A Bit of Wyoming
I drove from Denver to Missoula and stopped just south of Jackson to break it up into two days.
Le Grande Teton: The Climbing
The quality of the rock was excellent. We traded leads and moved quickly as retreating if the weather got bad would be rather difficult.
Le Grande Teton: Early Morning
We set our alarms for 4:30am but I was awake before then. We made breakfast in the dark and set out to find the base of the route. About halfway there it was light enough to not need headlamps anymore. Our plan was to do the Beyer East Face I, and we were at the base of the climb before 7am.
Le Grande Teton: The Approach
I spent the last couple days climbing the Grande Teton with my friend Conor. It was beautiful and humbling. Before you climb you hike 7 miles, gaining around 5000 ft of elevation.
Going Home
From Static Peak at 11,303 ft, about 10 miles of hiking to Death Canyon Trailhead at 6800 ft. Load up the car, down highway 287 to Jackson, west over Jackson Pass, north through Idaho to West Yellowstone, through Gallatin Canyon to Bozeman, drop off Busy, 200 more miles west down I-90 to Missoula, Montana. It was a long day.
To Static Peak Summit
Our last day was the most epic. After eating breakfast and packing up, we hiked out of Alaska Basin, and alongside the base of Buck Mountain. After cutting around Buck Mountain the trail takes you up some really steep mountainside with some amazing views until you are within a couple hundred feet of Static Peak.
Busy and I made a short excursion to the top of Static Peak and were rewarded with some really nice views of the Grand Teton, Jackson Hole, and the scenery we had been hiking through for the last day or so.
Teton Backpacking Day 1 Continued
A few more pictures from the evening of our first day in Death Canyon.
Backpacking Grand Teton National Park
Just got back from an uber-crunk 2 night backpacking trip in the Tetons.
These pictures are all from the first day. We started a little south of the Grand at Death Canyon Trailhead, and hiked about 8 miles or so past Phelps Lake, up into the Canyon, where we camped.
Wyoming and Colorado
From Yellowstone we went south through Grand Teton National Park and camped about an hour south of Jackson, Wyoming. The next day we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park by way of smallish highways through southeastern Wyoming, a bit of Utah, and quite a lot of Northern Colorado.
The Tetons and Cascade Canyon
When my friend Valerie Hastie was here visiting from North Carolina we did an excellent hike in The Grand Teton National Park. You walk around Jenny Lake, see Hidden Falls, continue up to a lookout called Inspiration Point, and if you are motivated you can continue back into Cascade Canyon.
We started at about 6pm and didn’t get back to the car until 10. Although it was not too bright for the walk back, we never needed headlamps and we hardly saw any people, which was fine by me.
The Tetons in the Morning
The morning we were at the Tetons I woke up at 5:00 and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I grabbed the camera and went down to the lake. The only sounds were the occasional bird, Jackson Lake was completely still.
The Tetons and Yellowstone
My friend Valerie is visiting and we just came back from a brief trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. I’m getting more pictures than I know what to do with and going to Glacier later this week is not going to help that situation.
We saw some really excellent geothermal features around the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone yesterday. The geysers and multi-colored pools are some of my favorite things in Yellowstone National Park.
