Grand Teton National Park

As much as we thoroughly enjoyed our visit back home we were itchin to get back on the road. We have adapted and really grown to like this little gypsy life of ours. Our tenative plan when we wrap up the trip is to move to Whitefish for my job. With that, our frequenting Bozeman and Chico Hot Springs will be limited to about zilch due to the long drive. We figured that we should spend a day pokin around Bozo and finish it off with a nice soak at Chico! To get to Tetons we went through Yellowstone National Park where we did another hotspring soak in the Boiling River. This is a great spot where the hot sulfer pots pour into the chilly river melding into a perfect and serene soaking temp. After a relaxing morning in the river we made our way to Old Faithful where we sat on the deck of the old lodge drinking coffee and watched it erupt. That evening we camped outside the Teton park and plotted our following days. Our next objective was the Taminah Arete on the Matternought Peak. Permits were obtained to camp in the backcountry and we were off once again. For a few miles of the approach we were to follow the National park trail and then venture up canyon on a "good" climbers trail. The climbers trail disappeared and we found ourselves struggling up and over tedious boulder fields. We spent many hours traversing up and over boulder after boulder until we saw an easy point to drop down to the meadow next to the river. We both happened to be in a seriously weird funk and couldn't pull ourselves together or get in the hiking groove. Once we hit the meadow, the very well used climbers trail magically showed up and it was smooth sailing for a few minutes. Not 10 minutes after regaining the trail we rounded a corner and 15 feet infront of me was a huge mooses butt. It was a moma moose with it's baby and this wasn't anything to mess around with. We made a circum-navigation of the two moose and made lots of racket in hopes that they wouldn't stomp us to death. We were in the clear and took a huge breath of relief....well for a moment. Just as we avoided one threat we darn near walked into the daddy moose a tiny bit further up the trail. He was a bit more skiddish than the mom and the baby and quickly ran off the trail down to the right. Phew! My heart was thumpin and a bit flustered but we were on our way up trail again. Moose seem like big magestic creatures from far away but get too close and your as good as dead. This time we continued to make a serious amount of noise to ensure that we'd scared them all away. We aren't entirely sure what we saw next but there was another brown creature that made a rapid movement up ahead behind a large rock. At this point we had seriously had enough of this and at almost a running pace took off into the upper boulder fields to clear all the danger. Finally all the animal spooks had stopped! After we reached our destination, camp was set up, dinner consumed and we assesed our route endeavor for the following day. For a handful of reasons we were having doubt on doing it. The Tetons already are pretty stiff on their climbing grades and this route was going at 5.9 which would probably feel like a 5.10 to us. We decided the prudent decision would be to sleep in and hop in the alpine lake the next day.

We had a couple of other options as to which climb we'd attempt next. A few years ago we climbed the Grand so we decided to look around at other peaks in the area. We ended up choosing the South West Ridge of the Enclosure. this peak lies directly behind the Grand Teton and is only about 500ft shorter and gets summited far less than it's asthetic neighbor. It's tucked away at such an angle that really no matter your persepctive it isn't necassarily a summit that would catch your eye. With it's summit at 13,400 and 12 pitches of 5.7 we were beyond stoked to give it a shot! Ideally we wanted a camping permit for the lower saddle ( which is the best and most logical place to start when climbing the Grand) but with it being a weekend in the middle of August we were going to have to settle for a bivy farther up the mountain at the col below our climb. To get to our camp destination we had to reach the lower saddle and then continue on up the mountain. When we finally finished the ugly slog up to the lower saddle we were beat. Knowing that our campsite would by dry of water we needed to filter some H20 and get some dinner into us before continuing on. It took some major motivation to push forward but we rallied and made it across the scree slope and the 5th class traverse on the side of the granite walls to our destined spot. Once there we were beyond stoked at our position on the mountain. We were higher up so that meant we got an extra hour of warm daylight before the sun dipped below the hills in the distance. Watching the sun set over the valley gave us some sick photo op's!

view of the Grand Teton from the Lower Saddle

lower saddle between the Middle and the Grand

Thats our peak! (Enclosure)

 

 

By camping only minutes from the base of our route it also allowed us to sleep into the very civilized time of 7AM. yes please!! Sam owned the route like a beast, I on the other hand had a strangely hard time with this climb. The rock quality was immaculate but very very slippery! In comparison, imagine taking your granite counter tops, turning them vertical and added a few slopey bumps to try and cling on to. This is what I felt like I was doing for hours. As stated before, the grades are sandbagged a bit here in the park. Even though this route went at 5.7 it was certainly a challenge. All the pitches were long and good except for one horrendusly bad traverse in the middle. I cried, and cried alot. Not because it was strenously difficult but it was awkward and towards the end if I were to fall I'd either bash my head in or shatter my feet, neither seemed like situations I wanted to deal with. Sam gave some very kind words of encouragement to get me through it...**cough..NOT. Alas we summited and watched the debauchery of people herding off of the Grand Teton next to us. In total, there were 7 people on top of our peak (including ourselves). During the half hour that we spent on the summit we counted 63 people coming off the Grand and that didn't include the 30+ that had already descended or the few that hadn't summited yet. YIKES! It took us less than an hour to get off our summit back to the lower saddle. We chose to spend one more night up in the alpine before leaving towards the van. Between the two of us, we both managed to take zero pictures of either the climb or the summit of this route.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Rogers Pass

Before we crossed the border up north into Canada we decided that it was time to splurge and get a hotel room in Bellingham, Washington. We took the afternoon and perused the downtown where I ended up purchasing not 1, but 2 new pairs of climbing shoes. One pair of La Sportiva TC Pro's and La Sportiva Tarantulas. I had blown a hole in my beloved shoes and there wasn't going to be a convenient time frame to get them repaired. Climbing shoes aren't something that can just be replaced. It's a long term relationship that is formed between you and the shoe. It takes months before you can begin to allow another pair to be "ok" but usually never as good as the beloved pair you've climbed hundreds of routes in.

Showers and television kept us busy for the next few hours until we ventured out and found a brewery downtown where we had some very tasty salads and listened to a live band. The next morning we finished our errands and headed towards the border. Typically the Canadians make it as painful and difficult as possible to enter their country, but to our surprise the border patrol gentleman asked us relatively few questions and motioned us on our way. We took a day or so to get to Revelstoke where we gassed up at the pretty penny of about $6 per gallon. Once we left this town we had to push the turtle 45 miles up a gruesome pass to where we would spend the next few days climbing.

The weather wasn't looking stellar so to avoid the next day's afternoon thunderstorms we decided on a very early hike in to our camp. We began our hike at about 5AM and the plan was to scurry up the trail, set up camp and get some climbing done before the weather turned sour.

 

We got to camp around 7AM and much to our surprise every other single group up there was frantically packing their things and heading to the trailhead. Hmmm...odd? Just as we finished throwing up our tent, a big dark ominious cloud moved in. We sat around for about a half hour to see how the weather was going to play out. The thunder started booming and terrential rain set in. So much for us getting an early start to avoid "PM" showers! Hunkered deep in the tent we both fell fast asleep for many hours as the storm did its thang. Around 11, we pulled ourselves from the tent and figured it was nice enough to climbing. Being lazy and relaxing seemed so much better than putting effort into much of anything. The rest of the day purely consisted of napping and whishing we had more foor to gorge on :) We couldn't stay lethargic forever so we planned a very large and involved route for the morning. As per usual, the AM was frigid and full of crankiness but off we went. The Route we were aiming to do is called the Swiss Peaks Traverse which encompasses 5 prominent peaks of the area.

Peaks of the Swiss Traverse

 

 

We slogged over the Rogers glacier and then up the scree slope to gain its ridge. Once at the base of the mountain we threw on our gear and pitched out 2 easy 5th class sections. This may be coldest I have been yet on any of our climbs this trip. My hands were brutally fragile that even after the warmth returned to them they remained extremely painful for a good hour. The reach the top of our first peak, Rogers, it involved some mixed rock scrambling with snow ridge climbing. The absolute neatest thing we have done on the trip was the descent from this peak. There is a snow arete that forms the summit block and to get down you have to walk along an exposed knife edge snow ridge.

Once we had reached the col of Rogers and Grant we stopped for a cup of coffee and a snack in the sun! The weather wasn't looking awesome and we still had 4 peaks to go. for the sake of speed we decided to start simul-climbing. Towards the end of the 3rd peak my foot slipped while down climbing and had mild heart failure as I peeled off the mountain. Luckily, my right leg got caught between a snow patch and the rock catching my fall but leaving me dangling upside down. From what could have been a bad accident for the both of us, I walked away a little shaken up and a scraped ankle.

In the mountains, judgement calls have to be made based on many factors. At the moment we needed to decide if the weather was going to hold for us to push through the last 2 peaks of head back to camp now. Below us at the time was a very low angle snow coulair that we could easily retreat on. We opted to call it a day and begin our trek back to camp. The coulair descent began with 2 rappells with lots of elevation to still descend. Much to our surprise, the "low angle" coulair ended up being the steepest snow that we have encountered yet on the trip! Some 2 hours after downclimbing steep snow and ice we had reached the start of the glacier.

It turns out that the weather actually ended up being rather nice but no regrets to come off the traverse as the descent was an adventure in itself! Back to the van and on to the next climb.

 

We yet again had grand ambitions of doing another 3 peak traverse the next day. This one would logistically be more challenging as it started and ended in different locations which means carrying all our climbing plus overnight camping gear with us over the 3 peaks. To reduce pack weight we chose not to bring a tent as the weather looked perfect for the following days. For our first night there were 2 camping options: In the basin below the peaks or directly in the saddle between two large mountains. We chose the second option for the asthetic-ness of the camp site and in the morning we'd literally be able to wake up and climb with no approach! Clearly this was the less popular option as we were the only ones camped here vs 5 or 6 parites in the lower sites.

We found a great bivy site that was nestled up next to a large boulder with a nice wind wall on the other side. We carefully arranged our beds to maximize the warmth with the gear we brought. Next to our site was a bear box to store our food but I thought better of that and instead decided it would double as an emergency shelter.

Just as we were settling in for the evening and headlamps were being turned off, I spotted something move above our heads. Greeting us was a big furry tailed rat! Immedietly I became very very concerned that he was going to eat my nose off during the night. To top off my terror, his fury friend came out to join him. Great, not only am i panicked about one, but now I have 2 to battle. Meanwhile Sam was working his way to deep slumber completely un-bothered in the least. Literally every half hour I'd violently burst awake, turn on my headlamp and sit on rat patrol for a few minutes. Of course I'd wake unintentionally wake Sam up and he'd angirly curse be and demand that I quit being so paranoid. Again, trying to drift off into a light sleep and forget that they might eat my face off, Sam suddenly gave a voilent jerk and squirmed around. Quickly turning on my headlamp, low and behold, there was a rat sitting on his face!! This certainly did not put me to ease and throughout the whole night I'd periodically patrol for rats so we could contine a life with our rat eaten noses.

In the morning our motivation to do a 3 peak traverse wasn't there so instead we decided that we'd climb one of the peaks straight out of our campsite called Uto. The whole climb was easy 5th class so we solo'd the whole thing as well as soloing and rapping on the descent.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy