Grand Traverse attempt #2

After the first attempt I was more fired up than ever. Travis flew home to San Diego. I think he had been home 3 days before we had made plans to try to sneak another go in this season.  A weekend of low pressure had left the Tetons with some snow in the upper elevations.  Monday was partly cloudy and Tuesday looked to be splitter and cool.  Tuesday it was.  I was a bit concerned about the new snow and quite concerned about the lower temperatures since, unless you bring a stove, all of your water comes from snow or ice melt. Not wanting to carry anymore weight nor burn daylight melting snow, we opted to not take a stove.

We left the car at Lupine Meadows at 3:00 a.m. September, 2o. We were joined on the trail by a bugling elk.  He stayed on the trail a switchback or so ahead of us for quite a while.  Good entertainment for the interminable switchbacks up Teewinot.  I became quite concerned when the first snowpatch we reached was rock solid.  Definitely no water on Teewinot.  Not a big deal, we have enough to water to get us to the next possible water. Which is 3 hours away at the Koven col.  Fingers crossed that the sun will warm things up enough to get some water.

TK on top of Teewinot at 6 a.m.

We scrambled down the SW face of Teewinot in the dark.  We reached peak 11,880 just at first light. The scramble down to NW chimney rappel was bit icy and required care.  As did a handful of steps, with crampons,  across an ice patch with bad consequences.  Then some nice cruiser ridge.

The next section which was a bunch of loose blocks three weeks ago was solid this time, frozen in place.  On one move through the frozen blocks a water bottle clipped to Travis’ harness came unclipped and fell directly into steep frozen water slide. It accelerated down the mountain and out of view… GULP. I mean, sip.  There goes 20 ounces of water and 1/4 of our water carrying capacity. Travis pulled his other water bottle out of his pack and promptly put it on a locking biner.

This section was nicely frozen in place this time. Travis' water bottle took ride falline from me. Photo: Travis Kemp

From here a quick scramble brought us to the top of  the East Prong.  2 raps brought us down to the Koven col and thankfully water.  I had been saving water in case we did not find water in the col so I was quite dehydrated and feeling poorly. We rehydrated and basked in the warm sun for 20 minutes or so.  If we had known that this was our only water we would have drank longer but we figured since this was flowing that other sources would be flowing as well.  But as we continued up Owen I soon realized that water was not flowing in the places it had been three weeks ago.  As it turns out the col was the perfect area to melt and gather water in the morning.  There was large area of thin ice over black rock that received direct early morning sun and funneled into a chimney to make a nice flow.  Little did we know it but our next water source was to 10 hours away. Sip.

Frozen water on the way up Owen.

We continued on, reaching the summit of Mt. Owen just after 9 a.m.  Touched the summit and continued with our day knowing that reaching Owen is but a small step in the Grand Traverse. We continued south towards Gunsight Notch and the Grand.

Alpine rollercoaster. Photo: Travis Kemp

We found our way into Gunsight notch via some heads up (icy) downclimbing and some rappels.  We scrambled up out of the notch to ledge which we took for 100′ to the south to the base of two steep and amazing pitches heading towards the Grandstand.  We roped up and I led the two super fun pitches. Some scrambling took us to the top of the Grandstand.  We stepped into the shadow of the Grand Teton and began our adventure up the North ridge.

Travis starts up the first pitch of the North ridge.

It was incredibly cold on the North ridge.  The route was snowy and icy which slowed us down a bit.  The second pitch which, when dry is an easy 3rd class gully,  was quite bad and we decided to stay roped.  Due to it’s low angle it had collected the most snow. I climbed slowly, digging out hand and footholds.  Travis meanwhile was getting so cold that he began to simul climb with me.  Upon reaching me at the belay he mumbled something about dying of exposure, took the rack and headed off on the next pitch. I drank the last bit of what was now slush out of my water bottle before it froze solid, put every bit of clothing I had on and tried to think about warm places.  It did not work.  Soon I could not feel my toes.  It was cold. Core temperature dropping cold.  As soon as Travis said ‘on belay’ I was off and running.  Climbing as fast as possible in hopes of generating some heat. I reached Travis at the bottom of the Chockstone pitch warmed only slightly from my effort.  Things were looking a bit icy.

MixmasterTK. Travis' mixed climbing experience pays off as he cruises the icy 5.8 Chockstone chimney in approach shoes with aluminum strap on crampons.

We made our way up the North ridge to second ledge.  What was usually an easy scramble along second ledge to the Owen-Spalding route now required a bit more care and we stayed roped for two of steps with lots of exposure.

TK works his way across second ledge.

We got to the Owen-Spalding and scrambled up Sargent’s chimney and the catwalk.  I walked passed the next chimney completely. Following the line of least resistance. Which right now was a large ledge leading to the south.  It was not until I was staring at the Exum ridge that it hit to me that I was off route and wandering aimlessly. I wondered how I could get off route here, a section I know well.  Then it hit me. We are severely dehydrated. I look at my watch and did the math, 30 ounces each over the last 7 hours.  Hmm, not so good. I turned around.  Travis was no where to be seen.  I traced my steps backwards and found Travis sitting down and moving rocks around to make a bed.  He was even worse off than me.  We had a quick conversation and I decided to run up to the summit and Travis was going to take a nap in the sun while simultaneously melting snow in his water bottle inside his jacket.  Kid can multi task.  A couple of hundred feet above I looked down and Travis was lying down in the fetal position. I have never seen Travis in this kind of shape, ever. Dehydration is for real. I made it to the summit and two nice guys from Montana were there.  They told me that they had just climbed the full Exum ridge.  I immediately fell into a deep dehydrated daydream of how nice of a day it would have been to be on the Exum ridge. A long, moderate ridge, great rock, in the sun all day,  with a full camelback,  pb&j’s  and a giant breakfast burrito with eggs, potatoes, sausage and cheese for the top.

What am I doing?

There is so much I really want to climb in the Tetons, probably more than I will be able to fit into my lifetime, and today I spent the day doing a long scramble to the freezing cold and icy North ridge and climbed it in less than ideal conditions.  All of this with very little water and only gels and powders for food. What is wrong with me?

One,  I have a bad habit of having a bit too much wishful thinking and two, I am addicted to the challenge of doing the Grand Traverse in a day.  Blinded by the addiction, I was not able to see that today was not the day.  There were red flags. Forecast cool temperatures and recent snow. But wishful thinking by an addict prevailed and we tried it anyways.

I downclimb to Travis who is still napping.  He is feeling a bit better but like me he has a pounding headache.  I grab the rope from him and head to the rappels. 2 raps bring us to the upper saddle.  We hiked down towards the lower saddle excited by the thought of water.  I still had a slim hope of rehydrating at the water source there and continuing on. Upon arriving at the lower saddle we were informed that the regular water source was not flowing.  We hiked down to see for ourselves.  Sure enough it was less than a drip.  A guide had built a dam and created a small puddle which he was extracting water from a table spoon at a time.  It became clear that his puddle was not refilling and that he needed every ounce he could get.  So we had to go down.  Water was down.  We descended knowing our day way over. We found water below the JHMG huts and filled our water bottles.  From there we made the long hike down to the truck.

I like to tell myself it is all part of the process but deep inside I hate not reaching my goal. But the fact of the matter is that I would hate myself more for not trying.

This is turning into a project and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I am learning a ton about moving quickly in technical terrain. Chock it up as training.

Third time is the charm. I hope.  I need to move on with my life.