Climbing the Grand Teton

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Photo slideshow
Photo Set

This trip was actually a while ago, but I wanted to practice writing a blog entry and this trip had a few good stories and great photos.

I climbed the Grand Teton with my friend Kyle last summer. It was great trip with plenty of excitement and scenery. We went with both our dads and warmed up with 50 mile hike around the Teton Range, staring at the Grand from all sides. We climbed the Owen Spalding route, which is a technically moderate mounatineering and rock climbing route. The climbing itself is easy as we climbed entirely without proper (but unsupportive and uncomfortable) rock climbing shoes. We broke the trip into two days to make it a little easier. Because of campsite reservations, we only managed to reserve a campsite a few hours up the trail, so it was only slightly better than making it a single day push.

The morning started off fine with a cold 2AM start. Climbers typically start extermely early so that they can be at the summitt early before the afternoon thunderstorms and lightning roll in. We were hiking early, but got lost at 4Am following a foot trail that dissapeared into a field of boulders. The GPS didn't help me becuase we were so sure the trail we were following was the right one. We eventually waited long enough to find headlights bobbing in the distance and ran after them.


The sun started rising just as we hit the technical section and were tying in. The sunrise was really something amazing because you could stare over the plains of Wyoming. I got a great photo of the sun rising over the Middle Teton taken from maybe 11,000 ft on the Grand Teton

We got lost a second time trying to find Owen's Chimney. Instead we went a sizeable distance past it and tried and climbed a full pitch inside a crappy chimney full of scree and gravel which poured down on Kyle while I was climbing. We rappelled the pitch and backtracked to the correct place. It was pretty uneventful after that, just a fun and long climb over easy terrain. The climbing was easy enough to forget that you're working hard and really enjoy scrambling up a really classic peak. Kyle was pretty cold from his sweat soaked shirt in the wind and tired from the 2AM wake up.


Despite getting hopelessly lost twice we still managed to make good time thanks to fast climbing and good teamwork. We partnered up with a pair from California and tied our ropes together to make much faster 200' rappels. The pair from California pair were the only people we met on the summitt, so it was not crowded. I snapped a photo of the USGS summitt marker which strangely has no elevation marked on it. I bought a new $100 pocket camera with manual settings just for taking on climbing trips where they would get destroyed. These photos are pretty good for a cheap camera.

Complete Photo Album

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Photos

The Middle Teton at Dawn
The middle teton at dawn as seen from half way up the climbing route on the Grand Teton

Climbing the Grand Teton
The Owen Chimney.

The Shadow of the Grand Teton
The Grand Teton throws a huge shadow at sunset the night before the climb.

Grand Teton USGS summit marker
For some reason it doesn't even have the elevation written on it.

Sleepy Belayer
Kyle feeling the drowsy at dawn because he has been climbing since 2AM

The Grand and Middle Teton
From the back side of the Teton Range, accessed via the Targhee National Forest.

Hiking in the Tetons
The Teton range visible in the background a days walk away.

Climbing gear for the Grand Teton
This is pretty much the rack of gear I took for the Grand Teton. In retrospect the mid size cams were never used and a large handful of nuts would have done the job just fine.