Upper Exum Ridge on Grand Teton

September 6, 2020

When I was 17, my family took a trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. As a young rock climber at the time, I was captivated by the Tetons and my parents set me up with an Exum Guide for a day of multi-pitch trad climbing in a canyon near the Grand. It took over 20 years to return on this road trip vacation to the Wind River Range and Tetons for me to get a chance to climb The Grand.

We’d just hiked out of the Winds on Saturday, having spent 5 days back there climbing the gorgeous granite spires and enjoying the Cirque of the Towers area, so we were a little tired, but well acclimated. Dale decided to drive down from Bozeman to meet us and we got together in the Lupine Meadows parking lot at 5am to go for the Upper Exum Ridge, figuring that the Full Exum with Labor Day traffic on the mountain wasn’t a great idea to go for car to car.

We hiked briskly in the dark, then early morning light, which illuminated a significant wildfire smoke haze. In a little over 3 hours, we had made it to the lower saddle, where we took a break to switch from shorts to pants and snag some water from the magical hose there.

Note: for a detailed topo of the route, check out Wyoming Whiskey.

We quickly headed up the low scramble of the Owen-Spalding and found the low crossover to get to Wall Street. As soon as we went through the notch, we saw at least 5 parties in a bottleneck at the step across. It was blustery and cold in the gully and we were not excited to wait. Dale planned to solo the route, while Colin and I were going to simul-climb quickly next to him. We debated our options and started moving back to go up the Owen-Spalding when we looked back from the crossover to see that most parties had cleared, so we headed back, geared up in a protected alcove, and then waited for one party to finish and another to do the step before pulling across into the daylight and starting our glorious romp up the route.

I wasn’t sure how much 5.5 to expect on the route, but knew many folks soloed it and, after doing it, can understand why. It’s very secure, with good hands and feet nearly everywhere. I placed a cam here and there when things got more exposed, but otherwise climbed along with Dale at a fast pace, thanking parties as we climbed past. Memorable sections were the Golden Stair, the Friction Pitch, the V-Pitch, and a boulder move up high. Everything else was fun, but quite low angle or stepped and unexposed. We made it from the step across at the end of Wall Street to the Summit in 1.5 hours.

The views were unfortunately quite smoky, but we were still happy to have gotten up the Grand and via such a fun route. We soaked in the summit for a while and had lunch before starting down, getting stuck in a long line of rappel beginners for an hour, and then eventually getting our turn before scampering down the rest of the route. The hike out from the lower saddle was uneventful, though a bit painful with long, low-angled switchbacks and a longer section at the bottom than it felt like we’d done in the dark that morning. We made it back to the car in 13.5 hours, then immediately drove to Jenny Lake for a brisk swim and then on to Bradley Lake Trailhead parking lot for chips, pickles, and beers on Dale’s lovely van “terrace.” What a wonderful day with great friends and exceptionally gratifying to climb the mountain after thinking about it for over 20 years.

East Ridge on Wolf's Head

September 4, 2020

Months ago, when Jen and Colin proposed a road trip vacation in the time of COVID to the Tetons and Wind River Range, I didn’t need much convincing, but I didn’t know anything about the climbing in the Winds. After doing a bit of research, it became clear that there were two 50-Classic routes in addition to many other great routes on good rock, most of which were moderate. Wolf’s Head stuck out as an improbable feature—a thin, serrated knife blade of granite, rising up from Cirque Lake.

After hiking in to the Cirque on Tuesday, climbing Pingora as two groups of two on Wednesday, and taking an easy day exploring the area on Thursday, Friday was the day for me and Colin to go up Wolf’s Head. We got up at 4am and were moving before 5. As the early morning light illuminated the Cirque, we could see some climbers on the grassy ledges and they were making very slow progress pitching it out, so we decided to head for the Tiger Tower-Pingora gully. It ended up being a good way to access the climb, save some loose rock in the middle. We put the rope on before the first 5th-class move and then short roped to simul-climb the rest. From the summit of Tiger Tower , we could see parties headed up the start of the route—it looks so improbable from the East, but ends up being very reasonable.

After a couple of raps and some down climbing, we were at the base of the route, waiting for a couple of parties at about 9:15am. When it was our turn, I headed off across The Sidewalk, enjoying exposure on both sides, and then cruising up 5.fun terrain a ways before putting Colin on belay. We’d planned to simul-climb the first 5 pitches, but parties ahead of us were pitching it out, so there was little point in trying to move faster.

We had lots of fun gaining the flatter part of the ridge—lots of fun climbing on secure holds with good protection. At the ridge crest, we doubled the rope in half to simul climb until the first tower. The short traversing down climb and move around the boulder were fun (avoid heading for the tat up high). We waited in this alcove a while for the other parties and then I headed up and around for the squeeze chimney, which was my least-favorite part of the climb. It was hard to make progress, especially with a small pack on. I briefly got off route, chimneying up onto a large chockstone before realizing I was supposed to exit straight through onto a sandy ledge to start the Piton Pitch, so I climbed back down and brought Colin up.

The Piton Pitch traverse was exciting and somewhat improbable, with minimal features for hands necessitating a trust on the feet. I followed suggested beta to clip the last piton at my feet before finishing the traverse rightwards and then climbing up a ways before putting in more protection so Colin would be belayed from above as opposed to getting pulled sideways.

The next pitch might have been my favorite—a fun layback followed by some vertical finger crack moves, followed by an exposed traverse on a good foot rail, followed by exposed climbing on the ridge crest. Great stuff. We hung out in the overhang alcove for a while waiting for the party ahead of us before setting off on the last “real” pitch, with a fun horizontal crack traverse. The hands were really secure, which made up for pretty smeary feet. The final squeeze through was awkward with gear getting stuck on both sides, but short-lived and we were finally done with the technical climbing. We were able to get from there to just below the summit in one 70m rope length before hitting the other party and then did a final 30-foot pitch to gain the summit.

It was a perfectly clear day with bright blue skies and the granite spires of the Cirque framed an awe-inspiring view. We soaked it in and ate our lunch there at 3pm before beginning the raps. Contrary to some beta, we found 4 raps consistently heading slightly skier’s left down the West Face, followed by a long traverse toward Overhanging Tower, then one last rap there. Our single 70m rope worked swimmingly.

After a swim in Cirque Lake and finally getting down to our camp at about 6:15pm, our work wasn’t done. While we’d been climbing, our wives had moved camp to explore a new area and we were to meet them with our share of the gear at Clear Lake. The distance wasn’t crazy, but there was a lot of up and down to get there. We arrived a bit after dark to a lovely campsite and much-needed dinner.

The climb was quite varied, with good rock and an improbable line. As much as I didn’t like the chimney, the rest of the route was surely classic and I can understand the nod from Steck and Roper.

South Buttress on Pingora Peak

September 2, 2020

After hiking into the Cirque the day before, we decided a great intro to the area and really fun day would be to head up Pingora’s South Buttress as two groups of two. We got a leisurely start at about 8:30am and could see many parties on the route already. We were in no rush.

The approach was well-worn and easy to follow, curving away from the Cirque Lake area and scrambling up the lower buttress. We short-roped the approach pitch since we could see two parties waiting at the base of the dihedral above us and then hung out in the sun for a bit on a nice ledge, waiting for our turn.

The route was great—good rock and protection up a fun couple of open dihedral pitches before gaining the open ledge below the K Cracks. We investigated down climbing to continue on 5.6 terrain, but the down climb didn’t look great and the left 5.8 K Crack looked awesome, so we decided to head straight up and boy am I glad we did. The crack was secure and off angle, including some really fun movement with good right hands and smeared feet as it traversed back left. We all had a blast on that pitch and got some great shots as everyone came up.

From there, we scrambled to the summit to enjoy our lunches and soak in more sun. Our descent went smoothly, with a scramble back down to the top of the K Cracks and then 4 raps. Our 70m rope was perfect.

We were back at camp by 5:30pm or so—the climbing and rappelling were both slow due to other parties on the route, but we had plenty of daylight and weren’t in a rush, so it all worked out great.