With Fall (and winter) weather quickly approaching I saw a quick window to sneak down to the Tetons with my friend Ti. Grand Teton National Park is a mere 3.5 hours from my new base in Bozeman, MT. We hit the road after class with a goal to arrive in the Tetons before dark, after 2.5 hours of driving we were nearing the destination when we happened upon a closed road leaving us with no choice but a 4 hour detour. We arrived at the park at 12:30AM, quickly pitched our tent and hit the sack.
An intermittent break of storm clouds on our first morning gave us a few minutes to cook up some breakfast.
Scaling some magnificent rock on our approach to the summit of Teewinot Mountain.
Grand Teton looking very grand.
Ti climbing off the summit of Teewinot Mountain as we saw another wave of dark clouds on the horizon.
The views from the top of Teewinot Mountain were staggering.
One last look before heading back to the car.
Our campsite for the 2nd night, exhausted after a much longer than expected day in the mountains.
I always dream of sun rays like this, we felt so lucky to watch it happen over the Tetons, a few steps from our campsite.
Climbing Teewinot Mountain turned out to be a much bigger endeavour that originally anticipated, the planned 6 mile round trip quickly turned into 15 miles after making a simple error at the trailhead. It was evident our brains were foggy from a short nights sleep. We persisted and made it the summit despite thunderstorms in the morning hours we were rewarded with a afternoon and evening of beautiful sun and warm weather. We found a new camp spot for the evening, pitched our tent, and watched the sun go down behind the Tetons, beer in hand. Not long after we found the “comfort” of our sleeping bags, knowing we had an alpine start the next day.
5:00AM and back on the trail
The first hit of sun on our skin was warmly welcomed.
Racing the sun up Garnet Canyon.
Our first clear view of our objective for the day: Middle Teton.
On the trail by 5AM and the day started with a bang! One of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever witnessed and perfect weather. We made good time up to the meadows were many campers were still asleep. As we started to make our way through the boulder fields the sun began to creep over the mountains. If you know me, you know this is when I have a massive smile on my face: perfect weather, lighting, and fantastic rock structures surrounding me. We forged on and slowly made our way to the saddle.
I couldn’t get enough of this beautiful sun coming up into the valley.
Ti making his way through the many boulders.
Our final view before calling it a day and turning around early.
It was at around 10,500 feet that Ti was noticeably starting to feel the altitude today and the fatigue of the previous days. Despite that we pushed to the saddle at 11,400ft. It was then that I also started feeling the altitude myself, but we both new that only the SW Couloir remained in tackling the Middle Teton (13,000ft). After taking a short rest on the shoulder and looking up the the SW Couloir all our hopes were immediately drained from our bodies. We knew it would take at least another two hours to summit. Due to lack of sleep, fatigue, and time restraints we felt it was best to turn around and return to the car, knowing we had another 4.5 hour drive ahead of us back home. Despite the overwhelming disappointment of failing the main goal of our trip, we couldn’t help but feel so fortunate to be having an amazing time with a perfect weather window in a new-to-us National Park. We will surely be back soon Grand Teton National Park.
A short film I created from our trip: