Trip Date: August 22-24, 2022

2022 TETON RANGE ADVENTURE VACATION

Grand Teton Hiking & Climbing Trip

Garnet Meadow
Corbet High Camp
Lower Saddle
Grand Teton (13,775 ft)
Surprise Lake
Amphitheater Lake

Trip Report Summary

Region: Wyoming Rockies

Sub-Region: Teton Range

Area: Grand Teton National Park

Starting & Ending Point: Lupine Meadows Trailhead at end of Lupine Meadows Road (Elev. 6730 feet)

Way Points: Delta Creek & Valley Trail junction & Amphitheater Lake Trail junction & Garnet Canyon & Garnet Meadow & Teepe Glacier moraine & Corbet High Camp (trail hike & trail scramble)

Campsite: Corbet High Camp

Sidetrip: Middle Teton Glacier moraine & Lower Saddle (trail hike & trail scramble)

Summit: Grand Teton (rock scramble & rock climb via Lower Owen-Spalding Couloir—Wall Street—Upper Exum Ridge; descent via Owen-Spalding Route)

Guiding Service & Guides: Jackson Hole Mountain Guides / Taylor Lais & Sharon

Sidetrip: Surprise Lake & Amphitheater Lake (trail hike)

Approximate Stats (excluding sidetrip): 14.5 miles traveled; 7300 feet gained & lost.

Approximate Stats (including sidetrip): 18.4 miles traveled; 8600 feet gained & lost.

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Trip Overview

Shortly after completing our four-day backpacking traverse along the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park, Eileen and I joined up with our friend George for a guided climb of ultra-iconic Grand Teton. For both George and me, it was a long-time bucket-list item; for Eileen, it was an opportunity to experience a legendary summit. In the end, the climb was everything we had imagined and much more!

Grand Teton Climbing Routes

The two easiest and most-frequented routes on Grand Teton are the Owen-Spalding Route and Upper Exum Ridge. Both routes ascend from the 11,600-foot Lower Saddle to the 13,775-foot summit in a generally northeastward direction. The former route is rated Class 5.4 but involves a long hike up a scree-and-talus couloir to the 13,200-foot Upper Saddle before any technical climbing begins. The latter route is rated Class 5.5 or 5.6 and involves far more technical climbing; as such, it tends to be more popular among guides and experienced climbers. Regardless of which ascent route is taken, the Owen-Spalding Route is typically used for the descent.

Grand Teton Guiding Service

There are only two guiding companies that are allowed to lead climbs of Grand Teton, and both offer a standard itinerary for their private climbs. Eileen researched both companies and selected Jackson Hole Mountain Guides (JHMG) for our climb. The deciding factor was JHMG’s three-day itinerary, which allows for an additional night in high camp immediately following the summit ascent rather than having to make a long hike out the same day. In recent decades, I have found one of my greatest mountain pleasures to be a relaxed evening in camp while gazing at a just-climbed summit. Alpine bliss!

Pre-Climb Inspection & Cragging

JHMG’s three-day itinerary is really a “three-plus-one” itinerary, as they require a pre-climb meeting and crag trip. At their office in Jackson, Wyoming, Eileen, George, and I met Taylor Lais, our assigned climbing guide. The tall, slender, soft-spoken 33-year-old inspected all of our mountain clothing, with special attention to key items such as climbing shoes and raingear. For practical reasons, JHMG requires all clients to wear technical approach shoes on summit day. For convenience, they supply a harness, helmet, belay/rappel device, and summit pack to each client.

Following our office meeting, Taylor took us out to a local crag and ran us through all of the basic climbing topics: knots, anchors, belaying, rappelling, lowering, ropework, and footwork. This session was intended for his benefit as much as ours, because it allowed him to determine which of two possible climbing routes he would take us up. By the time we finished our day, he felt satisfied that we could handle the more-difficult Upper Exum Ridge route. There were enthusiastic thumbs up all around!

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Teton Range Geology

Although the overall geology of the Teton Range is fairly straightforward compared to the North Cascades, it is nonetheless fascinating and, in certain ways, perplexing to me. From a broad-brush perspective, the mountains were formed by major faulting and subsequent orogenic uplift relative to the adjacent plains of Jackson Hole. This resulted in a low-angle surface of sedimentary rocks (mostly limestone and sandstone) along the western side, and steep faces of older igneous and metamorphic rocks on the eastern side.

As the Teton Range was pushed upward, the surficial sedimentary rocks were eroded off, thereby exposing the much-harder igneous and metamorphic rocks below. These harder rocks primarily consist of intermixed granite and gneiss, but their textures and relationships are quite interesting. On Grand Teton, I observed that the granite is unusually white (very rich in quartz and/or plagioclase) and extremely coarse, which are typical characteristics of a pegmatitic granite, or pegmatite. I also saw many fragments of gneiss—some quite large—contained entirely within the pegmatite. These foreign fragments, or xenoliths, likely broke away from the gneissic country rock and became engulfed by the granitic magma.

Another geologic curiosity in the Tetons is the prevalence of huge black dikes cutting through many of the high peaks, such as Mt. Moran, Grand Teton, and Middle Teton. These dikes consist of diabase, a black rock having the same geochemistry as basalt and gabbro but with a crystalline texture intermediate between those two common igneous rocks. The diabase dike on Middle Teton, for example, rises straight as an arrow for hundreds of feet and is reportedly 20 to 40 feet wide!

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Full Trip Report

Day 1: Trailhead to High Camp

George, Eileen, and I met Taylor at the Lupine Meadows Trailhead on a warm, sunny Monday morning. Taylor gave each of us a heavy bag of food to carry, but he assured us that there would be tents, sleeping pads, harnesses, helmets, summit packs, and other necessary technical gear waiting in high camp. Consequently, we were able to begin this three-day climbing trip with backpacks weighing only 25 to 35 pounds.

We left the crowded parking lot at 8:45am and hiked up the trail toward Garnet Canyon, past junctions with spur trails heading over to Delta Lake and Amphitheater Lake. Shortly before noon, we reached Garnet Meadow and stopped for lunch (3.0 hours + 2400 feet from TH).

A right-branching trail in Garnet Meadow led us up steep rubble slopes for another 1500 vertical feet, during which we were pelted with big raindrops and hailstones. This was one of the thunder squalls that frequently occur in the Tetons during summertime. The trail then made a leftward traverse across a bench below the remnant Teepe Glacier, and we arrived at JHMG’s 11,100-foot Corbet High Camp in mid-afternoon (5.9 hours + 4150 feet from TH). Perched on a moraine high above Garnet Canyon, this camp comprises a group weatherport (tarp hut), a gravel terrace, and a dozen sturdy three-person tents dispersed among the boulders.

Taylor directed George, Eileen, and me to our respective tents, then he distributed technical gear and snazzy red summit packs for tomorrow’s climb. After getting situated, we joined the other eight clients and five guides on the gravel terrace for social hour, appetizers, and dinner. Sharon, a nightrider guide for our team, arrived in camp during dinner. (A “nightrider” is an assistant guide who hikes up to high camp later in the day, sometimes not even leaving the trailhead until midnight.) By 7:30pm, everyone was heading for the tents.

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Day 2 (AM): High Camp to Summit

I awoke to clear, chilly weather at 3:30am and quickly got dressed for climbing, then went down to the weatherport for breakfast with the other clients. There was a quiet excitement and anxiety filling the darkness. One by one, the four separate climbing teams huddled up, performed final gear checks, and left camp under headlamp. By previous agreement, Taylor, Sharon, George, Eileen, and I were the last to leave, at 4:45am.

We descended 250 feet on a crude path until intersecting the well-used moraine trail in Garnet Canyon. We then followed this trail up past a rock headwall fitted with a fixed handline. The headlamps of several independent climbing parties were visible far down the inky black canyon.

We soon arrived at the Lower Saddle, a barren sag between Grand Teton and Middle Teton. It was now 6:00am (1.2 hours + 950 feet from camp) and just light enough to switch off our headlamps. We turned sharply to the right (north) and ascended a path leading into the Owen-Spalding Couloir. After some initial hiking and scrambling, Taylor veered us rightward up a black diabase dike until reaching a steep face. Here, Eileen and I roped up with Taylor, and George roped up with Sharon. We then climbed a feature called “Crack of Doom.”

A roped traverse took us around the prominent Central Rib and into a secondary couloir. A large ramp known as “Wall Street” could be seen over to the right, with Upper Exum Ridge clearly visible on the right skyline. We scrambled up to the lower end of the ramp and began climbing toward the ridge on easy, solid granite.

We paused occasionally to admire morning alpenglow on Middle Teton. The long shadow of Grand Teton and other peaks stretched out to the west.

There were two private (unguided) parties on Wall Street, and Taylor immediately recognized that they were…disorganized. As a guide, he has no intention of getting stuck behind a slow party, so he quickly and firmly “asked” to play through. Both parties let us pass, but one of the leaders said, “Mind if we pass you farther up?” Taylor responded with a matter-of-fact “Sure thing,” knowing full well that they would never catch us. Indeed, we never got a glimpse of either party the rest of the day.

One of several well-documented crux moves on Upper Exum Ridge is a step-across at the very end of Wall Street. Here, it is necessary to delicately step out to a vertical face with a thousand feet of air below your feet. The move is rated at a modest Class 5.5, but the exposure is breathtaking! (As a point of historical interest, Glenn Exum famously jumped over the top of this airy step-across during his trailblazing first ascent nearly a century ago.)

Just above the step-across, we encountered the “Golden Stair,” a heavily textured face of golden-colored granite. This notable face has exaggerated handholds and footholds consisting of oversized crystals, or phenocrysts. Without a doubt, it is a fan-favorite pitch among climbers.

Next up was the “Wind Tunnel,” a narrow, hidden, right-slanting cleft that took us back out to the ridge crest. As the name implies, it was breezy in here.

The Wind Tunnel was followed by another crux called the “Friction Pitch.” This name is something of a misnomer because the rock consists of glassy, white granite that offers precious little friction. Throughout most of our ascent, Taylor used no protection other than slinging rock horns, but he did place a few cams at certain key locations such as here.

More enjoyable Class 3-4 climbing took us to a final crux in the route, with two options available. On the left is the “V Pitch,” which involves a Class 5.5 sloping dihedral; on the right is a steep arete and Class 5.6 face. Taylor opted for the arete and face, whereas Sharon opted for the classic dihedral. Both were excellent pitches with solid rock.

We soon found ourselves on a high shoulder, only a few hundred feet from the summit. What remained was easy scrambling terrain interspersed with several difficult bouldering moves. Taylor, Eileen, and I stepped onto the storied summit at 9:45am (5.0 hours + 2900 feet from camp). Sharon and George joined us minutes later.

Being the highest point within a 70-mile radius, Grand Teton towers over the entire landscape. To the north were Mt. Moran and Jackson Lake; to the east were the Gros Ventre Mountains; to the south were Middle Teton, South Teton, and Buck Mountain; and to the west were the Big Hole Mountains. Straight down to the west was the Teton Crest Trail, which we had traversed last week. Unfortunately, there was a lot of atmospheric haze that severely limited visibility.

Day 2 (PM): Summit to High Camp

It would have been nice to spend a full hour on the summit, but Taylor noticed dark clouds building on the southern horizon, so he hurried us off in hopes of beating a potential rainstorm. For our descent, we took the classic Owen-Spalding Route down the eastern face of the summit block. This route involves a combination of zigzagging paths and short cliff bands.

Just before reaching the Upper Saddle, we veered leftward (south) to an established rappel station. Several parties were queued up here, so we had to wait 15 minutes for our turn. The rappel itself was a scintillating 40-meter drop on an overhanging cliff with a long free-hanging section at the end!

Once off rappel, we descended a short distance toward the Upper Saddle. We then entered the Owen-Spalding Couloir and carefully picked our way down through loose talus and scree. Near the couloir’s bottom, we traversed over to the left and ducked through a famous cannonhole feature called “Eye of the Needle.” The fun just kept coming!

By 1:30pm, we reached the Lower Saddle (3.3 hours from summit) and took a break. The only remaining feature of difficulty was the rock headwall below the saddle, and Taylor handled this quickly by lowering each of us down on an anchored rope.

From the bottom of the headwall, we were left with a rocky hike down the moraine trail and up to Corbet High Camp, arriving at 2:45pm (4.6 hours – 2900 feet + 250 feet from summit). The other three JHMG teams were already in camp, having stayed ahead of us all day and successfully climbed the same route. Our late-afternoon social hour on the gravel terrace was a celebratory affair, with the different teams sharing tales about their climbs. Most assuredly, none of us had any desire to hike out today!

Day 3: High Camp to Trailhead + Amphitheater Lake

We were all awake by 7:00am, ready to pack up, eat breakfast, clean camp, and hike out. Taylor had George, Eileen, and me on the trail at 9:00am. We enjoyed a relaxed descent with several stops along the way.

Upon arriving at the Amphitheater Lake Trail junction, we found George’s wife, Karen, waiting for us. She had spent the night at the nearby American Alpine Club Climber’s Ranch and then hiked up to meet us. After saying our goodbyes to Taylor, the four of us took a sidetrip up to Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes for lunch, a swim, and a different view of Grand Teton.

After getting an adequate dose of lake time, we returned to the trail junction and finished our hike down to Lupine Meadows Trailhead, arriving at 4:40pm (7.7 hours + 1300 feet – 5300 feet from high camp, including sidetrip). For Eileen, George, and me, it had been an epic climb and an outstanding three days in the Teton Range!

Route Maps & Profile & Diagrams

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Photo Gallery

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