The GRAND Teton:
It isnothing short of Grand, that is for sure. This was an extremely cool experience and just an all-around awesometime!
Thetrip started out with two of my buddies, Steve and Zach. We flew up early to get the whole JacksonHole experience and met some Salt Lake City guys to be our friendly tourguides. We met up with Britton and Eddyat their house in SLC and then took the 5 hour drive to Jackson. The landscape was beautiful and I couldn’tsay enough about Utah and Wyoming in the summer time.
Sundaywas our first adventure; they decided it would be great to take us down theSnake River. The water was pretty low soit was a mild adventure but it was still fun none the less. Deer hanging out getting a drink 20 feet fromus on the shore, floating under a giant Bald Eagle perched on a root coming outof a cliff, and rapids w/ beer. Whatmore could you ask for?!
Monday,Monday was a do NOTHING day, sit in the park at town, see a movie, play on aslack line, and nothing else. We weremeeting with the rest of the group at 8:30 for dinner. 12 of us total, from San Diego; Myself,Steve, my brother Bryan(Zach, Chris,Helgi, & Brad all from work) and then the Salt Lake City crew; Britton,Eddy, Matt, Jon, and Adam. After dinner,it was GO TIME. We drove into a shoppingcenter parking lot, it was lit up by night lights and we started pulling outall of the gear, changing, getting organized, filling water bottles and downingred bulls (later find out this was a bad idea).
12:30am,it begins. Hiking in the dark is prettyfun, other than thinking every little noise is a giant Brown Bear waiting toeat you, it was peaceful & easy. Thehike started off pretty easy and fast paced, but it quickly turned in to steep switchbacks, thick navy roped pre-set to pull yourself up cliff sides, and moreswitchbacks. As we got higher and higherit was pretty neat to look back and see all the campers we had passed in thedark starting to stir, there was a type of freeway of head lamps behind us inthe valley in the dark. As the sunstarted to rise we had reached the lower saddle and were beginning to see downin to the valley at what we had already accomplished and were able to look upat how much FURTHER we still had to go.
Nowthat was sun was up, we had reached Wallstreet, a small ledge that traversesout over a cliff to get you to the climbing part of the journey. We stop and gear up, and start ourascent. We were simul-climbing which iswhere we don’t really use protection and/or gear in the rock, but instead thereare 6 people all tied in to one rope and if you fall, it is the person in frontof you responsibility to grab the rock and become your anchor! Our friends from work and on my rope, Chrisand Zach would put this to the test. Zach was awesome, he didn’t tell anyone, didn’t forewarn Chris, butapparently decided to slip on the rock and without missing a beat; Chris feltthe tug and caught him. Pretty cool!
As webegun to climb higher and higher, over 12k feet at this point, sickness was definitelystarting to reach me. Whether it wasfrom only eating Cliff Bars and Power Cells or it was the altitude, I willnever know, but it sucked!
Wesummited around 9:30, 13,700 feet. It was an absolutelyperfect day, you could not ask for anything better on the Grand. We hung out, tried to eat, took pictures andthen got ready for the decent. The mostfun part of the trip followed by the WORST part of the trip. After the summit there are two pretty coolrepels down to the next section. Zachand Helgi having never repelled before, this was going to be interesting. They both nailed it and acted as Pro’s. After this comes the hike down. The next 2 hours or so would involve no realtrail, all loose rock leading to 10-15 foot cliffs, and slowly swellingknees. Not fun. Other than that, nothing really to goover. Other than our quick stop at theriver where we had earlier hidden drinks in the river and marked with our patentedstone stacking skills, the hike down was just a test of your mentally ability.
Back inthe parking lot by 5:30pm on Tuesday afternoon. Off to pizza, then to the hotel, then ice for the knee, then sleep by8:30.
All inall, an amazing experience, test of both mental and physical strength, and abeautiful and epic adventure!
On tothe next one!!!!
