Grand Teton One Day
Looking down at the summit of the Grand: Grand Teton Owen-Spalding and Upper Exum routes August 22, 2023 Roger Luebeck, Minnesota ------------------------------------------------------- As of the date of this webpage, I was 69 years old and had always simply hiked the mountains and done a little class 3 climbing and rarely class 4 climbing enroute to saddles, ridges or summits. Most of that gentle climbing was done when I was in my early twenties. My climb to the summit of the Grand via the Owen-Spalding route at age 69 was the first time I had ever climbed anything that could be described as a pitch as part of a mountain ascent. The following year I climbed the Grand via the Upper Exum ridge, which involved about a dozen or so pitches, all of which were more intense than those on the Owen-Spalding route. Both climbs went smoothly. I've now got the climbing bug. The link to my Upper Exum climb is at the bottom of this page. ------------------------------------------------------- My take-aways from climbing the Grand Teton on 8/17/23: Photos from the climb are lower on this page. 1. The phenomenal Morgan -- my guide. She is an expert lead-climber, an expert regarding the Grand's climbing routes, and a gentle-but-firm instruction-giver. Fun conversation with Morgan during every phase of the adventure: the rock-climbing test day, the four-hour hike up the valley to the saddle, the climb, the lounging on the summit, the long descent and hike down. And it's just plain fun to have a guide. I felt like I was in a movie. 2. My fumbling with the climbing equipment on the rock-climbing test day. (Today's equipment bears no resemblance to what we used fifty years ago.) I kept asking Morgan whether she was sure she wanted to climb the Grand with me. She was merely amused. Like she said, she would be next to me at the beginning of each pitch to make sure I had everything in order, equipment-wise. (But I soon got myself "up to snuff" on it.) 3. It took us three hours of climbing, beginning just above the 11,700' saddle, to reach the summit at 13,775'. It's a blur of memories, in bits and pieces. It seems like there were about a half-dozen belayed pitches, ranging from a couple to a few minutes in duration, meaning that we spent most of the three hours engaged in class 3 & class 4 free climbing. We were just staying put here and there for probably a total of about 30 minutes due to short stretches of route-sharing or intersecting with other climbing parties. 4. The blur of memories of the down-climbing. See number five. 5. The long rappel which saved us many pitches of down-climbing. We lost all contact with the wall for the final roughly sixty feet of that rappel. (The rappel is in the final video below.) 6. The complete absence of fear or of any concern whatsoever, a bit surprisingly, during the entire technical climb and technical descent. I must credit Morgan for that. I had complete faith in her judgement and abilities. There was a good deal of fun conversation with other climbers who shared or intersected our climbing route here and there. 7. On near-vertical sections one sometimes needs to cast about a bit to find suitable handholds or footholds (or finger or toe holds). But that's part of the fun and satisfaction. Very easy, overall. There was little chance of having a fall on the route we took (and as a matter of principle I would not want to have one). I can certainly imagine myself climbing the entire route unroped -- though with little margin for my comfort level. 8. I climbed smoothly, and a highlight for me was receiving compliments as I climbed from the climbers who were about to come up the same pitch from below me. On one occasion, well into a pitch, I was on a quite vertical segment of wall where I'd spent several seconds trying to locate a suitable toehold. Rather than cause a delay for the climbers below (I'm Norwegian), I simply pulled myself up a couple feet with my hands, then groped about for a toehold at that higher position. I found one and continued on up the pitch. At the top of that pitch, I told Morgan that it must have looked really ugly to the climbers below. But even that crazy move had prompted a compliment from one of the climbers! 9. The airy exposed lateral segments were not technically difficult -- at all. And again -- surprising lack of fear or concern on those airy laterals, including a couple or so where no rope was used, despite the shear drop of two thousand feet as one leans out into space. 10. About half-way up the valley hike earlier that morning, I told Morgan the story about how if I ever saw Jimmy Chin walking down a sidewalk in Minneapolis I was going to punch him in the nose. Five minutes later we bumped into him on the trail. Unbeknownst to me, Morgan had met Jimmy once and is friends with his sister. I did not know he was Jimmy Chin until their short conversation was over and he and his hiking partner moved on up the trail. The fact that he was much shorter in real life than on the movie screen kept me from recognizing him. I told Morgan that she should have told me sooner that he was Jimmy Chin so that I could've punched him in the nose. She agreed to the extent that it would have made a great story for her to tell to the other guides. 11. How well I climbed on the rock-climbing test-day the day before our ascent of the Grand. Based on my performance (I had no idea that I was capable of completing a pitch that was rated 5.8 its entire length), Morgan qualified me for the more difficult and exposed route on the Grand, which is the upper Exum ridge route. At the end of that test, which we finished up early after just a couple hours of climbing, I told Morgan that she got an A++ as an instructor. She came back instantly with an A++ rating for me, and I heard a few "awesome"s from her during our test. (At the end of that day, based on Morgan's commentary, I guessed that I was in at least a borderline special category regarding clients. The next day Morgan stated clearly that I was "in a special category". Hooray.) 12. Based on my hiking endurance which Morgan noticed on the rock-climbing test-day, as well as on our conversation, Morgan further promoted me to a one-day ascent of the Grand rather than the standard two-day ascent whereby climbers spend the night on the 11,700' saddle after hiking up the valley. The valley hike generates 5000' of elevation gain, and it is another 2100' of elevation gain, in the form of climbing, beyond the saddle to the summit. (One carries a 16 - 18 pound pack whether making a one-day or two-day ascent.) She left it up to me, and I jumped at it. I held up four fingers and said "four-o-clock" (for a morning start time) and it suited her fine. It's a fun and bragging-rights way to climb the Grand. (One-day ascents of the Grand by the especially fit have a standard starting time of midnight, so Morgan had me in an extra-special category with that agreed-upon "late" start time for a one-day ascent/descent.) Even stranger -- we planned on ascending via the Upper Exum, which is a much longer climb than the Owen-Spalding route that virtually all the other clients use. I see from the Exum summit registry that an average of just 3 climbers per year accomplish a one-day ascent, while an average of 493 climbers per year make it a two-day ascent. Of the 54 climbers besides myself who made the one-day ascent over the past 17 years, I'm guessing that all incorporated the standard midnight start time. I'm glad I held up four fingers and requested a "late" start time of 4:00 A.M. Even then, the entire day was an effortless "Sunday stroll". We could have started much later. (Do your conditioning. See number 14 below.) 13. Without informing me about what she was up to, Morgan led us up a long and comparatively difficult technical climbing stretch at the outset of the climbing portion on the Grand. In other words, she did not take the standard route for that initial stretch. (I recently learned from Morgan that its name is The Crack of Doom! And I give it a rating of 5.5) The top of that pitch intersects with both the upper Exum route and the Owen-Spalding route. At that "decision point", she told me that I could expect the upper Exum ridge to consist of "lots of" climbing that is as difficult as the pitch that I'd just completed, along with severe exposure (airiness/extreme steepness), and that it would go on for hours. Or.. if I so chose .. we could opt for the "easier-but-still-challenging" (to quote someone else) Owen-Spalding route. Morgan's prudence, in conjunction with my imagination, gave me a sense that the Owen-Spalding route was possibly better suited to my conservative nature. So off we went up Owen-Spalding. Not at all challenging afterall (the photo and videos below might well cause you to disagree), but still providing good exposure and stunning views. Only after experiencing the exposure offered by the Owen-Spalding route did I realize how utterly unaffected I'd be by the Grand's exposure in a general sense, meaning that the upper Exum ridge would have suited me just fine. Neither Morgan nor I could have known that in advance. (09/05/2024 note: I've now also summited via the upper Exum ridge. Link at bottom of this page.) 14. Happy to report that my legs remained absolutely "silent" throughout the hiking and climbing, and that neither my heartrate nor breathing ever exceeded that which I experience sitting in my easy chair. Morgan asked me several times that day how I was feeling (as obliged by Exum policy, as she already knew my answer) and right to the end I was able to honestly report that I felt like I'd never left the trailhead and that my legs were silent. My modest training beginning a couple months prior to the climb was well worth it. Feeling perfectly fresh all day long is the key to enjoying mountain climbing. If you skimp on conditioning, you will not enjoy your hike or your climb. Morgan was endlessly patient with my comparatively slow downhill hiking from the saddle to the trailhead, which went on for nearly four hours. I make myself hike at a gentle pace downhill on rugged terrain to protect my old legs. (Old legs don't communicate their limitations to you until the day after you've enthusiastically flown down a mountain trail.) (Another 09/05/2024 note: I had no such limitation this year, and told Morgan on this year's rock-climbing day that I was good to go for "rubber-legging it" all the way down the mountain at high speed. She told me that Gavin (my summit guide this year) would be glad to hear that. Gavin and I descended the Grand very quickly. I blame my ever better nutrition for the profound improvement.) Morgan and I were walking through the woods in total darkness for the final half hour, arriving at the trailhead at 9:00 P.M., 17 hours after setting out that morning at 4:00 A.M. We had spent an hour at the 11,700' saddle both on the way up and on the way down, gabbing with other climbers. We spent about fifteen minutes at Spalding Falls both on the way up and on the way down. We also spent at least a half hour on the summit. Not a rushed adventure in any sense. (09/05/2024: Gavin and I took 15 hours to ascend and descend (trailhead to trailhead) via the Upper Exum this year; again making a very easy day of it.) Postscript: Glad to have experienced the Owen-Spalding route. Even though it's comparatively tame, I think it's a good idea to begin with the Owen-Spalding route (5.5) for self-assessment before taking on the upper Exum route (5.6) [1]. I would like to return to the Grand and climb the upper Exum route with Morgan. (Sept 5 2024 note: I've now done that, on August 29 2024. See the bottom of this page.) ----------------------------------------------- Hiking up the valley. This is Morgan:
I was proud to be Morgan's client. A few times during the technical ascent, other guides on the mountain called out to her for advice, and I could tell that they knew she would have the answer. "Morgan, how long of a rope do I need to rappel from such-and-such point to such-and-such point." "At the top of this pitch, will we be able to traverse to the base of such-and-such pitch." etc. She always answered in fine detail, and with an easy succinctness. I followed Morgan's lead on everything. I asked her how much water she was carrying on each segment of the day, what clothes she was going to wear on each segment; and I did as she did. During climbing, I sat when and where she said to sit (it was the very first thing she made clear on orientation day), and didn't stand up until I knew it was okay with her. I even checked with her before using the latrine at the saddle and at the summit. After all, I would be out of her sight and she was responsible for my safety. It was like being in elementary school again. A fun way of being. You'd like it. A couple photos along our route: An unidentified climber on a notable lateral section. We sailed right through it unroped:
A little further along the lateral, another unidentified climber enters the Double Chimney:
The blue and yellow lines in the photo below show part of the climbing route. The yellow line is the stretch where the two climbers in the photos immediately above are located. Only the upper 600 feet of the thousands of feet of shear drop below the yellow line is shown in the photo below. (The entire shear drop shows up in the opening scenes of the first video below.)
Me on the summit:
Morgan's (telescopic lens) photo of me on the same rappel as seen in the video below. This same spot shows up at the 1:16 mark in the rappel video below:
Here is a 1981 climber beginning that rappel. He (and Morgan and I) did it right. The climber in the rappel video below failed to lean out and made more work of it:
The 3 minute 10 second video below, which contains highlights from our Owen-Spalding route as climbed and filmed by a different climbing party, sometimes makes sections look steeper than they actually are. One actually spends little time going straight up: The long rappel with final 60' in mid-air (unknown climbers): When we returned to the saddle after summiting, Morgan gave me half her sandwich, which I'm holding in my hand while munching:
Five links: Note 1: Long-time Park Service ranger and Tetons climbing guide author Renny Jackson rates the upper Exum route as minimally 5.6 officialdom: Summit Registry Select "Grand Teton-1 day", "Roger", "Luebeck" (They are slow to update the registry. Still only the 2023 one-day ascent recorded as of 9/20/24.) My climb of the Upper Exum ridge to the summit on August 29 2024. Comparison of the two classic routes on the Grand Teton to the two classic routes on Long's Peak. home (olden-days.me)