fritzrips

[fritzrips]

The following are pics from last weekend in the Tetons. We had ambitious plans that had to be adjusted for monsoonal flow and constant thunderstorms.

Arriving with black skies, lightning, and a bad forecast, we decided to check out the "Cloudveil Traverse". A fun traverse from South Teton to Nez Perce that wouldn't take too long and could be finished before the afternoon thunderstorms arrived.

Above the fog of the valley, but plenty of fog in the brain.


7:00am and the clouds are already coming in. Not a good sign.


Heading up South Teton.


Middle Teton and the Grand in the background, with Teewinot barely visible on the far right.


Summit of South Teton with Wister and Buck in the background.


It's all downhill from here, sort of.


The road ahead. Gilkey Tower, Spalding Peak, Cloudveil Dome, and Nez Perce. We went around Gilkey Tower to speed the traverse up. This proved to be the right decision later in the day.


"Moataneering" around Gilkey.


Spalding Peak environs.


The shimmey.

[fritzrips]

Getting beta for the Matternaught col exit on South Teton southern aspect ski descents.


Cloudveil Dome area.


One more to go, Nez Perce.


Lots of downclimbing off of Cloudveil Dome.


10:30 am or so, the Grand is in clouds, big black thumpers coming fast. We made the decision to skip Nez Perce to avoid becoming a lighting rod.


Off to Dornans for pizza and coffee during the thunderstorms. Then returning to Dornans later to dry out and get nachos and beer. Swallow Ibuprofen 800mg and Ambien 10mg, lights out.

Got up early the next morning and thrashed through the Teton Rain Forest.


After an early start, poor rehydration, beers and coffee, I felt like I was going to puke all morning. The morning was sucking ass until we got out of the valley fog, then the mind cleared and we were psyched again.


Jenny Lake.


Ahhh, morning sun after an evening of hail and thunderstorms.


Blue skies and a nice view of our route, Symetry Spire. We opted for this route because it could be done quickly before thunderstorms, and we had no rock shoes and a limited rock rack.

[fritzrips]

A classic Teton rock route. Great pro, great rock, good exposure. Super fun.


Did I mention the views?


Perfect golden granite.


And fun chimeys.


Weeee........moderate rock, light rack, comfy shoes.


Nice place to top out.


On the hike out we watched some others on the route.


Perhaps the best thing about Symetry Spire is the boat ride back.


It clouded up and started puking rain again a couple of hours later.

Fun weekend in the Tetons, despite the narrow weather windows.