny provided in email and got our permit. We drove to the Lupine Meadows trail head and after sorting gear we were on the trail by 10 am.

The familiar trail follows the ridge line and then begins switching back and forth through the yellow wildflowers above the alpine lakes of Bradley and Taggart.   Eventually the trail begins heading south and then west, rounding the ridge and making it's way up Garnett Canyon, the rushing creek is far below.  This entire time the Middle and Grand Teton are out of sight behind the ridge. As the perfectly graded trail makes it's way into the canyon, suddenly you round the bend and the sight of The Middle Tetons rears dead head in front of you. A striking straight line of a black dike cuts vertically on the face of The Middle.  Standing there in awe at the sight is common. We stopped for a lunch of dried cheese and salami.

As we continued up the canyon the stream rose higher until it was rushing beside us. Here the trail crosses a huge boulder field, this reminds me of the boulder field at the base of Dragon Tail in the Enchantments at the back end of Colchuck Lake. This year due to the heavy snowfall we crossed many of these rock fields on snow fields. We reached the meadows which spread out wide with green grass and bushes. We stopped for a quick break and the carried up the trail which switches back and forth steeply around Spalding Falls passing the Petzoldt Caves you reach the edge of a huge moraine field, a massive pile of rock left over from glacial action of ice that has long since receded. This is where we camped last year, our destination this time was the saddle another 1000 feet above us. There are two routes to the saddle, the summer route which goes up a cliff band via a set of fixed ropes or up through the snow field. There was a well trod path through the snow. Late in the afternoon the snow was soft and a little slippery. We used our axes to steady ourselves as we made our way up. A guide required their group to put on their crampons, not really necessary in the soft snow but in the early morning when the snow is hard it would be recommended.

We made the saddle and found a designated camp, a flat space with rock walls. We broke out the Tim's Cascades Salt and Vinegar chips and refilled our water. It felt good to take off our packs and lay in the dirt on our pads. The wind whipped over the crest of the saddle above us and the sun "set" on our camp behind the ridge of the saddle. We were soon cold and threw on all our layers to stay warm. We made our way to the saddle where the Exum huts are and chatted with a couple of the guides about the route. Trying to pick the way out from the saddle on the summit block above. As we were chatting several Exum guides descended with 3 10-11 year old boys having just summited via the Owen-Spalding Route.

We hit the hay early, unable to stay up until the true sunset, tired from our hike up and knowing the alpine start in the morning would come early. I didn't sleep very well. I felt like I tossed and turned and hardly slept, though I must have fallen sound asleep at some point given I didn't hear Seth get up at 11 for an encounter with his blue bag. The alarm went off at 4am and we were dressed and on the trail by 5. As we started up the saddle we saw the lights of the Exum crew on the lower Owen Spalding route and then Wall Street.

The upper Exum route up the Grand has the following major features :

•  Lower Owen-Spalding through the Eye of the Needle
• Wall Street
• Golden Staircase
• Wind Caves
• Friction Pitch
• V-Pitch

Between each of these features above Wall Street there are sections of scrambling that range from 250 feet to 60 feet. Once your on route the mountain is reduced from a steep precipitous sheer face as seen from below to a system of rock, ledges and cliffs where the problem breaks down from 1500 feet to the next 30 feet. Aside from Wall Street, Wind Caves, Friction Pitch and V-Pitch where the route tends to focus on the obvious and singular there are many routes, none correct and none wrong. And they way tends to generally be fairly easy scrambling.

The first issue is find Wall Street. As you stand on the saddle, there is a gently sloping pyramid of white rock that gradually near its apex is topped with a black band of rock (black dike). This is the first target and an obvious trail leads up to this from the saddle. Atop the black dike there is a large gully system that forms the major of the Owen Spalding Route. The next target is the Eye of the Needle. The main object is to make your way up the gully staying to the right and then cresting the ridge where you drop down through the next gully to the obvious large ledge on the far side known as Wall Street.

The Eye of the Needle isn't the phallus looking pillar as seen from the saddle but it is the triangular face of rock to the right of this pillar. From the saddle this face of rock doesn't appear to have much of a ridge, as you approach it up close it becomes more defined. I think the real reason for naming it needle is the fact there is a small boulder filled crawl through this rib of rock, as in the eye of the needle, but the structure doesn't resemble a needle at all. We ended traversing too far to the left and got off route. We were able to stem and scramble up some rock to the ridge line cut over by passing the needle. If your on the Owen Spalding and things seem too hard your probably off route. But The Grand is a massive mountain of jumbled rock and there are many routes (and paths) up and down. So having a general sense for the route will help, that or 15-20 people ahead of you. We were the first up after the Exum crew and they had already crested the ridge and were out of sight.

From the ridge top we watched the sun light up the Middle Teton and we turned off our headlamps. Once your on Wall Street the route is pretty straight forward according to description. Your basically following the Exum ridge 1300 vertical to the top of the V-Pitch and then scramble to the summit. Wall Street starts out wide, 20-30 feet and climbs steadily and steeply towards the edge of the ridge to where it narrows to 3-4 inches. Before the step-around folks rope up, there is a giant crack at the base of the ledge before it narrows and a #4 cam will fit in here but nothing smaller. At it's narrowest point the ledge steps around and afros a gap and onto the adjoining ledges. Seth led (as he did the entire climb) and when I followed I was so pumped on adrenaline and focused on stepping round that I didn't notice the 2000 feet of airy exposure below me. I more fell and leapt across the gap than anything else. That was the most nervous I felt the entire climb, from there it was pure easy climbing or scrambling to the top. Easy in terms of skill required and nary danger felt but each bit of effort taxed you and left you winded. At 13000 feet no movement comes with out effort. The places where things really narrow down to one an only route are :

Wind Caves : a gap on the ridge where the wind whistles through and fairly deep obvious chimney like gully angles up the ridge.

The Fritction Pitch where the protection opportunities are sparse, a few polished knobs are the only holds and only the friction of your boots on the rock as you lean in keeps you from falling off.

V-Pitch : the very obvious angled pitch up a beautiful dihedral.

In between these pitches there are varied routes to scramble, simul-climb and climb. By the time we reached the Golden Staircase above Wall Street we had people begging off to pass us. In no hurry we said sure, this in the end was a mistake as we'd just end up bunching up at the pinch points mentioned above. Some climbing teams were more understanding than others. There were at least 3-5 rope teams not including us all on the route at the same time.


Above the V-pitch we scrambled to the top, as with many routes there were many different ways to the top. We opted to cross on the south across a small snow field. On the summit we found at least 14 people, a large group with Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and a couple of the other rope teams. Thankfully all but two descended and we had the place all to ourselves but for two others. We arrived at the summit at 1pm. We'd spent at least 60-90 minutes on the way up waiting on access to the route. The views stretched around us. Jackson Lake is much larger than I'd realized. The many lakes at the eastern slope of the Tetons glittered in the sun from deep glacier azure to the deep blue of the deep Bradley Lake. We sat for 15 minutes or so and took in the views on a blue bird sky day.


We set off for the descent. The route down off the Teton's follows the Owen Spalding route and has several rappel options. The beta notes that you'll need two ropes to make the long rappel down or have to choose your raps spots carefully to do it in two rappels. We'd read a lot about the descent and were a bit concerned about route finding in the maze of trails and rock. However given the large group who had descended ahead of us we only had a short hike before we came to the first rap station. Normally the route description describes descending around several hundred feet but we'd only dropped around 30 feet and we caught up one of the rope teams we'd shared the route on the way up with. We jumped on their rope and with a single rappel were able to avoid 60 meters of hundred feet of down-climbing. This brought us to the main proper rappel. The Jackson Hole Mountain Guides had two ropes set up and their last client was rapping down. They kindly offered us to jump on their ropes instead of having to tear down and have us rebuild. The one I descended was a single rope rappel and half way down was a free rope rappel due to the overhang. Things got moving a bit fast as I twirled down to the ledges below; I wish I'd brought my rappel glove along.

From there the route was a straight forward descent over the ridge to the gully that houses the Eye of the Needle. This time the route was obvious as we ducked through the eye and then descended down to the saddle. We were by then of course out of water and dehydrated. We lay down in camp on our pads and drank from the water bottle we'd left behind. After a bit of rest and a quick bite we started breaking down camp. We still had a half a bag of salt and vinegar chips left. I decided to offer it to the crew making their way up the trail next to our camp. The first in line refused but the second said he'd love to take them, shaking my hand he asked for my name and I in turn his : "Renny Jackson" he replied. I exclaimed : "We are literally here because of you" and called over Seth. They chatted for a minute about the boulder park in Jackson before he said goodbye and made his way to the Exum huts. We refilled our water bottles before beginning the descent from the saddle at 5:30 pm. We were excited for the glissade down the snow field, but in our haste to follow/get ahead of the Jackson Hole Mountaineering Group we followed them to the fixed-rope-descent (the summer route). This was much lower than the snow field we'd ascended and didn't have much more than a short 50 foot glissade.

We then started the descent in earnest. I recall the down and out descent from Rainier several years ago, but this descent seemed much longer and much more painful. The trail seemed to go on and on and on and on. Perhaps its just that the most recent descent is the most painful as its memory is the freshest but this just never seemed to end. I'd put on prescription sunglasses as we left the saddle. My regular glasses were down inside my pack and my headlamp was literally on the very bottom of my pack. We'd end up chasing the sun as we descended down the switch backs through the meadows and onto the lower back and forth sections of the Lupine Meadows trail. The sun went down and an almost full moon was on the horizon as the light of the day began to slowly fade. When your in that mode of descent your not talking to your partner. There is nothing to say just the endless plodding of one foot after another. You reach and maintain a zen like pace where you roll one foot after another down and down. Seth being taller than I had a longer pace and so I suggested he set off ahead of me rather than awkwardly slow himself behind me. He plodded off down the switch backs and I kept my own. The darker it got the harder it became to see with my sun glasses on. My pack started biting into my shoulders, aching from the all day weight combined with the jarring descent earlier in the boulder fields. I could easily make out the white rocks on the trail and miss them in the dust. I knew the smarter thing to do would be to stop, remove my pack rifle through until I found my glasses and headlamp but I just couldn't bring myself to stop. I didn't want to stop until I was at the car and could remove the cursed pack for good. As I made my way down the hogs back things got really dark among the trees. The full moon cast shadows in the trees and there was just enough light to make out the trail. As I finally made my way onto the valley floor where things flatten out for the last mile I kept straining my ears to hear the creek and the bridge which would signal I was close. Finally I crossed the bridge and then the trail started a bit of a slight rocky descent. Here I was only 1/4 mile from the trail head but I was stumbling in the dark. I got out my pole and used it to probe ahead of me like a blind man. At one point it got so dark I used my camera I was carrying to take a picture of the trail. Then I hit the flat wide part of the trail that was all dirt, no rocks and was like a highway in the dark. I plodded along on and on until I finally reached the parking lot at 9:50 pm. Seth had arrived 15 minutes ahead of me and as I whistled he drove the car down to meet me.

We were scheduled to stay at the Climbers ranch inside the park, but I really wanted a big comfortable bed and a nice long hot shower. I called on Seth's phone and found a hotel. I was disheartened to hear that most places in Jackson stopped serving dinner around 10pm. We made an effort to get a burger at one place but they closed by one minute at 10:30, the restaurant below the Million Dollar Cowboy bar was also closed. Dejected we drove to Wendy's where I settled for a chicken sandwich before checking into our hotel. A hot shower and I hit the bed dead tired to quickly fall asleep. I'd climbed The Grand. I'll admit the day before I'd been wracked with anticipation and at camp staring up at the 1500 feet of rock it had seemed impossible, but once on the mountain itself things had reduced in focus to the next step and we'd followed each one to the summit and then down. I'm not sure if I'll ever climb anything quite so glamourous though I look forward to continuing the journey in the mountains.

Videos

Grand Teton - Day One from mbgriffi on Vimeo.




Grand Teton - The Climb from mbgriffi on Vimeo.