Hey family!
Thought I would
just send an update report about my activities. I’m just riding home from my
first weekend in the Tetons and it turns out they are completely breath taking
in more then one way! Yesterday (Saturday) Adam and I hiked up to the lower
saddle of the Grand Teton, which is a four hour trek to around 1200 something
ft and spent the night there.
There’s the
peak!
And this was our
view that evening..
Even though the
hike to the saddle wasn’t anything special we had a couple exciting events
along the way including running into a really small bear cub and having to
sprint out of the path of a rock fall that was triggered from the peak of the
middle Teton.
We woke up at
4:30am to summit before the afternoon thunderstorms that are notorious for
sneaking in unannounced. I was told the freakiest story by a mountain guide,
whom we met at the saddle, about one storm two years ago that was suddenly upon
the grand while he was still on the summit. Him and his crew ran the descent,
passing groups and telling them to turn around. One group of five from Bozeman
ignored the warning and continued up until the lightening storm was surrounding
them. At one point they were all thrown by a ground charge and one of the men,
whom was accidently clipped into the wrong part of his harness in the panic,
fell 1000ft to his death. Needless to say we were very careful, roping up on technical
scrambles that were exposed but we couldn’t have picked a better day in terms
of weather!
Sun rise over
the middle Teton
We picked a
route that has apparently been ran from car to car, to the top and back in less
then three hours but for us mere mortals it took around the same amount of time
to get from the saddle to the peak. We made it!
One of those
exposed areas
13700+ft looking
over Idaho and Wyoming.
We even got to
watch Old Faithful go off in Yellowstone National Part from this vintage point!
You can also see some smoke still lingering from the forest fires in the NW
Territories. After an hour on top there was a group of five 60+ year olds that
joined us and all instantly whipped out their Iphones to take pictures, text
their wives and make phone calls… can you believe the senor generation these
days?!
From the top the
best way down was to repel off an over hung cliff face. I’m still new to
repelling and was told by Adam, “I get a twisted satisfaction seeing you so
uncomfortable, I didn’t think a world cup downhill racer could be scared of
anything.” Well I beg to differ when I’ve never had the experience of free-hang
(no limbs on the wall) dangling like a worm on a thread.
Turns out it is not only bungee jumping
that gives you that feeling!
After that the
descent was mostly glacading/butt sliding. We met the wives of the men from the
peak waiting for their hubbies in the meadow with cookies and watermelon, which
they shared with us when they found out we had summited at the same time as
their husbands!
One of the most impressive things about the
Tetons were the lazar cut fault lines that caused huge dikes which ran up the
front of the mountains. There were also mica and quartz that made the mountains
sparkle. It made me miss all my geologist-hiking partners.
Check out that dike!
Can’t wait to see you all this Thursday! I
have another math exam and will leave right after, about noon Thursday, so will
be some around supper-time! Love to all!
Xoxox Bear child
