Back To The Tetons

On Monday Eric & I drove north in my truck.  We stopped in Midway to find Grandma & Grandpa's place crawling with young grandkids.  This included a new batch of 8 puppies!  The next morning we completed our drive to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  We met up with my ranger friend, Andrew.  We then did some rock climbing for a few hours before spending the night at a ranger's place at Grand Teton National Park.  In the morning we loaded our packs and began the hike up to Garnet Canyon on the south flanks of the Grand Teton mountain.  The weather had been great for weeks up in that area, but the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms to begin the following day.  Because of this, we hastened our trip up the mountain and after dropping our packs at the Petzholdt Caves area we continued up to the Lower Saddle.  We then climbed the Grand via the Upper Exum Ridge.  I had once again intended to climb the peak via another more challenging route but once again my plans were thwarted.  This time because of a threatening weather forecast.  So late in the afternoon (at 6 p.m.) I stood on the summit of the Grand for the fifth time.  Eric stayed with us until just before the technical climbing began.  There he ran out of energy and was quite dehydrated.  He waited there for us to come down.  The day was long, sunny and quite warm for the mountains.  When we finally stumbled back into our camp at the Caves it was nearly 10 p.m.  We had been on the go for over 12 hours with less than an hour total of rest with a vertical gain of 7,000 feet.  It was one of the hardest days in the mountains that I have ever done.  My freeze dried dinner never tasted so good!

 The following day the weather held out until evening so we were able to climb Irene's Arete.  A wonderful technical rock climb on a lower buttress of the mountain.  That climb took us a little over 6 hours.  The early arrival to our tents was welcome as I still had not completely recovered from the previous days push.  We had plans to climb another route the next morning but were rebuffed by morning rain.  Therefore, we packed up our tents and gear and hiked off the mountain.  Eric & I then made our way back to Midway where we spent the night.  Saturday morning before driving home to St. George, Eric and I, helped Grandpa with some yard work.  Midway was cool and green and inviting on that summer day.  I enjoyed traveling with Eric this trip especially because he could now share the driving time.  He was a also a great help to Grandma & Grandpa.