Middle
Teton and Dissapointment Peak Trip Report
August
2013
(1) Middle Teton, Southwest
Couloir, 3rd class, 14 miles, 6000 ft, August 10th
2013 (Jared & Jen)
(2) Dissapointment Peak, Southeast Ridge, 4th class 12
miles, 5000 ft, August 8th 2013 (Jared & Jen)
It's been awhile since I've last
posted a trip report, a very long while. I've been busy to say
the least. Jen and I left Boulder after I graduated and moved to
Rochester New York for a year where we bought a house and I worked as a
post-doctorate at the University of Rochester. After a year I was
lucky enough to land a position as a tenure track professor of Physics
at Colorado Mesa University. Given that this was a dream job (4
year physics program in Colorado) we sold our house, moved back to
Colorado, then bought new house (our wallets are still bleeding).
The job is great but I work 50-70 hours a week during the year so
updating this site has suffered.
I have been really busy and hadn't climbed much of lates so I've
basically been updating my "Other Mountains" page but that is about it
as far as this website goes. I've taken up canyoneering and have
been doing a lot of that as well as a lot of kayaking but only climbed
4 or so peaks over the summer of 2012.
This year I decided I'd get back to the mountains and have been hitting
them hard. I've done 5 10 and 11 thousand foot peaks in Colorado,
4 centennials, 3 14er repeats and finally climbed the Grand Teton via
the Owen-Spalding route. The Grand is easily my favorite mountain
to date. I climbed it in July with my friend Tim Hallinan.
We both hate backpacking so we climbed the Grand (or tried to) car to
car. On our first attempt we were shut down by snow and lightning
at the "Belly Crawl" at 8:30 AM. Both of us are pig headed so we
went back to the car, slept, and tried again. We were
succesfull. I think I need to climb the Grand Teton Many more
times.
After the Grand I fell in love with the Tetons and needed to go
back. The original plan for this weekend was to go to the
Grenadiers and climb a bunch of stuff there including Vestal Peak,
Arrow Peak, and the Trinities. Unfortunately the monsoon season
was in full effect in Colorado so our plans had to change and we
decided to go to the Tetons.
On day one Jen and I climbed Dissapointment Peak. This is easily
the easiest peak in the Tetons but still packs 12 miles, 4th class, and
5000 feet vertical into a day. The Colorado peaks pale in
comparison to the Tetons. There is nothing like them and only a
handful of Colorado peaks can compare to the easiest peaks in the
Tetons.
After the first day I developed a nasty blister near to where I'd had
some surgery done on my foot and I thought we were done. I called
my doctor and she told me to cut out the blister and any skin around
it, not pop it but remove the whole thing. I decided it was worth
doing since we didn't want to cut our trip short so performed some self
surgery and took day two off to recuperate.
On day three it was apparent that I could not put my foot into a shoe
so I bandaged my foot up as well as I could and figured I try climbing
in sandals. I was not too hopeful that it would work but it was
worth a try.
As it turned out the makeshift surgery and sandals worked because we
managed to climb the Middle Teton in 9 hours car to car. I don't
bother with beta or route descriptions because there is a ton of that
stuff online already. The hike and climb was easy technically but
the views were outstanding. Standing on the Middle Teton at 6000
feet above the valley floor was like looking down from an
airplane. I was extremely proud of how easily Jen dispatched the
miles and vertical. The whole area is so beautiful that words
can't do it justice.
Jen and I plan on going back next year to climb the South Teeton,
Teewinot, and Mt. Moran. In the short term we are going to
dayhike Capitol and the Gore Grand Traverse in September. Its
nice to be back to the mountains.
Movie from the summit
Jen With South Teton Behind Her
Jen Coming Up The SW Couloir
The Grand Teton
I Climbed This In Chacos
Me and The Grand Teton
Looking Back At South Teton
Icefloe Lake
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