Trying for the Grand Teton at 50

On the way home from Martin's Cove, a couple of the young men in the stake approached me on the bus and asked if I would take them up the Grand. Told them I didn't know if I could make it any more, but I thought that Ty would love the chance to go up the Grand and he would have a week between when school started and he finished working for the Forest Service. So we set if up for Aug. 22 & 23.



Watching the weather, it looked like we could skirt in on the tail end of a cold August storm, and that is what we did. Six of us, Ty, Andy Johnson, Aidrian Leavitt, Dave Pace, Greg Linton, and me left Idaho Falls early in the morning. We arrived at the climbing ranger station in Jenny Lake, just after they opened. In years gone by that wouldn't have been good (try getting teenagers up in the morning, wait most of you have teenagers and the rest of you are teenagers:), but there were only 3 groups in front of us and one of them was going backpacking. So we got the campsite that I thought we be good at the moraines at about 10,000 feet; good as in, as good as I could go in one day. And given that the winds were 70-90 mph during the night at the lower saddle, about 1,000 feet above us, it was probably better at the moraines where the wind was only 50-70 mph. At least we probably got 2-3 hours of sleep.





We were up at 3:30 AM wondering if it was worth tempting the wind, but the wind seemed to be quieting and the weather forecast was for a clearing day, so we started a little slowly, but headed up the trail at about 4:30 AM. About 5:30 we hit the head wall below the saddle and started climbing in the dark, I think it sobered up the kids a little, but they came up really well. On the saddle, the sun started to rise and I checked the thermometer, 25 F. And with the wind probably blowing 20-30 mph, my old wind chill chart said about -5 F wind chill. The cold was pushing all of our clothing. You just don't want to carry the extra weight if you don't have to and I think we were all cutting it close than comfortable in the clothing category.



From the lower saddle, you head up couloir towards the upper saddle. About half-way up, you cut over the ridge and to the base of wall street, which takes you to Exum ridge. From there it is up the ridge on the Golden Staircase, through the Windy Tunnel, up the friction pitch and the V-pitch and then up the summit block and on to the summit. We reached the the point where you cut up and over the ridge and a couple of us were moving slow in the cold. We decided it would be better to head down. Ty went on with 3 of the young men. I figured all of us could to make it to the top, but if your getting hammered going up, I know how hard getting back to the car can be.




The first time I went to the top, I was 25 years younger and it was cold like this. In fact it was so cold, we couldn't get water, it was all frozen. That time we got hammered by dehydration. And I didn't make it back to the car until after 1 AM and there wasn't anyone coming looking for me. They got back to the cars and crashed, there wasn't going to be anyone looking for anyone until morning.




Now it isn't the easiest thing to do; sending your son off on something potentially deadly. I know Ty is well qualified, climbs better than I ever did. But sometimes it isn't about climbing, but about experience. But within an hour, the wind died, the sun rose high enough in the sky to warm the air and it turned into one of the most beautiful days in the Tetons. They were able to spend an hour at the summit. In fact one of the boys even cooked up some noodles for lunch at 13,700 feet. Congratulations guys!



When you start down, you come down a different route than when you went up. So it is a new experience. And you don't go straight down, you have to work your way south and find a couple of rappel points. It isn't too bad if you can follow someone that has an idea of where they are going. They did well and found the two rappels and made it to the upper saddle. Now there are 3 couloirs coming off the upper saddle and you don't want to take two of them. The first on drops down below the face of Exum ridge, but ends in some nasty cliff bands that are very hard to get through. The middle one is the one you want, but it starts the same as the third one we drops off into Valhalla canyon and you are going to Idaho and not the trail head. Well, they dropped into the first one, but realized they weren't in the right one when they saw wall street. So the climbed over the ridge and into the correct couloir.



We waited in the lower saddle for a couple of hours enjoying the beauty of the high mountains. If you ever want to have a beautiful hike, I would highly recommend the hiking to the lower saddle in the Tetons. You have to negotiate the headwall, but there is a fixed rope there. It isn't a place you would want to take small kids, but then again, could luck on getting small kids there. When we were hiking in, there was a six-year old hiking out and I've seen eight years old kids there before. But I would recommend a serious 12 before I would take them. But if they can make it to the headwall, they can make it up the headwall. In fact when we were coming down, there was a 60-year old lady with a couple of here kids hiking up to the saddle.

And the trip out was a grind like always. It just pounds you to death or at least it does me. You've got 9 miles from the saddle to the trail head and about 4,000 vertical feet. Put a 30-40 pound pack on your back, and that is a lot of pounding on your knees and feet. The first time I did it I lost 7 toenails and probably had a dozen blisters. This time I loaded Ty up with weight and probably only carried 30 pounds instead of the 40-45 pounds I've carried before. I ended up with only 1 blister, one hot spot, and one purple toenail. And we were eating at Wendy's in Jackson at 9:00 pm and home by 11pm.

And to top it all off, Ty headed up to Moscow the next day after a couple of days of very short sleep. THANK YOU, TY!