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Grand Teton Summit via Upper Exum August 29 2024
Three short stories:
The Step Across:
I botched my very first pitch (the Step Across) on the
technical climb. Or did I?
The exposure on that pitch is enormous -- you're clinging
to the rock face above thousands of feet of .. read more
The pictures below were found on the Net. I didn't carry
a camera on this climb.
This is the top of Wall Street, which is the highest point
to which my nephew and I got in 1980. My nephew and
I were alone on the mountain.
A climber about to lower himself down to the Step Across:
A climber who has just completed the Step Across
and is beginning the climb of the upper Exum ridge:
A pitch above the wind tunnel:
The climb begins at the 11,700' saddle (bottom of yellow line
in the photo below) to which we had hiked up early in the
morning (3:15 to 6:45). The trail-head is at 6700'.
It's class 3 climbing up the bottom portion of the yellow line,
followed by more class 3 climbing along the bold orange line
over to the red line.
The red line is our Upper Exum ridge route, which is
class 5 climbing (rope and hardware) all the way to the
summit ridge.
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Morgan (Exum guide) had told me
the day before -- after our rock-
climbing -- that I was "going to
crush it". I said, "I won't crush
it, but I'll be fine". My summit
guide Gavin and I passed what few
climbing parties there were on
the Upper Exum ridge who had
started hours ahead of us (they
had all spent the night in the hut
on the saddle after hiking up to it
the previous day), and we arrived at
the summit long before any of the
other climbers. Morgan was perhaps
right. But all I had to do was
follow the mountain goat Gavin.
I would have chosen a more relaxed
pace. But Gavin did sacrifice a
day for me. The least I could do
was help him promplty get back to
his normal routine.
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Roger on summit
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