With the exception of the ever present wind....
One of the hardships of living in CO. ;-)
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Green Mt. Loop Run
I had the intention of running S. Boulder, Bear, & Green today, but a late night movie put a nix on that. I finally left the house at 11:00 and settled on the Green Mt. loop. I started at Chataqua ran to Bear Canyon, up to the top of Green Mt, down through Gregory Canyon back to Chataqua. It was another beautiful day.
With the exception of the ever present wind....
One of the hardships of living in CO. ;-)
With the exception of the ever present wind....
One of the hardships of living in CO. ;-)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
A Beautiful Day in Boulder
You never know what you are going to get with the weather in CO. Earlier in the week we had 80+ MPH winds which knocked out the power for 14hrs at the house. I woke up the next morning freezing cold. The wind died down, but it was snowing. It gave me a creepy armagedon kinda feeling.
Today brought blue skies and pretty warm temps. I decided to sleep in and get a nice run up Bear Canyon in before going to church this evening. Bear Canyon is one of my favorite canyons to run in around Boulder. It's pretty runner friendly, the switchbacks aren't so steep that you have to walk them. And, the views aren't too bad either.
The only downside to a warm day in the middle of winter...
It sucks to get a pound of this stuck to the bottom of each shoe...makes running not so fun! Soon enough I went from mud to the snow.
It was another great day in Bear Canyon.
Today brought blue skies and pretty warm temps. I decided to sleep in and get a nice run up Bear Canyon in before going to church this evening. Bear Canyon is one of my favorite canyons to run in around Boulder. It's pretty runner friendly, the switchbacks aren't so steep that you have to walk them. And, the views aren't too bad either.
The only downside to a warm day in the middle of winter...
It sucks to get a pound of this stuck to the bottom of each shoe...makes running not so fun! Soon enough I went from mud to the snow.
It was another great day in Bear Canyon.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A Quick (hopefully) Post
I just bought a new and more importantly faster laptop on Friday. I'm hoping it will make it much faster to type up a blog, instead of the all day affair it was with my old laptop....the reason I quit blogging. So, to test it out, I'll give a quick recap of today.
I spent yesterday volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and hung sheet rock the entire day. Of course my group was working on the first floor which meant a lot of ceiling to hang. By the end of the day I didn't think I could lift my arms up over my head anymore. Conveniently enough I had plans to ice climb today.
My alarm went off at the ungodly time of 3:30am. Just reaching over to turn my alarm off caused my upper back and neck to hurt.....I didn't have much enthusiasm for the day ahead. We were pleasantly suprised at the TH. Usually there are gale force winds blowing at this TH and this morning there were none! And when we got to the ice, the sky was blue and the ice was glistening (the weather forcast said 80% chance of snow and -22 windchill...there wasn't even a breeze blowing).
We decided to go to Jewell Lake since Prakash and I hadn't ice climbed in a bit and it was Shawn's first time. Although, he looked like he had done it before.
We climbed for a few hours and got quite a few laps in. A combination of hanging sheet rock yesterday and a lot of tool swinging today, my arms were done and the clouds were finally starting to move in so we packed up and made our way out. Frozen alpine lakes make for great winter shortcuts.
It turned out to be a great day in the mountains. And, this blogging is much faster on the new laptop!
I spent yesterday volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and hung sheet rock the entire day. Of course my group was working on the first floor which meant a lot of ceiling to hang. By the end of the day I didn't think I could lift my arms up over my head anymore. Conveniently enough I had plans to ice climb today.
My alarm went off at the ungodly time of 3:30am. Just reaching over to turn my alarm off caused my upper back and neck to hurt.....I didn't have much enthusiasm for the day ahead. We were pleasantly suprised at the TH. Usually there are gale force winds blowing at this TH and this morning there were none! And when we got to the ice, the sky was blue and the ice was glistening (the weather forcast said 80% chance of snow and -22 windchill...there wasn't even a breeze blowing).
We decided to go to Jewell Lake since Prakash and I hadn't ice climbed in a bit and it was Shawn's first time. Although, he looked like he had done it before.
We climbed for a few hours and got quite a few laps in. A combination of hanging sheet rock yesterday and a lot of tool swinging today, my arms were done and the clouds were finally starting to move in so we packed up and made our way out. Frozen alpine lakes make for great winter shortcuts.
It turned out to be a great day in the mountains. And, this blogging is much faster on the new laptop!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Teton Trip 2010: 7/31 - 8/7
This was a greatly anticipated trip. I've been planning for it ever since the drive home from last years trip. A year of anticipation, looking at routes, planning, dehydrating meals, watching the snow/weather conditions, etc and the big week finally arrived.....
Saturday 07/31/2010
Fred showed up at my place bright and early around 7:30. We loaded all of my gear into the Xterra and we began the 7 hour drive to Jackson Hole and the Tetons. Before my trip last year, when I thought of Wyoming I pictured mountains, forest, raging rivers....don't be fooled, this is not the case! Until the Tetons come into view it is a mind-numbing drive of virtually baren land that in my opinion, runs a close 3 to driving through Kansas and Nebraska. Luckily, Fred and I were pretty excited and passed the time with talk of our plans. We reached the town of Dubois and I knew it was a matter of time before we made it over the pass and were greeted by the Tetons. That was until we hit construction that they apparently didn't finish last year. It prolonged our time in the car by an hour, at which point we were getting super anxious. Just as Fred was about to punch the gas and take out the pace truck that was leading us through the constuction, we popped over the pass and were treated to our first views of the Tetons.
Despite the construction we made descent time which got us there before the ranger station closed. We decided to go ahead and get our permit for the week so that we didn't have to worry about it in the morning before starting our hike. A pic of the Grand Teton, Mt Owen & Teewinot respectively....
As we were walking into the ranger station an older man, his wife (we later learned Jerry & Jeannie) & a guide were also getting a permit as the man and guide were planning on climbing the Grand Teton also. I was awe struck.....the old man had to be at least in his 70's, he had a huge brace on each knee and he couldn't even stand up straight! The approach to the lower saddle alone is a demanding hike with a little scrambling which totals a little over 7 miles. Then there's the climbing. There are "easy" climbing routes on the Grand, but they are all long (the Upper Exum is 12 pitches) and not straight forward. Going from the trailhead to the top totals 7000 feet of elevation gain. Needless to say, I was pretty inspired by this guy's ambition. Once we got our permit we headed for Jackson to grab our last good meal before heading into the backcountry the next day. A pic of Garnet Canyon & the lower saddle (taken last yr), our home for the next week.....
We grabbed a beer and bite to eat at the Snake River Brewery and headed back out of town to camp for the night.
Sunday 08/01/2010
We woke up to an amazing view of the Tetons and couldn't help but get excited to get started. We hopped in the truck and started out the road only to be delayed yet again, but not by construction this time. There was a herd of about 30 buffalo strolling up the road. They weren't the slightest intimidated by the Xterra, nor did they seem to share in our excitement about the hiking and climbing we were anxious to do. They just mozied along doing their thing, straying only to stare us down as they walked around the truck, as if we were in their way!
We finally made it into the park where we grabbed breakfast. Since the trailhead elevation starts so low we wanted to get started before the temps got too hot. At the trailhead we sorted gear, packed 5 days worth of "stuff" into our packs and started hiking. I think Fred and Jamie will concur, my backpacking setup isn't exactly optimal and my back was hurting before we even hiked out of the parking lot.....in my defense we were parked all the way at the end ;-) Once I got past the aching back the hike wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being last year. The trees keep you shaded in the beginning. Fred making his way up the trail.... 
The first part of the hike isn't anything spectaclular, just like any trail you would hike in CO. Then, you make the turn go up a few switchbacks and start heading into Garnet Canyon when your eyes are hit with this view.... 
And the view only gets better from this point on.
Almost like a right of passage into the canyon, you have to make your way over a section of car sized boulders. Normally this would be kinda fun, but the loads on our backs bumped it up a few notches. Next, we passed the Meadows where we would be camping the second half of our stay. Fred was getting ready to look for a camping spot here and I assured him we were to keep going higher. I don't know who actually reads this blog, so I'm not going to write out his response....let's just say he wasn't thrilled. :-).....
This is the point where the hike gets a little tough. You start climbing up a bunch of short steep switchbacks that never want to end and your pack seems to start doubling, tripling, quadrupling in weight. Fred was desperately trying to think of things in his pack he didn't need that he could throw off. I forgot how bad this last part of the hike sucked and was soon joining Fred in his thoughts. Once above all of the switchbacks it was more car sized boulders to hope over. Then, finally a camp spot! We didn't bother sizing up any of the other spots....we took the first one we came to! Home sweet home....
We put the tent up, filter water, ate, chatted with a few other climbers and curled up in our sleeping bags for the night.......the loooong, wiiiindy, sleepless night. The wind was blowing so hard it was like we were in a garbage bag. It never let up the entire night.
Monday 08/02/10
We both slept less than an hour the entire night and when it came time to get up and start hiking I really had to talk myself into it. It was still dark and the wind had let up to the point that the tent wasn't about to rip into shreds.....perfect for sleeping, but I begrudgingly got ready. We managed to find the trail by headlamp and started making our way to the lower saddle. The lower saddle from camp, pic taken the previous day....
We made it to the snowfield below the saddle. At this point you can gain the saddle by climbing the snowfield or by climbing a fixed rope up the rock band. The ranger at the station told us the rope never melted out and we should take the snowfield. He also told us that we didn't need crampons, only our ice axes. We took his advise and planned to go up the snowfield, but what we found at 530 am was a solid sheet of frozen snow and ice. After about 10 steps in our trail shoes we decided it wasn't a good idea and went back to the trail. We decided to check the fixed ropes since we saw a few headlamps in that area earlier as we were hiking up. Low and behold the rope was good to go. I guess you can't take anyone's word, you have to be prepared for anything and see for yourself. We made the saddle just in time to catch the end of the sunrise. (at this point my batteries decided to start dying and worked only sporadically)....
A little alpine glow on the Middle Teton and Teepe Glacier....
At the saddle we met up with Rob and Jason whom we talked with the night before and were happy to hear that they didn't sleep either. They were heading for the Upper Exum also, so we decided join up. The Grand from the Lower Saddle (pic by Fred)....
The four of us made our way up the saddle to the cutoff for the Upper Exum route. We did a little class 4/low 5 scrambling to the "eye of the needle". Fred jumping in the eye.....
Just a short hike/scramble from here is Wall Street, the ramp that leads you onto the Upper Exum. Wall Street.... 
Wall Street leads to the first airy move, Leap of Faith that brings you onto the Upper Exum. The Leap of Faith basically consists of bellying up to a boulder and slithering around it to a short airy step move. Jason belaying Rob at the Leap of Faith..... 
Fred coming around the Leap of Faith.....
Next we made our way up the Wind Tunnel, and windy it was....
We worked our way to the Friction Pitch (called so because there aren't many holds and you have to really use your feet). This is suppose to be the crux of the climb, but after enough Flatiron slab climbing in CO I didn't find it hard at all. I found a few other pitches (mostly where we were a little off route) more challenging. Coming up the top part of the Friction Pitch....
We missed what is suppose to be the best pitch on the route, the V Pitch and went up a short snowfield to a slab. A group of locals caught up to us and suggested we follow them to what they called the "boulder move", so we did. This turned out to be one of my favorite pitches of the route. It consisted of a big step over the open air to a nice foothold where you could look straight down and see a thousand or two feet of air below you. Then it was a matter of making an awkward move or two to get started and working your way up. The start of the boulder move....
After this it was a nice stroll across a snowfield and some easy scrambling to the summit. It felt great to finally be standing on the top of the Grand Teton after being turned around the year before and planning for this for an entire year. The sky was blue and clear; the views were amazing, to the west Idaho and to the east the Jackson Valley and Wyoming, the company was great (I met another climber from Pittsburgh), we couldn't have asked for a better day. Fred and I excited to be on the summit....
I can't remember how long we spent on the summit, quite a while, we figured we better start making our way down. Our descent consisted of going down the Owen-Spaulding route, some easy downclimbing, 2 rappels and some nice loose scree, of course. The rap down Sargent's Chimney.....
Fred and I decided since it was such a great day we were going to take our time getting down and enjoy the mountain, scenery and day; as usually we're running down to beat the weather. Finally hunger got the best of us and we made our way back down to the Lower Saddle and camp. Back at camp we ate and revelled in the climb and the fact that we climbed the Grand, and I couldn't help but wonder if Jerry (the old guy from the ranger station) made it up. We were in our sleeping bags fast asleep before the sun went down.....and thankfully it wasn't windy!
Tuesday 08/03/2010
The night before we had a few climbs in mind for the day, but decided to sleep on it and see how we felt in the morning before deciding on which to do. I woke up a few times through out the night to hear it raining. Waking again at 630 to find it still raining, I went back to sleep knowing the rock would be wet and not great for climbing.....I'm not going to lie, I was kind of happy to be able to keep on sleeping. Eventually the rain stopped, starving I made some breakfast. I think both Fred and I were thankful for the rain and the excuse to relax at camp. We lounged around camp for a while and watched all the climbers coming to and fro. It's amazing how many people come up to climb. It was also the day we had to move camp down to the Meadows. We eventually packed up and started heading down. The grassy patch in the lower right corner is where we were spending the second part of the week.....
We made our way down to a big boulder which seems to be a popular stopping spot along the way. The boulder sits next to the Petzoldt Cave and low and behold there was Jerry and his guide. We talked to the guide and found out Jerry was breaking up the approach into 3 days and attempting the climb on the 4th. It was great to be able to take our time and enjoy the amazing scenery.....
We made it to the Meadows and found a nice spot against a boulder which would block the wind nicely. We pitched the tent and realized we were camped next to Jerry's wife Jeannie. Our new home....
We chatted a bit then Fred and I propped our packs up against some rocks, propped ourselves up against our packs and took a nap. Not long after, I woke up to someone saying "hey, Heather". I thought I was dreaming, but it turns out Jamie hiked in and managed to find us. We passed the afternoon talking about the climb, eating and watching parents and their 2 young daughters come in and set up camp. By the end of the evening we made plans to get up and climb a 5.6 route on Nez Perce. The Tetons' shadow stretching across the Jackson Valley....
Wednesday 08/04/2010
With Fred and I still trying to recover from our sleepless night and run up the Grand, we didn't quite get the early start that we were hoping for. Most of the people that were climbing had already left camp, including the young family. We slowly got our stuff together and started up the loose rock gully to Nez Perce. I managed to forget to take a picture of this from camp, but honestly it's something I really don't care to remember anyways. It seemed like every boulder or rock we touched was ready to roll down on the person below us. Thanks to this the approach to our route took much longer than expected and it was getting too late to start a technical climb with a team of 3 climbers. Especially with the lightening incident on the Grand on a couple of weeks old and fresh in our minds. At this point Fred decided he had enough and headed back to camp. Jamie and I decided to make our way to the 4th class route which required traversing some not so fun loose gullies. Jamie making his way around a ledge to checkout one of the gullies......
The day pretty much consisted of scrambling up loose rock, traversing loose rock and decending loose rock. It didn't seem like anything we touched was really attached to the mountain. Jamie on one of the few solid parts of the day....
There was a little bit of exposure along the way.....
And we couldn't go wrong with the view..... 
We inadvertantly made a quick stop on the wrong summit....that's always such a kick in the butt. Jamie pulled through and found the correct one.....
We took some pics, took in the amazing view and grabbed a bite to eat before the clouds started moving in and kicked us off. We did two short raps....
Then it was back to the loose mess, I started a nice rock slide at one point, we both fell a couple times....I was kind of happy when we got to the snowfields. Looking back at the loose mess....
Back at camp we found Fred chatting with Jeannie. Not long after we got back a light rain started to fall. I was starving and had a great idea....the bear box that we put our food in was under a nice overhanging rock, so why not sit under the rock while it's raining and cook some food to eat. Sounds like a good idea. As the rain started coming down harder it began running around the rock and gradually dripped closer and closer to us. We kept moving our stoves and food closer and closer under the rock. Eventually we were against the rock sitting in the fetal position eating. We still felt like this was the best restaurant in WY. Once it stopped raining 3 rainbows formed and stretched over the valley. There was only one left by the time I grabbed my camera......
not long after we cleaned up and were standing there chatting when the ground started to tremble. My first reaction was to look at the mountains to see which one was falling down. Turns out I had just felt my first earthquake! I'm not sure how common this is in the Teton Range as I've never heard of anyone else experiencing this. This drew Jeannie out of her tent too. While were chatting with her a ranger came looking for her to let her know Jerry made it to the top of the Grand Teton and instead of spending the night at the Saddle, he was going to come back to camp. The news made my day! The rest of the evening none of us could take our eyes off trail as we waited for him to come back. It was a pretty quite night at camp as it was just Jeannie, our group and the young family, but they hadn't returned yet. We couldn't hold our eyes open any more so we headed for our tents. I woke up around 1100 to Jerry and his guide returning.
Thursday 08/05/2010
One by one we crawled out of our tents. Jerry and Jeannie of course beat us all. We couldn't wait to talk with Jerry, but they were eating so we decided to do the same. Finally, we all offered Jerry our congrats and listened to the story of why he was here and how the climb was. We learned that he was even thinking about climbing Mt. Moran which is another demanding climb in the range. Listening to all of their climbing stories showed their love for the mountains. We all slowly packed up camp and took one last look around at the view. We also noticed that the young family never made it back to their camp. Fred went over to get their name off of the permit, but of course they didn't put it out. We checked with Jeannie and Jerry but they hadn't seen them either. Fred sat down for one last chat with the locals....
We finally threw our packs on, said our goodbyes to Jeannie and Jerry and started the hike out.... 
It felt great to get back to the car and take our packs and shoes off. We made a quick stop at the ranger station to let them know about the missing family. They were going to send a ranger up to look for them. Then we hightailed it to the American Alpine Club Ranch for long over due showers. It's amazing how good a shower can feel! Next we went to Jackson for real food. How could you not fall in love with a town like this!
We filled up with food and beer then went back to the place we camped our first night. We made plans to check out some local climbing crags the next day and turned in early because it was raining.
Friday 08/06/2010 & Saturday 08/07/2010
We woke up to cloudy gray skies. We decided to go grab a coffee and go to the ranger station so Jamie could get his permit for his and Steven's trip then figure out what to do with our day. While at the ranger station we found out the missing family climbed the Grand, couldn't find the rap station to get down and ended up spending the night only to be found by the ranger they sent up. The weather forecast at the ranger station wasn't looking too promising for the day so we decided to head for Yellowstone since Fred had never been there. We did the usual tourist loop. We saw Old Faithful, bison, elk, moose, black and a grizzly bear with her cubs (which made the day complete for the boys). We headed back to Jackson and enjoyed a really good mealand margs at a Mexican restaurant....I'm not sure if I enjoyed my meal more or watching Jamie eat his ;-) Then, headed back to our camp spot where Steven eventually showed up at.
We woke up fairly early. We talked about Jamie and Stephen's plans for the week, went for a coffee and started the long drive home. The drive was even worse on the way back.....not only is it already boring, but it also meant we were heading back to the real world.
What a great week!
Saturday 07/31/2010
Fred showed up at my place bright and early around 7:30. We loaded all of my gear into the Xterra and we began the 7 hour drive to Jackson Hole and the Tetons. Before my trip last year, when I thought of Wyoming I pictured mountains, forest, raging rivers....don't be fooled, this is not the case! Until the Tetons come into view it is a mind-numbing drive of virtually baren land that in my opinion, runs a close 3 to driving through Kansas and Nebraska. Luckily, Fred and I were pretty excited and passed the time with talk of our plans. We reached the town of Dubois and I knew it was a matter of time before we made it over the pass and were greeted by the Tetons. That was until we hit construction that they apparently didn't finish last year. It prolonged our time in the car by an hour, at which point we were getting super anxious. Just as Fred was about to punch the gas and take out the pace truck that was leading us through the constuction, we popped over the pass and were treated to our first views of the Tetons.
Despite the construction we made descent time which got us there before the ranger station closed. We decided to go ahead and get our permit for the week so that we didn't have to worry about it in the morning before starting our hike. A pic of the Grand Teton, Mt Owen & Teewinot respectively....
As we were walking into the ranger station an older man, his wife (we later learned Jerry & Jeannie) & a guide were also getting a permit as the man and guide were planning on climbing the Grand Teton also. I was awe struck.....the old man had to be at least in his 70's, he had a huge brace on each knee and he couldn't even stand up straight! The approach to the lower saddle alone is a demanding hike with a little scrambling which totals a little over 7 miles. Then there's the climbing. There are "easy" climbing routes on the Grand, but they are all long (the Upper Exum is 12 pitches) and not straight forward. Going from the trailhead to the top totals 7000 feet of elevation gain. Needless to say, I was pretty inspired by this guy's ambition. Once we got our permit we headed for Jackson to grab our last good meal before heading into the backcountry the next day. A pic of Garnet Canyon & the lower saddle (taken last yr), our home for the next week.....
We grabbed a beer and bite to eat at the Snake River Brewery and headed back out of town to camp for the night.
Sunday 08/01/2010
We woke up to an amazing view of the Tetons and couldn't help but get excited to get started. We hopped in the truck and started out the road only to be delayed yet again, but not by construction this time. There was a herd of about 30 buffalo strolling up the road. They weren't the slightest intimidated by the Xterra, nor did they seem to share in our excitement about the hiking and climbing we were anxious to do. They just mozied along doing their thing, straying only to stare us down as they walked around the truck, as if we were in their way!
We finally made it into the park where we grabbed breakfast. Since the trailhead elevation starts so low we wanted to get started before the temps got too hot. At the trailhead we sorted gear, packed 5 days worth of "stuff" into our packs and started hiking. I think Fred and Jamie will concur, my backpacking setup isn't exactly optimal and my back was hurting before we even hiked out of the parking lot.....in my defense we were parked all the way at the end ;-) Once I got past the aching back the hike wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being last year. The trees keep you shaded in the beginning. Fred making his way up the trail.... 
The first part of the hike isn't anything spectaclular, just like any trail you would hike in CO. Then, you make the turn go up a few switchbacks and start heading into Garnet Canyon when your eyes are hit with this view.... 
And the view only gets better from this point on.Almost like a right of passage into the canyon, you have to make your way over a section of car sized boulders. Normally this would be kinda fun, but the loads on our backs bumped it up a few notches. Next, we passed the Meadows where we would be camping the second half of our stay. Fred was getting ready to look for a camping spot here and I assured him we were to keep going higher. I don't know who actually reads this blog, so I'm not going to write out his response....let's just say he wasn't thrilled. :-).....
This is the point where the hike gets a little tough. You start climbing up a bunch of short steep switchbacks that never want to end and your pack seems to start doubling, tripling, quadrupling in weight. Fred was desperately trying to think of things in his pack he didn't need that he could throw off. I forgot how bad this last part of the hike sucked and was soon joining Fred in his thoughts. Once above all of the switchbacks it was more car sized boulders to hope over. Then, finally a camp spot! We didn't bother sizing up any of the other spots....we took the first one we came to! Home sweet home....
We put the tent up, filter water, ate, chatted with a few other climbers and curled up in our sleeping bags for the night.......the loooong, wiiiindy, sleepless night. The wind was blowing so hard it was like we were in a garbage bag. It never let up the entire night.Monday 08/02/10
We both slept less than an hour the entire night and when it came time to get up and start hiking I really had to talk myself into it. It was still dark and the wind had let up to the point that the tent wasn't about to rip into shreds.....perfect for sleeping, but I begrudgingly got ready. We managed to find the trail by headlamp and started making our way to the lower saddle. The lower saddle from camp, pic taken the previous day....
We made it to the snowfield below the saddle. At this point you can gain the saddle by climbing the snowfield or by climbing a fixed rope up the rock band. The ranger at the station told us the rope never melted out and we should take the snowfield. He also told us that we didn't need crampons, only our ice axes. We took his advise and planned to go up the snowfield, but what we found at 530 am was a solid sheet of frozen snow and ice. After about 10 steps in our trail shoes we decided it wasn't a good idea and went back to the trail. We decided to check the fixed ropes since we saw a few headlamps in that area earlier as we were hiking up. Low and behold the rope was good to go. I guess you can't take anyone's word, you have to be prepared for anything and see for yourself. We made the saddle just in time to catch the end of the sunrise. (at this point my batteries decided to start dying and worked only sporadically)....
A little alpine glow on the Middle Teton and Teepe Glacier....
At the saddle we met up with Rob and Jason whom we talked with the night before and were happy to hear that they didn't sleep either. They were heading for the Upper Exum also, so we decided join up. The Grand from the Lower Saddle (pic by Fred)....
The four of us made our way up the saddle to the cutoff for the Upper Exum route. We did a little class 4/low 5 scrambling to the "eye of the needle". Fred jumping in the eye.....
Just a short hike/scramble from here is Wall Street, the ramp that leads you onto the Upper Exum. Wall Street.... 
Wall Street leads to the first airy move, Leap of Faith that brings you onto the Upper Exum. The Leap of Faith basically consists of bellying up to a boulder and slithering around it to a short airy step move. Jason belaying Rob at the Leap of Faith..... 
Fred coming around the Leap of Faith.....
Next we made our way up the Wind Tunnel, and windy it was....
We worked our way to the Friction Pitch (called so because there aren't many holds and you have to really use your feet). This is suppose to be the crux of the climb, but after enough Flatiron slab climbing in CO I didn't find it hard at all. I found a few other pitches (mostly where we were a little off route) more challenging. Coming up the top part of the Friction Pitch....
We missed what is suppose to be the best pitch on the route, the V Pitch and went up a short snowfield to a slab. A group of locals caught up to us and suggested we follow them to what they called the "boulder move", so we did. This turned out to be one of my favorite pitches of the route. It consisted of a big step over the open air to a nice foothold where you could look straight down and see a thousand or two feet of air below you. Then it was a matter of making an awkward move or two to get started and working your way up. The start of the boulder move....
After this it was a nice stroll across a snowfield and some easy scrambling to the summit. It felt great to finally be standing on the top of the Grand Teton after being turned around the year before and planning for this for an entire year. The sky was blue and clear; the views were amazing, to the west Idaho and to the east the Jackson Valley and Wyoming, the company was great (I met another climber from Pittsburgh), we couldn't have asked for a better day. Fred and I excited to be on the summit....
I can't remember how long we spent on the summit, quite a while, we figured we better start making our way down. Our descent consisted of going down the Owen-Spaulding route, some easy downclimbing, 2 rappels and some nice loose scree, of course. The rap down Sargent's Chimney.....
Fred and I decided since it was such a great day we were going to take our time getting down and enjoy the mountain, scenery and day; as usually we're running down to beat the weather. Finally hunger got the best of us and we made our way back down to the Lower Saddle and camp. Back at camp we ate and revelled in the climb and the fact that we climbed the Grand, and I couldn't help but wonder if Jerry (the old guy from the ranger station) made it up. We were in our sleeping bags fast asleep before the sun went down.....and thankfully it wasn't windy!Tuesday 08/03/2010
The night before we had a few climbs in mind for the day, but decided to sleep on it and see how we felt in the morning before deciding on which to do. I woke up a few times through out the night to hear it raining. Waking again at 630 to find it still raining, I went back to sleep knowing the rock would be wet and not great for climbing.....I'm not going to lie, I was kind of happy to be able to keep on sleeping. Eventually the rain stopped, starving I made some breakfast. I think both Fred and I were thankful for the rain and the excuse to relax at camp. We lounged around camp for a while and watched all the climbers coming to and fro. It's amazing how many people come up to climb. It was also the day we had to move camp down to the Meadows. We eventually packed up and started heading down. The grassy patch in the lower right corner is where we were spending the second part of the week.....
We made our way down to a big boulder which seems to be a popular stopping spot along the way. The boulder sits next to the Petzoldt Cave and low and behold there was Jerry and his guide. We talked to the guide and found out Jerry was breaking up the approach into 3 days and attempting the climb on the 4th. It was great to be able to take our time and enjoy the amazing scenery.....
We made it to the Meadows and found a nice spot against a boulder which would block the wind nicely. We pitched the tent and realized we were camped next to Jerry's wife Jeannie. Our new home....
We chatted a bit then Fred and I propped our packs up against some rocks, propped ourselves up against our packs and took a nap. Not long after, I woke up to someone saying "hey, Heather". I thought I was dreaming, but it turns out Jamie hiked in and managed to find us. We passed the afternoon talking about the climb, eating and watching parents and their 2 young daughters come in and set up camp. By the end of the evening we made plans to get up and climb a 5.6 route on Nez Perce. The Tetons' shadow stretching across the Jackson Valley....
Wednesday 08/04/2010
With Fred and I still trying to recover from our sleepless night and run up the Grand, we didn't quite get the early start that we were hoping for. Most of the people that were climbing had already left camp, including the young family. We slowly got our stuff together and started up the loose rock gully to Nez Perce. I managed to forget to take a picture of this from camp, but honestly it's something I really don't care to remember anyways. It seemed like every boulder or rock we touched was ready to roll down on the person below us. Thanks to this the approach to our route took much longer than expected and it was getting too late to start a technical climb with a team of 3 climbers. Especially with the lightening incident on the Grand on a couple of weeks old and fresh in our minds. At this point Fred decided he had enough and headed back to camp. Jamie and I decided to make our way to the 4th class route which required traversing some not so fun loose gullies. Jamie making his way around a ledge to checkout one of the gullies......
The day pretty much consisted of scrambling up loose rock, traversing loose rock and decending loose rock. It didn't seem like anything we touched was really attached to the mountain. Jamie on one of the few solid parts of the day....
There was a little bit of exposure along the way.....
And we couldn't go wrong with the view..... 
We inadvertantly made a quick stop on the wrong summit....that's always such a kick in the butt. Jamie pulled through and found the correct one.....
We took some pics, took in the amazing view and grabbed a bite to eat before the clouds started moving in and kicked us off. We did two short raps....
Then it was back to the loose mess, I started a nice rock slide at one point, we both fell a couple times....I was kind of happy when we got to the snowfields. Looking back at the loose mess....
Back at camp we found Fred chatting with Jeannie. Not long after we got back a light rain started to fall. I was starving and had a great idea....the bear box that we put our food in was under a nice overhanging rock, so why not sit under the rock while it's raining and cook some food to eat. Sounds like a good idea. As the rain started coming down harder it began running around the rock and gradually dripped closer and closer to us. We kept moving our stoves and food closer and closer under the rock. Eventually we were against the rock sitting in the fetal position eating. We still felt like this was the best restaurant in WY. Once it stopped raining 3 rainbows formed and stretched over the valley. There was only one left by the time I grabbed my camera......
not long after we cleaned up and were standing there chatting when the ground started to tremble. My first reaction was to look at the mountains to see which one was falling down. Turns out I had just felt my first earthquake! I'm not sure how common this is in the Teton Range as I've never heard of anyone else experiencing this. This drew Jeannie out of her tent too. While were chatting with her a ranger came looking for her to let her know Jerry made it to the top of the Grand Teton and instead of spending the night at the Saddle, he was going to come back to camp. The news made my day! The rest of the evening none of us could take our eyes off trail as we waited for him to come back. It was a pretty quite night at camp as it was just Jeannie, our group and the young family, but they hadn't returned yet. We couldn't hold our eyes open any more so we headed for our tents. I woke up around 1100 to Jerry and his guide returning. Thursday 08/05/2010
One by one we crawled out of our tents. Jerry and Jeannie of course beat us all. We couldn't wait to talk with Jerry, but they were eating so we decided to do the same. Finally, we all offered Jerry our congrats and listened to the story of why he was here and how the climb was. We learned that he was even thinking about climbing Mt. Moran which is another demanding climb in the range. Listening to all of their climbing stories showed their love for the mountains. We all slowly packed up camp and took one last look around at the view. We also noticed that the young family never made it back to their camp. Fred went over to get their name off of the permit, but of course they didn't put it out. We checked with Jeannie and Jerry but they hadn't seen them either. Fred sat down for one last chat with the locals....
We finally threw our packs on, said our goodbyes to Jeannie and Jerry and started the hike out.... 
It felt great to get back to the car and take our packs and shoes off. We made a quick stop at the ranger station to let them know about the missing family. They were going to send a ranger up to look for them. Then we hightailed it to the American Alpine Club Ranch for long over due showers. It's amazing how good a shower can feel! Next we went to Jackson for real food. How could you not fall in love with a town like this!
We filled up with food and beer then went back to the place we camped our first night. We made plans to check out some local climbing crags the next day and turned in early because it was raining.Friday 08/06/2010 & Saturday 08/07/2010
We woke up to cloudy gray skies. We decided to go grab a coffee and go to the ranger station so Jamie could get his permit for his and Steven's trip then figure out what to do with our day. While at the ranger station we found out the missing family climbed the Grand, couldn't find the rap station to get down and ended up spending the night only to be found by the ranger they sent up. The weather forecast at the ranger station wasn't looking too promising for the day so we decided to head for Yellowstone since Fred had never been there. We did the usual tourist loop. We saw Old Faithful, bison, elk, moose, black and a grizzly bear with her cubs (which made the day complete for the boys). We headed back to Jackson and enjoyed a really good mealand margs at a Mexican restaurant....I'm not sure if I enjoyed my meal more or watching Jamie eat his ;-) Then, headed back to our camp spot where Steven eventually showed up at.
We woke up fairly early. We talked about Jamie and Stephen's plans for the week, went for a coffee and started the long drive home. The drive was even worse on the way back.....not only is it already boring, but it also meant we were heading back to the real world.
What a great week!
Friday, July 30, 2010
My Domestic Side
We're leaving for the Tetons tomorrow. I've actually been getting ready for the trip for a little over a month now. My domestic side has made a brief appearance in getting ready for this one. I decided to dehydrate all of my dinners....it's much cheaper and it tastes better than the commercially prepared ones, you make bigger portions, they pack better in your backpack, etc, etc. You simply cook the meal as if you were going to eat it now, put it in the dehydrator, then package it. At camp boil water and add to the meal and let stand for a few minutes. I decided to start easy....I bought a jar of apple sauce and cinnamon and made apple cinnamon fruit leather.
The leather was a succes, so I bought the Backpack Gourmet and tried a couple recipes from it....Morroccon Stew and Turkey Chili. Then I decided to make my own spaghetti and meat sauce. Of course I had to sample each to make sure it was edible....there wouldn't be anything worse than to backpack all the way in and not be able to eat my food. Morroccon Stew rehydrating, mmmmm.....
I can't wait to try some of the other recipes on my weekend trips in CO. These will be extra good this winter!
My next domestic task was sewing a new zipper on my climbing pack. Not only did I sew a zipper on, but it's functional too (I'm still packing a needle and thread just in case ;-) ) The old and the new...
Who knows when this side of me will make an appearance again!
The leather was a succes, so I bought the Backpack Gourmet and tried a couple recipes from it....Morroccon Stew and Turkey Chili. Then I decided to make my own spaghetti and meat sauce. Of course I had to sample each to make sure it was edible....there wouldn't be anything worse than to backpack all the way in and not be able to eat my food. Morroccon Stew rehydrating, mmmmm.....
I can't wait to try some of the other recipes on my weekend trips in CO. These will be extra good this winter!My next domestic task was sewing a new zipper on my climbing pack. Not only did I sew a zipper on, but it's functional too (I'm still packing a needle and thread just in case ;-) ) The old and the new...
Who knows when this side of me will make an appearance again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)