The Grand Teton: 5.8 Sport Clippin’

Team “Clips” successfully summited the Grand Teton in one LOOONG 18 hour push car-to-car. I wanna lie and tell you it was a piece of cake, and I wanna lie and tell you I didn’t have a splitting headache once over 12,000ft, but I can’t. I can tell you though, that we had an incredible weekend full of crazy twists and turns, family drama, new friends, new personal altitude bests, killer pizza, and far to many vest and leather shoe combos than were comfortable for a late night pizza joint. We made plans and changed plans and then changed them again. Went to bed at 11:30PM and were up again at 2:30AM. We hiked the first 4 hours in complete darkness and emerged into a stunning granite walled canyon littered with boulders dotted with flowers and sliced in two by an icy stream. We got lost. We took wrong turns and then corrected. We made adjustments, looked out for each other and thrived on team motivation and mutual naivety.

Yeah. We’ve been to the top of that.

Prepping for a rain storm. Bertha with the soft top!

Before climbing the Grand we decided to sample some single pitch cragging near camp to get our feet back under us after the drive. Despite the first couple routes being polished like glass (think worst of AF) the rest of the routes here were quite fun! Upper Blacktail Butte – WY.

Gearing up for our car-to-car attempt at the Grand. Basically JP and I have always wanted to lay our gear out Camp 4 style..

Camp creations w/ Michele – Halmark 9 EST.

Kevin breaking the mold with his Canoe carrying abilities on his Mustang!

3:30 AM along the trail. Unfortunately I may never see this stretch of trail in the daylight.. gives you an idea of how long a day it was..

Entering the boulderfields sometime just before sunrise.

Day break in the meadows. Aside from the upper saddle this may have been the most beautiful stretch of the trek.

Missing the switchbacks leading out of the meadows.. Oh well! Made for a nice “this is us getting lost” photo. The lower saddle is in the upper right of the photo.

Steady climbing. up.. up.. UP!

These here are Dragon-breath-hairy-tongues. Or something along those lines.

Some beautiful wildflowers along the trail.

PIKA. Michele was about to tackle one and bring it home in her pack.

Rockstars.

Approaching the Petzoldt Caves

Robyn starting up the long scramble to the upper saddle. Although scale is next to impossible here, there is a mountain hut an inch to the right of Robyn’s helmet in this picture… and we are JUST getting started.

Team white strips.

I climb rocks y’all. Big ones.

A bit of off rout excitement. JP short ropes Robyn up an unexpected pitch of exposed 5.8 climbing.

A bit of off-route excitement. JP short ropes Robyn up an unexpected pitch of exposed 5.8 climbing.

Idaho in the background, just getting started off the lower saddle.

Robyn on the steep and loose section between the lower and upper saddles. Lots of falling rock! This was by far the most challenging section of the hike. Brutal!

JP in “Mountaineers Pose”

JP and Michele at the Upper Saddle. At this point there was no holding Michele back from summit fever.

Robyn climbing out the top of the Owen-Chimney.

Reaching the Upper Saddle –> Let’s go for it!

Killin it! What a moment! This day started at 2 A.M.!

Michele, JP and Rob. Summit of the Grand Teton.

Another snow squall approaching from the north.

Happy feet on the summit.

Michele and JP reveling in the victory of the summit. Halfway there!

Idaho to the left, Wyoming to the right. Summit of the Grand Teton 13,775ft.

Team clips on the summit halfway through a looooong 18 hour day!

The wind there for a bit on our way down from the summit was INTENSE. Snow squalls came through thumping graupel off our coats as the cold wind sliced through our thin layers. This group was getting ready for the main rappel, rope flaked and ready to toss. With a yell into the wind, “ROPE!” the party tossed their coil high into the air only to have it lifted by the updraft and thrown behind them back onto the mountain!