|
Base Camp
Up
| |
- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: July 7-8,
2008
- Miles Hiked:
13.0
- Elevation Gain: 7,038'
- Hiking Partner(s): Brian Kooienga,
Jeff Shafer, Kevin Smith
- Description:
- The four of us left Denver (CO) around 4:30 pm on Sunday evening and
drove to Rock Springs (WY). After spending the night in a hotel,
we finished the drive to Jackson (WY) and began to accumulate beta on
the local climbing conditions in the area. It was my first time to
the Tetons, and I was amazed at the mountain range. The
information we initially received was good; however, it wasn't what we
wanted to hear. The route we intended to climb on the Grand was a
bowling alley of rock debris so we opted for the Upper Exum. We
caught some lunch at Dornan's and finished packing our backpacks for the
slog up Garnet Canyon. It took us 4 hours to reach the Moraine
camp approximately 1,000' below the Lower Saddle. We set up camp
on the snow field, ate some dinner, and called it a day.
- Given the significant amount of snow still in the area, we were
prepared for almost anything. I think we left camp around 4:00 am
and made good time to the Lower Saddle. Similar to the Notch on
Longs Peak, we primarily climbed in two separate teams of two. At
the Lower Saddle, I grabbed the heavier pack and immediately felt like I
was walking in thick mud. Unfortunately, this came back to haunt
us within an hour due to a party of five that passed us on the approach.
Anyway, we worked our way around the Needle and through some class 4
climbing that somehow avoided the Eye of the Needle. We crossed
the top of the Wall Street Couloir and abruptly ran into the party that
passed us below at the beginning of Wall Street. I hate to
complain too much, but they were painfully slow and all of us got cold
waiting for them to make the step-around move at the end of Wall Street.
- We quickly made it through Wall Street once they had cleared the
pitch and waited some more, although we were at least now in the sun.
We passed one of their teams on the Golden Staircase, but the second
team of the party wasn't as cooperative. After the Golden
Staircase was a scramble pitch that led to the Wind Tunnel. At the
base of the Wind Tunnel we nearly went hypothermic as we were out of the
sun waiting again. The other party's climbing was slow and
extremely inefficient with three people using two full ropes and another
stronger two climbers on a different rope. We finally passed all
of them at the top of the Wind Tunnel and climbed what I refer to as the
Boulder Ledge Pitch in two short pitches due to rope drag.
- Above the Boulder Ledge is the Friction Pitch. After the
Friction Pitch there were two scramble pitches before the V Pitch or
Open Book Pitch. On top of the Open Book Pitch is another pitch
that has a somewhat overhanging left leaning crack that you climb before
scrambling to the ridge crest. After gaining the ridge, There is
one more technical section that has a large jam crack with considerable
exposure. From here, you can simply scramble the ridge and boulder
hop to the summit.
- Jeff, Kevin, and I switched to rock climbing shoes at Wall Street
while Brian remained in mountaineering boots all day. We carried
an axe and crampons to the summit from the Lower Saddle but never needed
them. We all did our fair share of leading, following, or sport
climbing depending on the difficulty of the pitches.
Unfortunately, none of us took many photos of the climbing as we
concentrated on staying warm, not dieing, and route finding. Brian
and Jeff had climbed the route a couple of years ago guided by Exum.
This year's experience proved to be much different for them and
apparently climbing is more difficult when you have to think.
Route finding, leading, difficulty to bail, and simply climbing
independently without immediate support adds not only to the challenge
of a climb, but also to the satisfaction gained from success.
- We spent about 30 minutes on the summit where I personally felt a
greater sense of accomplishment than on any other mountain I've climbed.
We weren't fast and the Upper Exum is certainly not a difficult route in
general rock climbing terms, but we were safe and successful (and it was
difficult enough for me at least). Shortly after summiting, a solo
climber joined us who was extremely familiar with the descent down the
Owen-Spaulding route. As he took a hit off his pipe, we convinced
him to guide us to the rappel stations to speed our descent and ease our
minds. The down-climbing went quickly and we rappelled Sargent's
Chimney and the longer Owen Chimney. At this point, our party got
a little spread out as we scrambled down the route from the Upper Saddle
and worked our way back to the Lower Saddle. Just as we arrived at
the Lower Saddle, Brian and I witnessed another large rock slide down
the couloir we wanted to climb. We down-climbed the
snow field at the headwall of Garnet Canyon and returned to camp back at
the Moraine.
After dinner, we went to bed satisfied with our day.
- Maps:
- Photographs:
| |
www.
just
hiking
.com
|
