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Climbing the Grand Teton Part 2 | Grand Teton National Park, WY United States | 08/12/08, by powderjunky

This is a continuation of another story. You can find part 1 here.

As the early morning sun rose we were shocked to not see anyone on the Upper Exum as we crossed the exposed awkward crux of wall street. Once on the ridge the sun met us with arms wide open and illuminated the golden stair pitch, a fifty foot section of granite prettier than Mathew Mcconaughey.


We simu-climbed up the perfect ridge encountering only a small amount of snow in the more sheltered areas. As we made our way up, the views to the south, west, and east are just incredible and can easily distract from the climbing at hand. A slight breeze kept us climbing in pants and wind breakers. As we approached the final leg to the summit we were still in shock that we had seen no one! No one, on the Upper Exum in the middle of July! That’s like going to catch 1st tram on a 3-foot powder day and having no one else in line. It was great!


Just before the summit my partner noticed his lower part of his backpack was starting to drip on him. Turns out his crampon had punctured our celebratory beer! We quickly dug into the pack and chugged the remaining booze faster than John Belushi.


As we summited we were greeted by a small group of 3 who climbed the east face. The five us reveled in our solitude and accomplishment. The weather was holding beautifully as there was not a cloud in the sky. We knew we could take our time and really enjoy the top with no rush from approaching bad weather.


After getting our fill we headed for the Owen Spalding Rappels and after an always exciting hanging rappel we were on our way back to camp.