Lose Some, Win Some: The Grand Teton

GRAND TETON SUMMIT ATTEMPT...TAKE 1

The adventure began the day after Lori and Chacos marathon in Driggs Idaho. Nikelle Bird, Lori and I set out to summit the Grand Teton a 15 year dream of mine.

TETON FACTS-

Elevation:13,775 feet (4,199 meters)

Documented 1898 First Ascent

The first documented ascent of the Grand Teton was on August 11, 1898 by four climbers—Franklin Spalding, William O. Owen, Frank Petersen, and John Shive—from a party of six sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Club in Denver, Colorado. Spalding found the route and led the climbers to the summit. Spalding, Peterson, and Shive climbed their route again (now called theOwen-Spaldingroute) two days later, building a summit cairn and chiseling their names on a summit boulder. Owen stayed at The Enclosure and took photos of the trio on top.

The speed record was set by Bryce Thatcher on August 26, 1983 in 3 hours and 6 minutes from Lupine Meadows to the summit and back down.

The Owen Spalding Route (yellow)

Picture from the Idaho side coming from Rexburg

And the Wyoming side with halos posing as if it was a saint...don't be fooled!

We camped at the Gros Ventre Campground just outside of Moose.

We awoke at 3:30 to pack up and head to Lupin Medows Trailhead (6,732 ft).

Early morning walk in the clouds

Arriving at the Platforms campground

View of the Middle Teton

our firstglaciercrossing

Shortly after the platform campground the trail crosses a moraine field and reaches the Medows (9,200 ft) camping area after another 1.0 miles. At the Meadows stay right of the small log bridge and follow the trail as it begins to switchback up toward Spalding Falls. Above the falls, the trail continues climbing until reaching the Lower and Upper Moraine campsites (11,300 ft).

The Meadow (9,200 ft)

Finding our way through one of the several boulder fields

Above the Upper Moraine campsites the Lower Saddle headwall will appear directly to the west. Use the fixed rope to ascend the class 3/4 headwall section. A short hike above the headwall will end at the Lower Saddle (11,600 ft)

The Upper Moraine(11,300 ft)

The fixed rope...found and utilized!

View from the top of the Lower Saddle(11,600 ft)

A few minutes after arriving on the lower saddle to taking in the view a yellow and white Search and Rescuehelicopter flew in. Our assumptions were gloomy and we knew someones attempt to summit the Middle Teton did not end triumphant. An ecologistfrom the park, stationed at the Lower Summit, confirmed our fears. They were doing a body recovery from the day before. A man from Victor Idaho had summited the Middle Teton with his two friends. On their decent their partner fell 1000ft to his death. His friends didn't witness the fall, however, another party did. They connected with the victims friends informing them of the mishap. Search and Rescue had been unable to recover the body due to an afternoon storm the day prior, They had returned to finish the search and bring the body home. Around three hours later crews located his body. Inreverencewe took our helmets off, standing on the rugged, unforgiving mountain side, in a moment of silence as we watched the body be lifted in a liter and flown toward Jackson Hole.

Emotions fluctuated from excitement as we reached totrail headto breathtaking aw of the view, fear we had lost the trail, contemplating andreverencinglife, being slap-happy and unable to control our laughter, respect for the elements to agonizing physical pain and a sense of ourmortality.

HERE IS SLAP-HAPPY...

From the Lower Saddle, we hiked north toward the obvious black dike (which the slap-happy pictures are on). The trail split several times, however, we were able to keep forging on with little questioning to the left (west) side of the dike. We were met by a rugged feature called the Needle. We engaged in a class 3 for a short distance until we reached another headwall. The nextobstaclewe were searching for was the Eye of the Needle.

The Eye of the Needle!

Unable to find the eye of the needle (a tunnel-like opening in the rock)or a safe way to the trail we agreed we needed a little moreguidance so we turned to prayer. After the pray was said a female climber popped out of a tunnel five feet in front of us...the eye of the needle...our summit continued.

Continuingthrough the Eye of the Needle, we then traversed north along a ledge until reaching a large boulder which we were required to climb around with a little exposure...

If this isn't exposure

THEN THIS IS!

Reaching the Upper Saddle (13,160 ft)

What we had left to the summit (610 ft) which remained untouched by the three of us....

if you look closely at this picture you can see a climber (in orange) at the top of the rope and another repelling down (in blue). But what you can't see are all the quick moving black clouds from the west forging toward us. A storm we would not be able to beat nor did we have the courage to fight and possible risk life. We chose to enjoy the upper saddle for 15 minutes and head down as quickly as possible before lightning, thunder and hail and rain. We could not have made a more wise choice...LIFE.

Back down to safety at Lower Saddle

Nikelle...tell us how you really feel!

The rain jackets were the result of the storm that overshadowed the Grand

Back to the moraine file from the lower saddle

"This is one mountain I would not disgraced with a poorperformance"

Reminiscent: 20 hours of hiking post Lori's marathon...twobumknees...contemplatingsleeping in the middle of the trail...spouts ofuncontrollablelaughter and hours of silent pain staking hiking...arriving to the car at 11:49pm...sleeping in the parking lotillegally...lostIbuprofen...freezing...leg cramps..."themoleculesand the cells"..."pick the one you like the best"...Lori sleeping outside of her sleeping bag from intense heat wave..