I stopped in the Tetons for a few days on the drive home (to
Missoula) from the Wind Rivers. The
weather was fairly wet and stormy but I did manage to sneak in a summit of the
Grand on my final day there.
Day 1 – I ran a fairly flat 11mi loop around Jenny and
String lakes. Lots of folks on the trail
(which frequently interrupted the continuity of the run) but great to get out
and stretch the legs regardless.
Day 2 – Ran the classic 25mi Teton semi-circumnavigation
loop (an extra 10mi on the valley trail between starting & ending
trailheads forms the full 35mi loop).
Thanks to Jason Dorais for the inspiration and beta.
The weather was cloudy and fairly cool, making for perfect
running weather. Zach was game to join
for part of the way, despite having not run further than a flat 15 miles this
summer. We started at lupine meadows TH,
headed north to jenny lake and passed a hundred or more hikers/tourists on the
very runnable trail up cascade canyon.
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| upper cascade canyon (photo: zach paley) |
I normally run alone so it was a nice change of pace (pun
intended) to have someone to chat with on the initial 10miles, until Zach decided
to turn around before the final climb up hurricane pass.
I continued on alone, donning a shell for the windy
conditions on the pass before dropping down to sunset lake, 3:10 into the run,
ready for a refill and a quick food/stretch break. A short climb & descent put me into the
gorgeous alaska basin, where I enjoyed many interesting looks and comments from
the many backpackers.
My legs were unhappy on the climb to buck mt. pass so I had
to walk most of it, and eventually arrived at static divide at the 4:33
mark. I continued down the many
switchbacks into death canyon and as soon as I started encountering day hikers,
I knew I was getting close to the trailhead.
The little 500’ climb from phelps lake to an overlook (before descending
to the TH) was a unexpected slap in the face at mile 24, forcing my tired legs
to a walking pace. I finally arrived at
the death canyon TH at the 6:11 mark, more than ready to be done (having
stupidly gone the last hour of the run without water). I had stashed a bike that morning to cover
the 12mi back to the truck at lupine meadows but Zach ended up shuttling the
truck (thanks!) so I jumped in and we cruised back to camp.
I forgot my camera which was a shame because the scenery of
cascade canyon, the west side of the tetons from up close and alaska basin were
all spectacular.
Stats: approx.
25mi/5700 vert in 6:11 point-point at a moderate pace
Thoughts: this is a
stellar run, it can certainly go much faster, I enjoyed the N to S direction
Day 3 – E ridge of Disappointment Peak (II 5.6 4p)
The following day, Zach wanted to get out on a technical
route and learn the ropes of multi-pitch climbing but with a mediocre forecast,
we needed something fairly short, easy and low commitment. The E ridge of disappointment peak fit the
bill perfectly (there are multiple ledges to climber’s L you could bail off the
ridge if needed at nearly any point).
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| disappointment from amphitheatre lake, route ascends the R skyline |
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| E ridge route |
We made good time on the nice trail to amphitheatre lake and
re-filled water before continuing up to the base of the route. One long pitch put us just below the large
treed ledge below the upper ridge. It
took me about 10 minutes to extract but I managed to retrieve a nice, stuck C4
cam near the belay. Sweet alpine
booty! We linked the upper ridge down
to 3 long pitches, including a dirty but fun 5.7 handcrack on the final pitch.
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| zach following pitch 3 |
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| admiring the E side of the grand from the summit (photo: zach paley) |
The descent was slow on our running-weary
legs from the previous day but we made it down the SE ridge walkoff and back to
the trailhead without incident. Was
great to get out on a technical route with Zach and to get a glimpse of just
how much great alpine rock there is to be found in the Tetons.
Day 4 – rainy rest day in Jackson
Day 5 – Sunday was Chris’ birthday, and he wanted to climb
petzoldt ridge (III 5.7 7p) to upper exum (II 5.5 12p) on the Grand. The weather forecasted looked solid so we
went for it, leaving lupine meadows at 7:15am and made great time on the
approach, reaching the lower saddle in 2:30 and the base of the route in
3hrs.
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| eyeing the route from the lower saddle (petzoldt is the middle of the 3 prominent ridges) |
We wasted a little time figuring
out the best way to cross the snow in the stettner (having not brought crampons) but
eventually kicked steps across to reach the base. Chris’ birthday wish was to lead all the
pitches so I yielded the sharp-end to him for the day and he blasted off,
finding nice dry rock on the sunny E side of the ridge and wet/icy conditions
on the shady W side.
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| starting up |
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| the window pitch |
We linked the petzoldt down to 4 long pitches, with the
climbing gods delivered Chris a nice birthday gift, in the form of a stuck X4
cam he was able to retrieve sans nut tool on the fourth pitch. A short rappel and scramble put us on the
upper exum ridge, which we soloed except for 2 wet/icy sections of slab that we
pitched out. About 6 inches of fresh
snow up high from the previous day’s storm kept us on our toes and slowed the
pace, but we eventually arrived on the summit, approx. 8 hours into our
day.
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| view of the 3rd class ramp up/L to gain the upper exum (after a short rappel to the north to obvious ledge from top of petzoldt ridge) |
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| soloing the upper exum |
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| birthday summit of the Grand (photo: Sean or Kevin, thanks!) |
We ran into another party of 2 on the summit, and
slowly descended together down the very snowy & icy west side to the 2
rappels. After the raps, we continued
carefully making our way down, with the pacing quickening a few hundred feet
below the upper saddle once we were below the fresh snow.
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| full value conditions |
We stopped at the lower saddle to eat, drink
and remove our harnesses, where the clients and perhaps the guides too were
surprised we had summited given the conditions up high. We pounded out the remaining descent to the trailhead, arriving
at the 11:42 mark, ready to crack open cold birthday beers.
Thoughts: it felt
great to help Chris celebrate his birthday with such a stellar day in the
mountains. i look forward to returning for the full exum ridge, a sub 5 hr run attempt on the owen-spalding, and of course ford/stettner on skis. if you’ve got the legs for
it, car-car outings make so much more sense to me for the vast majority of the
climbing objectives in the tetons
Rose: stellar climbing on the petzoldt ridge, my first
summit of the Grand
Thorn: failing to stop to refill water on the last hour of
my big run
Bud: many more future adventures in this incredible mountain
range (w/ skis, rock shoes and running shoes)
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