The View from Atop
On Thursday morning at 12:30 am., myself and 4 friends set out on a 18 mile journey to summit Grand Teton.
Grand Teton stands at 13,770 ft. tall and being that the Tetons are the youngest mountains in the lower 48, they are still growing.
The trail to the summit snakes its way through 7000 vertical ft. of switch backs, rugged boulder fields, talus rocks and otherwise steep and adverse terrain.
I must admit with much regret that our team fell short of our summit by some 300ft.
Upon approaching the belly roll on the classic Owen Spaulding Route we were stuck in a traffic jam of climbers in freezing temperatures.
After several hours of waiting in the shadows, unanimously our team decided that it was in our best interest to head back.
Rule #1 of mountaineering is to make it home and at the end of the day we found solace in that decision.
I must say at this point in my life, that this just might be the most physically and mentally challenging goal I’ve ever set before myself and I think we were all proud to have made as far as we had.
On a positive note, upon our descent we backtracked about an hour onto a sunny outlook called the Enclosure which is slightly detached from Grand but is the 2nd highest point in the Teton Range standing tall at 13,280 ft.
Enjoy the views.
Ethan Confer Photography 