The Grand Teton

I apologize for not finishing up our story earlier, The past week has been quite busy with five of the ACC climbers in Alpine Rescue Training for the county during the past four days.

I was awakened by my cell phone alarm at 2:00am. I ignored the ringing for a few short moments and then slid myself out of my sleeping bag, quickly put on my down jacket and stood, staring blankly at the back of my car for five minutes. I wanted to take some ibuprofen and go back to bed. Instead, I knocked on the front door of the car, where molly was sleeping, and started to stumble around camp muttering to people to get up. Everyone else was just as excited about day three as I was and it took me fifteen minutes to rouse everyone.

Pop tarts and Gatorade on the tailgate of my car for breakfast, threw some sandwiches and chocolate in my backpack, along with my helmet, harness, and a fleece and climbed into the back of jers jeep for the 30 min drive across the valley to the trail head. I decided to leave my down jacket behind today as I figured i didn't really need it. oops.

We met Tom Carter, Trav and Logan (who had slept at a different campsite), along with Mark Feddes at the trail head and at 3:00 am we departed from Lupine Meadows trail head, a large group of eleven climbers. As we made our way towards garnet canyon, we settled into a steady pace and slowly made our way up switchback after switchback, gaining elevation very quickly. By 5:00 am we had entered garnet canyon, crossed a rock field of huge boulders and were stopped by a stream to take a short break and put more clothes on. It had gotten quite cold and in the moonlit night we could see that there was still huge snowfields hanging down into the canyon from the base of the Middle and South Teton. We crossed through a meadow and began another series of switchbacks that would take us higher into the Glacial moraine at the base of the Middle Teton glacier.

We were into the moraine by 6:00 am and as we made our way across large piles of boulders and along sandy ridges of dirt and scree, the sun made its way down the east face of the middle Teton to meet us at the base of the Glacier. The sunshine warmed us for a few short minutes before we were back in the shade of a ridge.

From the moraine, we ascended the saddle between the Middle and Grand Teton. It is a steep and wet section of loose rock that leads up to the Exum Mountain Guides base camp. We all scrambled up and over the head wall of the saddle and stopped for another short break in the saddle, with a wonderful view down into Idaho to the west and back down Garnet canyon to the east. above us, now veiled in clouds, was the Grand Teton. Starting here, we would be scrambling and climbing up rock for over 2,oooft.

After departing from the lower saddle, our group of eleven started to spread out and disappear in the rocks and clouds above. I brought up the rear with Joe, Tom, and Lena. We slowly made our way up into the clouds above us and towards the upper saddle (the point at which the technical climbing begins).

The temperature by now was in the low 30's with a wind of 10-12 mph in exposed areas. As we climbed higher, we began to encounter frozen pools of water and icicles hanging from rocks. It was getting very cold for a guy wearing running shorts and a t-shirt!

By the time we had reached the upper saddle,we had caught up with many of the other climbers on the Grand Teton that day. There were guided parties, private parties, people climbing alone, just lots of people in general. When we arrived at the start of the technical climbing section, where I would need to rope up Tom for about 300ft, there was a line of about ten people ahead of us waiting to climb, but the rest of our climbing party was no where to be seen. They had been moving ahead of us and apparently climbed through the technical section without leaving the rope that I would need for Tom.

After waiting for 20 min. and weighing our options, a couple from Utah, climbing to celebrate their 8th anniversary, offered to let Tom rope up with them, while the rest of us soloed the route unroped. We finally started the technical section and traversed out into the west face of the Grand along the Owen-Spawlding route. It is a short traverse that requires hand over hand climbing, easy climbing, but if you loose your footing or a hand slips, it is a vertical fall for thousands of feet. I climbed first, followed by Tom and the couple from Utah. I helped them along the way and assisted them with their rope. We made slow progress behind a pair of climbers that was moving very very slowly and probably should not have been climbing by themselves. After a 30 min wait. in a very dangerous and very cold rock chimney, we finally climbed over a ledge and onto the summit slope. Above us, still hidden in clouds lay the summit, 300ft away. During our wait in the chimney, Brandon and Casey had caught up with as and after talking for a few minutes, they continued on above us.

After coiling the rope and stopping for a breath, we pushed on over the last few hundred feet to the summit and arrived on top around 11:30am. As we stood in the clouds, we watched as they started to clear and a beautiful few of the surrounding mountains and valleys opened up in front of us. We paused on the summit for about 15 minutes, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the view that had just opened up before us.

After a few photos and eating the last of our food, we bundled up in our jackets again and began our descent down into the shadowy west side of the Grand and towards the rappel that would take us back to the upper saddle. After waiting in line again for a rappel, we finally were back in the upper saddle as the clouds started to clear again, but this time for good. We took off our climbing harnesses and jackets and made a long, slow, descent down wet and slippery rocks to the lower saddle. There, we stopped and drank water and some energy gu before starting the seven mile descent back to the car.

By the time we were back at the meadows, it was late afternoon and the sun was starting to sink towards the horizon behind us. It was a beautiful and peaceful walk out. I distanced myself from Lena and Tom and made quick time through the boulder fields and along streams and waterfalls towards the last section of switchbacks that would put be back at Lupine Meadows Trail head. Waiting there for me was a huge plate of amazing spaghetti, made my the girls, and a pair of flip-flops for my tired and sore feet.

It was finished, we had done it! Three Peaks, Three Days. Everyone had survived, unharmed and alive. It felt great. We sat in the parking lot of the trail head for a short while, talked about the past three days and all that had happened. At some point, while tired, dirty, and very very sore, I heard someone say "when we do this next year......." We will have to wait and see.

Day Two, Mount Cowen

My posting of our adventures on Mount Cowen was interrupted by something quite coincidental, four of us that took part in The Alpine Triple Crown were on the Alpine Rescue team sent to rescue an injured climber on Mount Cowen Sunday night. The operation started on Sunday night at 7 pm and continued until noon on Monday when we were flown off of Cowen after successfully assisting with the helicopter evacuation of an injured climber who had fallen on the route we had climbed Thursday. I am now back at my computer and can continue with our account of Mount Cowen on Thursday the 14th. for more details of the incident, visit http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2008/08/19/news/000rescue.txt

After leaving the trail head of Granite Peak, we drove to Livingston and had our second dinner of the night at Yellowstone Pizza, stocked up on odds and ends at Albertsons and drove to the Cowen trail head, arriving at approx. 10:30pm. 4o mins. later everyone else caught up with us and we were all asleep by 11:30pm.

After sleeping through our alarms set for 3:00am, we woke up at 4:45am and quickly got our packs ready for our day. Due to exhaustion from the previous day, three members of the team would not be joining us. Travis, Tom Carter, and Logan King, slept in while Joe Wagner, Ross Lynn and myself took off up the trail at a stout pace at 5:00am. By 7am, Ross and Joe had taken off ahead of me and I was lagging behind due to sharp pain in my left knee. I slowly made my way towards Elbow lake. I eventually caught up with the other two after deciding i was going to turn back. After a quick pep talk and a large dose of Ibuprofen, Ross convinced me to keep going. We concluded that it was tendinitis of the IT band, which is extremely painful but shouldn't have any long term complications if i climbed through the pain. We continued on, at a somewhat slower pace and made it to the lake three hours after leaving the trail head. From there we started the scramble up towards the summit, 3,oooft above us. Mount Cowen is made up of a number of pinnacles and towers and is referred to as a cirque. As we made our way up into the cirque of rock towers, towards the highest one, we passed stepping waterfalls, large boulder fields, steep mountain side meadows of wildflowers, and finally reached the top of the first large ledge that put us into the center of the cirque, directly at the base of Cowen and next to a frozen, glaciated lake. After seeing the lake and the surrounding terrain we knew that this was going to be the most difficult part of the climb. In order to stay on our route to the summit, we would have to cross a 200ft section of glacial ice and snow on a steep slope. If we fell during the traverse, we would slide the 400ft down into the frozen lake. We would be doing this in tennis shoes, without any ice climbing gear.

It was a tense 20 minutes, but all three of us successfully crossed the snow field and were back on route moving towards the summit, up the approach gully where the rescue took place three days later. We moved safely up the gully and while Joe and Ross climbed the South Ridge, I climbed the West Face, which was slightly easier terrain and safer with my painful knee.

We reached the summit five hours after leaving the trail head, the exact time it had taken me a year earlier, without an injured knee. We spent twenty minutes alone on the summit with a beautiful view and after a quick snack of electrolyte pills, gu, and water, started our descent.

We took a significant amount of time descending as we were being very careful down climbing the loose and dangerous gully. After getting clear of the gully and safely crossing the snow field again, we took off down and out of the cirque, passing the lake and steadily making our way back towards the trail head.

On our way out, we met Brandon and Casey, on their way up the mountain. We stopped for a few short minutes to describe the route to them and chat and then continued out.

We were back at the trail head by mid afternoon and after a quick meal of spaghetti cooked up by the girls, we loaded up in our convoy, stopped for dinner number two in Gardiner and headed to the boiling river for an hour of hot water. It felt amazing. By 7:00pm we were back on the road and all of the climbers were sound asleep as Molly and the girls drove through the park, watching the sun set and a beautiful full moon rise in front of us.

By 11:30 pm, our first car had arrived at the campsite across the valley from the Grand Teton and we were asleep at midnight, with only two hours of sleep ahead of us before we would awake for our attempt of our final mountain.

It is Finished!

I am happy to announce that after 750 miles of driving, less than ten hours of sleep in three days and lots and lots of Gatorade, we have successfully summited Granite Peak, Mount Cowen, and the Grand Teton in under 72 hours! It is the first time that these three difficult mountains have been done together in such rapid succession.

Out of the nine climbers that began The Alpine Triple Crown, five of them succeeded in climbing all three peaks. Of the other four, three of them managed to summit Granite on Day one and the Grand on day three but were unable to complete Mount Cowen due to fatigue following an 18 hour day on Granite Peak. One other climber, Lena Petersen decided to fore go an attempt of Granite Peak or Mount Cowen due to unexpected medical issues earlier in the week, but joined the rest of the climbers on Friday to summit the Grand Teton. Weather conditions could not have been better and the entire trip went off without any large hang ups. It was a wonderful blessing.

Due to the speed we were traveling at and exhaustion, we were unable to stop between climbs and post blogs and photos. Following is an account of our three days of adventures along with some great photos. I will be posting the story in three instalments, one for each day.

For those of you who sponsored a climber with a donation to the homeless shelter, you will be receiving a short photo show on CD within the next month to thank you for your support. If you have not sponsored a climber and would like to still do so, we would be very grateful. Our goal was to raise $10,000 for the Homeless shelter. Currently we are only a little over $5,000 and are badly in need of donations to reach our goal. Please see the top right of this web page for donation details.

Tuesday the 12th and Wednesday the 13th Granite Peak

After weeks of training, organizing, and fundraising the day of departure had finally arrived and we packed four cars with all the necessary gear for four days on the road. Lee and Dads IGA in Belgrade was gracious enough to donate all the food necessary to feed all the climbers and the support crew for the entire trip. I cannot thank them enough, they made the trip possible. If you happen to be shopping at Lee and Dads please let them know you appreciate their support of our event. Tuesday afternoon myself and Jess Lohmeier went and picked up the food and barley fit it all in a minivan. We unloaded everything into my back patio and under the supervision of Granny Spencer, spent three hours organizing food, tents, clothing, etc. to be loaded in the vehicles.

Once we had everything somewhat ready to be loaded, Travis arrived and we loaded my Subaru outback and Travis Honda Element, along with Jers Jeep and Lenas VW to the brim. Everything from crates of Gatorade to camp stoves to climbing ropes and coolers of food were stacked in every open space, leaving barley enough room to pack people.

We drove to the Spire climbing gym at 5:30 pm and met everyone that would be joining us on our adventure. At 6:00pm our convoy of four cars was on the road, headed towards the Beartooth Mountains. It had begun!

The first car arrived at our campsite in the village of Alpine at about 9:00 pm and we unpacked and started preparing for the start of our climb that would begin in a few short hours. The remainder of the team had arrived by 10:00 pm and after loading our packs with sandwich's, energy gu, rain jackets and water, we went to bed with the alarm set for midnight, a mere two hours away.

I awoke at 12:02 am, the first one up, and was greeted by a wonderful moon rising above the towers of rock surrounding the basin we were camped in. The moon was only two days away from being full and as our adventure continued, it would grow larger each night and provide us with light during our early morning approaches.

I got water boiling for oatmeal, woke everyone else and slipped into my shorts, running shoes and down jacket. Within 20 minutes everyone was fed, geared up and in the car for a short drive to the trail head. After some last minute touches such as sun screen and a swig of water, we left the trail at 12:45 am, Six climbers in all. Brandon Smith and Casey Ambrose would be arriving late from Bozeman and would not begin the climb until much later that morning. They became known as the PM crew, due to their late starts.

As we started the long 15 mile approach to Granite peak, our group of climbers started to spread out along the trail, each climber settling into their own pace and "zoning out" as they followed the blue circle of light cast by their headlight on the trail ahead of them. Two hours into the approach, I found myself with Joe Wagner, Ross Lynn and Jer Sinnema cresting the edge of Froze to Death Plateau and stopping for a minute to watch as falling star after falling star arced across the crystal clear sky above us. We were catching the last part of a meteor shower that had been going on for the past two days. We were now at the point in the approach where we would leave the trail and have to navigate across five miles of boulder fields to reach the start of Granite Peaks East Ridge. We made excellent time and were have way across the plateau in three hours. Jers amazing navigation skills saved us as I started to get disoriented in the darkness on a rock strewn plateau that stretches 3 miles wide and 7 miles long. He get us pointed in the right direction and by 5:30 am we were only a short distance from the beginning of the East Ridge. The temperature had dropped to below freezing on the plateau and the wind had picked up to a steady 10mph breeze. Dressed in running shorts and light weight t-shirts, we were forced to keep moving at a fast pace in order to stay warm. We finally stopped for a short break just as the sun started to warm the eastern sky behind us and turn the horizon into a gradient that went from orange to red to blue to black.

At this point, Jer stopped to wait for the next party of climbers and Ross, Joe, and myself pushed on into the growing alpine light. We descended 1,000ft into the saddle that separates Granite peak from Tempest mountain and stopped once again for a brief minute as the full view of Granites North Face came into view in front of us. It was stunning and terrifying all at once. Such a massive, intimidating piece of rock that rises over 2,500ft from a basin far below us to the summit block still thousands of feet above us.

We shed our jackets as we started the technical climbing and the sun started to warm us. Above us lay just under 2,000ft of climbing which we would do un-roped in order to maintain our speed. In the mountains, speed is safety. We had to be off the summit as soon as possible to avoid bad weather that would most likely be moving later that morning.

We moved quickly up from the saddle along the East ridge,the North face and Avalanche Lake far below us on our right and mountains, snow, and rock as far as our eye could see on our left. We soon reached what is referred to as the Snow Bridge, a section of snow 40 ft wide that has to be crossed in order to continue the climb. The Snow Bridge is considered by some to be the crux of the climb. If you slip during the 40 ft, you are in for a 2,000ft slide over snow, ice and rock that has been the cause of many injuries and serious rescues on Granite Peak. Needless to say, we crossed safely and continued up towards the summit. As we climbed higher, the sun worked its way down the ridge above us and illuminated our route in a brilliant orange light that felt wonderful on our backs.

We soon arrived at the hardest section of rock climbing only 200ft below the summit. We were at an elevation of 12,500ft and every time we stopped to catch our breath, our ears were ringing and we were heaving due to the lack of oxygen.

We had ascended over 7,000ft since leaving the trail head that morning. (the recommended rate of assent to aclamatize is 1,000ft a day!) With a few deep breaths we pushed on, climbed the last 200ft of technical climbing, passed another climbing party of four, and summited at 7:55. 6 hours and 10 minutes after leaving the trail head!

It felt amazing.

After 20 minutes on the summit, we started our descent. We moved quickly, stopping only briefly when we passed the rest of our climbing team on their way up from the saddle towards the snow bridge. They were feeling good but moving at a slower pace than us. After sharing a quick snack with them, we continued on, climbed the 1000ft back up to Froze to death Plateau where we glanced quickly behind us for one last look at the beautiful mountain we had just climbed. From there we crossed the five miles of rocks and boulders on the Froze to Death Plateau and descended almost non-stop, the 13 miles back to the trail head, jogging the last four miles or so. We were back at the car 11 hours and 56 minutes after leaving! An amazing time considering most people take at least two days to climb it with some taking as long as five days!

We stood in a glacial creek for almost an hour, letting our legs and feet have a wonderful ice bath and then promptly fell asleep to wait for the next team of climbers and for our amazing support girls to cook us dinner.

The remaining climbers returned 6 hours later after dealing with snow and rain on the Plateau and moving slower due to altitude. All in all, it was a huge day that was very successful. Brandon and Casey both succeeded in summiting as well, all though they were a few hours behind everyone else and luckily had good enough weather to summit later that afternoon. Day number one, eight climbers summit ed Granite Peak!

I will pick up here with the account of Mount Cowen.

On the Move

Hey everyone,

We don't have enough time in between mountains to write up all that is happening on the climbs but after tomorrow's climb and recuperation we should have some good stories and photos up on the blog. Everyone is safe, doing well, and looking forward to the next climb up the Grand Teton.

~ACC