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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 24, 2017 - 01:20pm PT
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Wow! When I started this thread, I thought it would die. Instead, I saw posts from many of my childhood heroes. I am truly honored by all of the great posts and photos, and want to thank everyone.
Seeing the Tetons for the first time, when you come from a mainly flat state with few multi pitch climbs, it is just a breathtaking view that is also a little scary. The Tetons have amazing relief from valley to summit.
It was all there, from having my first legal drink at the Moose Bar, rather early in the day, with a silent Chuck Pratt the only other person at or in the bar, everything was kind of like a dream.
Like I said, that fall, when I got to college, I hooked up with the climbing scene in Oklahoma, where a lot was going on, and had done El Cap and climbed 5.11 in a short time.
It was a true blessing, and I am sad that Chuck Pratt is gone. I would have loved to talk to him, but to us he was practically a movie star, and our southern manners prevented us from pestering him.
I've talked with Doug Robinson about hooking up and doing the North Face of the Grand, just for fun, but right now all of my energies are getting sucked into paragliding, which I think will be my major activity from here on out. I'm 55 now, and have started to count the years I have left.
That still leaves the question. How relevant are the Tetons today? I rarely hear of anything significant happening there, but that doesn't mean that people aren't collecting amazing experiences, which is what life is all about.
Thanks, everyone.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Mar 24, 2017 - 03:05pm PT
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//A single 70m rope would get you down the descent. Possibly even a 60m.
You'd have to break the long rappel into 2 pitches (I saw some intermediate slings around a flake).//
Single 60m rope works if you go off the correct side of the rappel anchor.
How relevant are the Tetons? Still a proving ground for hard winter ascents, enchainments, speed climbs of the Grand and the Grand Traverse and of course ski descents. And, look at the horsepower that routinely plies their craft there. Some strong up and comers out there!
One of the great American ranges. Still.
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seano
Mountain climber
none
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Mar 24, 2017 - 03:11pm PT
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How relevant are the Tetons? Sadly, they are easy to reach and the wrong kind of rock for 5.15, so Alpinist will be about obscure corners of China and freeing smooth stuff in Yosemite Valley until we start climbing on Mars. There may be some good new routes north of Moran Canyon, if you don't mind the bushwhacking and grizzlies.
Still, they're one of my favorite places in the lower 48.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Mar 24, 2017 - 07:02pm PT
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Moran, South Buttress Left. Pendulum pitch. Fun, fun.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Mar 25, 2017 - 04:14am PT
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news of the grand traverse in 6 1/2 hours this summer totally blew me away....
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Mar 25, 2017 - 05:26am PT
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I can't even concieve of doing the yraverse in a day. 6 1/2 hours is mind blowing..
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divad
Trad climber
wmass
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Mar 25, 2017 - 06:03am PT
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^^^
Ya gotta be an elite runner who knows how to climb or an elite climber who knows how to run. Or both...
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hellroaring
Trad climber
San Francisco
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Mar 25, 2017 - 09:36am PT
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I grew up in Kansas City and didn't see the ocean until I was 16 & never saw real snow capped mountains until my mid twenties. Should turn my parents in for child abuse! Anyway I was living in Lawrence Ks (super cool town for the Midwest), when my friend talked me into a road trip out west to backpack in the Bob Marshal wilderness (sp?). Going over Togotwee pass and seeing the Tetons was like Moses seemed by the burning bush the first time. I've never been the same since!!!!
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David Knopp
Trad climber
CA
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Mar 25, 2017 - 09:40am PT
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Hellroaring and i want to get out there and do some climbing-what are good routes for 54 yr old gumbies? I mean sh#t i can lead 5.9 on a good day and have some snow sense, and am reasonably fit, so tell me wise ones?
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Mar 25, 2017 - 10:07am PT
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Cave, Blacktail Butte: Hennek, Mavis, Pratt and Kimchi -1966
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Mar 25, 2017 - 11:51am PT
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Hellroaring and i want to get out there and do some climbing-what are good routes for 54 yr old gumbies? I mean sh#t i can lead 5.9 on a good day and have some snow sense, and am reasonably fit, so tell me wise ones?
There's a guidebook worth of answers, as moderate alpine is the Teton's strong point, and everyone has their own favorites, so I'm going to refrain from specifics. I do think it will be much more enjoyable to avoid the most popular routes unless you enjoy crowds. (A possible hint: see what the guides list as their "usual" guided routes and stay away from them.)
You'll want to be in good hiking shape, as the approaches are often relatively long and steep. You need to be able to deal with bad weather on a climb. If you go before August, you'll probably need that "snow sense," meaning the ability to travel safely up and down on soft to hard-frozen snow at various angles. Every year there are accidents in the Tetons on very moderate snow fields.
For openers, knock two grades off what you can lead every day (not just on a good day), start at that level, and work back up.
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Jim Herrington
Mountain climber
New York, NY
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Mar 25, 2017 - 02:23pm PT
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Roman Laba (bottom center) walking down the Teton Glacier after we climbed the East Ridge of Mt. Owen in the '90s.
Photo © Jim Herrington
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 25, 2017 - 03:45pm PT
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I am reminded that the great Allan Bard died while guiding the Owens-Spaulding. A simple slip was fatal.
I used to help Allan guide in the Pallisades. His favored method with absolute beginners was that it was safer to carefully flake the rope and solo every pitch, being careful to place pro protecting the second from any danger, such as on traverses.
The last time I was in the Tetons, I guided my wife up the Owens-Spaulding in my running shoes, and thought it was a terrific easy route. The exposure on the belly crawl was worth the hike on its own.
It was late in the year, and ice clogged the cracks. I can see how you could slip.
I miss Allan's sense of humor. He was one of the funniest guys that I ever met. I shared a house with Dale, but Dale was quiet and hard to get to know, while Allan seemed to have inherited all of the outgoing personality. I really liked them both.
Fun guy to climb with. Sorry that he isn't still a part of the world.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Mar 25, 2017 - 04:00pm PT
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The Tetons have a modest alpine character that can, I think, be misleading. Even the perfect rock isn't perfect, easy routes, particularly the north and west-facing ones, can get terribly iced, and summer thunderstorms can come on fast, be very severe, and often bring a lot of lightning with them. People run up and down the O-S dressed in little more than their underwear, and then experts like Allan slip on an ice patch and die. It's all kind of laid-back and low-key until something bites you hard in the ass. So enjoy, but beware.
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Reeotch
climber
4 Corners Area
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Mar 26, 2017 - 05:52am PT
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Relevant? What an interesting way to judge a climbing area.
I'm thinking of adjectives like spectacular, demanding, big, classic, an all around alpine proving/training ground.
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Mar 26, 2017 - 06:05am PT
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Good pt., Rgold. I've only climbed there once, back in the mid 80's on a long road trip, three of us tooling around the western US and Canada in a Pontiac Grand Ville that guzzled oil but, somehow, kept running. I got up only one route, Direct Exum on the Grand, and we were tagged by a thankfully short-lived thunderstorm--scary up there on the upper ridge!
BAd
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Mar 26, 2017 - 06:58am PT
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Storm comming in
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Mar 26, 2017 - 07:49am PT
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How relevant are the Tetons? Sadly, they are easy to reach and the wrong kind of rock for 5.15
Relevance depends on the subgroup of participants in question. The Tetons were already losing the American cutting edge as far as alpine rock is concerned way back in the sixties. (By European alpine standards, they were never close.) Although I have no first-hand experience, they seem to have returned to some prominence in the realm of alpine mixed climbing and winter mountaineering, but no one was or is going to journey over from Chamonix to Jackson in search of premier alpine challenges, summer or winter, and of course sport climbers aren't going to be lining up for the Owen-Spaulding...
The Tetons have seen an enormous growth of the ultrarunning-climbing genre in the summer and ski mountaineering in the winter. Killian Jornet saw fit to visit the Tetons to lower the round-trip record for the Grand. (One of those underwear ascents I mentioned earlier; see https://vimeo.com/51450196. The record was somewhat marred by the fact that Jornet reportedly shortcutted switchbacks on the way down, causing the NPS to post a reminder that such activity is citation-worthy. Eleven days later, Andy Anderson cut 59 seconds off Jornet's time without taking any of the shortcuts.)
Last August, Nick Elson lowered the time for the Grand Traverse to just a touch over six and a half hours, see http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/sports/features/elson-runs-climbs-to-grand-traverse-record/article_8aa84308-a7b1-55d4-bae9-ae5c3e1d6661.html. This type of activity seems to me to be about as cutting-edge as you can get.
(Those who know the Tetons know that there is an entire ridge including South Teton, Cloudveil Dome, Gilkey Tower and the Ice Cream one which runs West from Nez Perce and so is entirely hidden in this photo, which makes it look like you go direct from Middle Teton to Nez Perce. It is on this ridge that Elson cut most of the time off Garibotti's previous record. Also, the starting and ending boxes in the photo have little or nothing to do with the actual start and end points, which I think are both Lupine Meadows.)
Accessibility is the Teton strong point for the great majority of ordinary climbers who are not pursuing some kind of genre-specific cutting-edge experience. You don't have to shoulder a big pack and walk 20 miles into the Wind Rivers, for example, nor do you have to thrash through the ghastly underbrush characteristic of much of the PNW. Once you've made your way to Jackson Hole, everything is right there and you could manage with just a bicycle if you were so inclined. The tasks of planning and provisioning are reduced to the level of a low-key weekend jaunt and make it possible to do things on the spur of the moment. The mountains, canyons, and valleys are as beautiful as ever, and they are right there all the time, beckoning, even as you are browsing in Jackson or stocking up at the super market. Although the crowds are certainly there and increasing, it is still possible to get off the very beaten paths.
My personal fondness for the Tetons is because it was my first climbing experience, the place where I fell in love with the mountains and mountaineering, and it is true what they say---you never forget your first love.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Mar 26, 2017 - 09:59am PT
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About every five years I would drift into the ranch. My first memory of real climbing begins here. Turning into the parking lot......a Saab with Vermont plates and the hood up and the valve covers off......The owners- wondering how to get it home. It all looked so cool I couldn't stand it.
Twenty years later, newly married, I stray back to Jackson to have another go at the long march up Garnet.
The ranch is booked solid, but we impress upon the ranch hosts are desperation-they make eye contact, shrug and say well........... "Candy might have some space"..........
We move in and the cabin is empty except for the back room- it has gear and a bath tub.
We are waiting for our friends from Logan to arrive. 7......8.........9......10P.M. No soap. They don't show so we crash. Just before lights out a couple of guys from Kentucky(?) ask if they can sleep on the floor. No problem, and its nighty night.
About midnight, from outside we hear thumping, than we hear a very deep sigh, followed by what sounds like weeping. Startled out of a deep sleep I look up to see whats the matter.
It enters the cabin, carrying a pack, and moving in a shuffle similar to the Mummy as it exits the crypt. It sucks in huge breaths of air and it is pulling frayed pieces of webbing and what looks like pride and the last vestige of an ego.
Unfortunately, my glasses were off, so I was unable to get a good view. The entire mass goes to the back room and with one last effort it yards on the webbing, bandages, ego and pride. In a vortex they whirl into the room and door closes with surprising force.
About 3:00 A.M. the crew from Logan arrives and the usual greetings and grab-ass occurs when friends are re-united after a year absence. They find spots on the floor and pass out.
All too soon it is 6:00 A.M. and the Kentucky boys rise for the "alpine start". Halfway through stuffing their sleeping bags, the door to Candy's Room opens like it has been shot out a gun.
In the door stands a woman and she raises an arm and points to the mountaineers and says "you.....you.......how dare you come in to my cabin so late and make noise (her speech gets faster) and wake me after I had (she begins to get shrill) just come off of Symmetry Spire-5.6- and we got off route and we did not get up and the we missed the boat and we (her volume begins to go exponential) had to walk back and the rain and something about bears and and after 16 hours and I made it here and I was just about to fall asleep when you......you......." She takes a menacing step toward the boys from Kentuck........
At this point, my wife- who was new to this sort of game-can stand it no more and she rises to the defense of innocents and says "It wasn't them- we were the ones making the noise"
Candy stops as if struck, she flashes her teeth as she turns toward new prey- But it all goes south for her. In front of her lies Chris Heck. Half out of his sleeping bag, not quite awake, testicles hanging from a large rent in his boxers.......Chris Sands has not even moved......and beyond them is my wife Debbie staring Candy down.
Candy is speechless. She tries, she really tries but it is too much and she turns and slams the door.
At that point we were all awake and it was off to the hills.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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Mar 26, 2017 - 12:53pm PT
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rgold is correct when he says "the Tetons have a modest alpine character." There are lots of excellent alpine rock routes, but little snow and ice. The only mountaineering skills required are common sense, good judgement and the ability to glissade. I enjoyed the pre-climb bivvies and the glissading back to the lake almost as much as the climbs.
Not sure how/why we had a small fire going.... Partner may be Joe faint? Hard to tell.
Dennis Mehmet and his g/f on the right side.
I have posted this one before. Relaxing in the old climbers' camp at Jenny Lake.
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