fritzrips

[fritzrips]

Went up for the second weekend to take a crack a the Grand Traverse. A 9 peak, 14 mile, 12k day in the Tetons. The weather last weekend didn't work out, so we decided to try again. Being realistic and not superhuman, we opted to try to climb Teewinot, Owen, Grand, and Middle. Then bivi and finish S. Teton to Nez, which we did last weekend.

The traverse essentially. From R to L. Teewinot, Owen, Grand, Middle, South, and Nez Perce. Cloudveil, and other smaller peaks not visible between South and Nez.


At 2am, fast asleep in Lupine Meadows, two climbers went by and said their plans were the same as hours. Fine, they are an hour ahead. We were going to leave at 3am. (They later turned back) Then four folks from SLC arrived, they were going to do the Cathedral Traverse, the same route as ours for the first 3 peaks. SHIT! Better get ahead of them.

3am start, off route on Teewinot. Delay of 15 minutes. The party of four followed us off route, and were back by 5 minutes in total darkness. We regained our route, and I think they continued astray. This was a good thing for us. It ended up putting them about 1.5 hours behind us. We never saw them after they summited Teewinot.

Guy nearing the summit of Teewinot. 5,500ft of lung busting scrambling. Nice to get that over with.


The view from the summit of Teewinot.


A bunch of rock hopping, two raps, and a bunch of 4th and 5th class leads to the next summit of Mt. Owen on the right. The Grand Teton N. Ridge is the obvious skyline on the right of the Grand.


The N. Face of the Grand was devoid of snow. Insert political argument crap. Or just low snow year?


On the ledges of Owen. Owen is a short, often wet chimney. Then a bunch of scrambling. And some fun easy 5th class to the top.


Guy on the summit of Owen. On Teewinot and Owen, you can drop your packs below the summit. A nice respite from the burden of food/water/rope.


We met some locals who had just climbed Owen and were heading to the Grand as well. We joined them and tried to collaborate route finding memories on the tricky route finding to the Grandstand.


9 hours and about 8,000 or so feet of climbing later, we started up the N. Ridge. Hearing rumors of ice on the route, we opted to do the Italian Cracks variation. I had never done this variation, but we got a little beta, and decided it would be the way to go.

Guy on the first pitch of the N. Ridge.


Looking back. Teewinot on the far right, barely visible in the sun. And Owen on the left.


Guy topping out the fourth pitch on the Italian Cracks. Beautifully steep, exposed, well protected climbing. Highly reccomended.


Guy on pitch 5. We opted to do the traverse in approach shoes, and they worked perfectly for this type of climbing. They keep your feet warm and cozy in an otherwise cold toe situation.


Guy psyched to be on the 2nd ledge. We ran around the 2nd ledge and ran up the Owen Spalding to the summit, skipping the last two pitches in an effort to move faster.


Coil the 70 up and start scrambling again.


A popular place. The summit of the Grand. We summited about 12 hours after leaving the car. Rolando would have already finished the entire traverse 5 hours ago. Teewinot is visible in the background.


We descended to the Lower Saddle and filled our long dry water bottles and took a short 10 minute break. Now one last peak for the day, Middle Teton. Middle is a bunch of exposed scrambling, a dirt gully, and a fun steep pitch right at the end. We were both very tired and very brain tired from all the exposed, unroped climbing.

Guy leading the last roped pitch of the day.


Shadow of the Tetons.


Summit of Middle Teton, and a long walk down the SW Couloir, which is more fun to ski.


It was getting dark, and we planned to bivi and finish S. Teton to Nez Perce the next morning. We were out of water and had to hike a ways down Garnet to find water. This pissed us off, and zapped our remaining moral. We both decided we were mentally done. We had done the rest of the traverse last weekend, and that was good enough. To finish it would have only been self mutilation. We spent the night in Garnet and slogged out.


We both agreed that the likely best traverse in the Tetons is the Cathedral Traverse in a day. (Teewinot, Owen, Grand). It's fairly 'easy' and can be done in a long day. The Grand Traverse is cool too, but for mortals, non-locals, or non-guides, it's a shit ton of climbing to pull off in one day.