Day 1

This year EJ and I elected to climb in Wyoming for our yearly trip. Early on we set our sights on the two highest mountains in Wyoming, The Grand Teton (13,770’) and Gannett Peak (13,804’). We both spent most of day one driving separately to the northwest corner of Wyoming. We spent our first night at the American Alpine Clubs Climbers Ranch near the base of the Grand Teton and snapped some amazing photos.

Day 4 & 5

On day four we took a much needed rest day at a lodge along side the Grey’s River (Thanks Mom & John.) Day 5 started early as we headed to Elkhart Park which was our trailhead of choice to access the Titcomb Basin within the Wind River Mountains. We stopped in Pinedale to get a quick bite to eat before our death march with heavy packs. Our approach to the Titcomb Basin was 15.5+ miles with an elevation gain of 2,800’. Needless to say that was a long way with heavy packs but the scenery was amazing! We set up camp and were promptly attacked by 100’s of mosquitos that we had read about in prior trip reports. As we completed all of the necessary preparations for our attempt at Gannett we were forced to wear our full rain gear to keep the mosquitos from getting to us. We turned in early knowing that we had a long day of climbing ahead of us.

Day 3

After an alarm malfunction we got a later start than we had hoped (5am instead of 4am). We grabbed a quick bite to eat and left camp following the headlamps that were on our selected route, the Owen-Spaulding Route (5.4) which is the easiest route to the summit of the Grand Teton. We made slow but steady progress to the upper saddle with only one minor route finding problem. When we arrived at the upper saddle we met Jaren, a guy from Idaho Falls, ID, that was considering free soloing the route. He had a rope on him so we invited him to climb along with us and he accepted. I lead the first pitch which was a 150’ traverse pitch to the base of a chimney. EJ lead the chimney which proved to be the route’s crux in expert fashion. I lead the Owens Chimney to access the upper flanks of the Grand and we scrambled to the summit from there. We were blessed to have the summit to ourselves on a perfect sunny day without a cloud in the sky. After about 30 minutes we made our way back down to the lower saddle where we rested for an hour and packed up camp. We trudged our way back to the car and headed to a ranch along the Grey’s River for some R&R.  

Day 2

On our first day of climbing we approached the lower saddle of the Grand Teton. This was an approximately 7 mile hike with an elevation gain of 5,000’. We got a late start from the American Alpine Clubs Climbers Ranch within Grand Teton National Park so most of our hike was completed in the mid-day sun. This approach ended up being quite challenging and left us wondering if we had been a little aggressive with our goals for this week.

Day 6

My watch worked appropriately on day 6 and we left camp a couple of minutes after 5am. From all of the trip reports EJ and I had read we knew we were in for a long day so we set a slow pace as we ascended the first challenge of the day, Bonney Pass. Bonney Pass is a 2,000’ ascent over rocky/snowy terrain that we’d become accustomed to in all of our years climbing in Colorado. Once we reached the summit of Bonney Pass we got our first look at what the rest of our day would look like, a 1,200’ descent to the Dinwoody Glacier and then a 2.300’ scramble over rock and ice to the highest point in Wyoming. After several hours working our way towards the top we arrived at the summit ridge with deteriorating snow conditions which made the last .25 mile very scary and challenging. After only 10 minutes on the summit we turned around and slowly plotted back to camp for a round trip time of 12:05.

Day 7

After two hard days EJ and I elected to get up early (4am) and stomp out the 15.5 miles back to the trailhead before it got too warm. We made exceptional time and finished our hike out in 6:36. We headed back to Star Valley and spent the night with family before the long drive to Colorado. Another amazing climbing week for EJ & me. We were blessed with great weather and great route conditions.