Tom Bowker, Sean Caulfield, and I made the trek up the South Fork of Garnet Canyon on June 19 to try out the skiing. While I was seriously humbled, Tom put on a telemark clinic.
Tom and the evidence
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Trip Reports
Specifically for trip reports
Al Sanchez has several times climbed Angle Mt., out of Jackson Hole toward Togwotee Pass. Former ranch manager Andy Popinchalk has reportedly climbed Angle annually for twenty-eight years. It promises to become a ranch residents’ favorite.
After work week 2010, Al introduced Scott Fife to the climb. The trail starts from Togwotee Lodge, 39 miles from the Climbers’ Ranch, an hour’s drive time on highways 26 and 287 from Moran toward Dubois.
They climbed for 8.0 hours, for a ten-mile round trip, with 2000 feet of elevation gain. From the trailhead at 8600 feet, the way rises to 10,600 feet, on June 21, 2010 through lots of snow with lots of post-holing.
The summit has a 360 degree view including the entire Teton range, Jackson Lake, Jackson Peak, the Hoback range, the north end of the Wind River range (both East and West peaks including Gannet Peak), Togwotee Pass, and some tops of Yellowstone Park peaks.
See map and route recommendations below:
Trailhead at Togwatee Lodge
Recommendations: from the Lodge the trail can be confusing for a while.
a. Follow the fence. On a horse-trail from back of the pond behind and east of the Lodge, follow the rutted trail.
b. At a 90 degree corner with a post marked #4, go briefly north, then east; at a T-junction the right-hand trail descends south back to the road. Go left/north until the main trail bears right/east with some horse trails branching off north. Continue on this main ascending trail.
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I am a former french exchange student in Ohio State University who intended to experience the wilderness after the Spring Term 2009.
I arrived in Grand Teton National Park at 9pm on a Sunday night of June. No campsite available in Jenny Lake, no car, no propane. At least I found somewhere to stay. I am grateful to the cab driver who picked me at the airport and suggested me the Climbers Ranch. My plan was to quickly move North, I could spend 9 days between the Tetons and Yellowstone. So, my first plan was to stay one night at most in the Ranch.
Early Monday morning (well…actually pretty late for a climber), freezing and starving, I met Alan who offered to boil me some water for my breakfast. Then since I had no idea where I would start hiking for my first day, Alan suggested to bring me to Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes: 12 awesome miles, some of it in the snow. Lucky that I was not alone, I was not properly equiped for the snow. I got to know some fancy technical expressions like “scats”, “switchback”, “post-holing”… and saw my first black bear.
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After a 2-hour break, Alan kindly took me to a shop where I could buy some propane (could be useful). With some other climbers, we then went to Dornan’s to attend the famous Hootenany event. “The GTCR Chislers” formed by Joel, Scott, Lea, Allan, Mitch, Morris and Christian were playing that night. What a first day! Let’s stay one more night…
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Tuesday morning, my legs were soared like never. I really thought I would be unable to hike that day. Once warmed up, it was actually fine. I decided to hike Moose Pond and Cascade Canyon. No car to get there, I eventually took advantage of one of the donated bikes of the Climbers Ranch. Around 17 miles not to mention the 30min biking. Pretty tired after that. Loved it though.
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Brittany kept asking me to make crepes: I am French, I come from Brittany (what a coincidence!), I had to prepare some crepes. I cracked. It was a good way of participating in the good atmosphere of the Ranch. As a result, I spent 2 hours out making my crepes, the Tetons watching over me. Nice feeling… I assume the climbers enjoyed the crepes because there was no leftover! This was my third night.
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Wednesday: I needed some rest after 2 exhausting days. During breakfast, I found 3 ladies willing to go to Hermitage Point near Jackson Lake. They offered to drive me up there. Perfect! The hike was very easy (about 10 flat miles), but the scenary was pretty. I took advantage of the location to go to the Indian Art Museum where I could learn about the native american way of life. The ladies were eating out somewhere around. On the way back, I spent about 15 minutes hitchhiking under the rain (which is, by the way, the maximum amount of time I’ve been waiting before getting a ride among the dozen times I hitchhiked during my stay in Wyoming). Not bad for my first time!
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Back to the Ranch, Dave Carman presented a slideshow about the first US expedition who climbed the Cerro Torre summit in Patagonia (1977). Dave was actually a member of this expedition. Stunning! This is my fourth and last night in the Grand Teton Climbers Ranch.
Thursday morning: it was time for me to leave the Tetons and head North to Yellowstone. By chance, Lea’s friend wanted to drive around Yellowstone the same day. He kindly took me with him.
This is how I ended up staying 4 nights in the Grand Teton Climbers Ranch… instead of one.
Now I understand why some people spend the whole summer there.
My stay in the Ranch was an incredible experience, surely the best part of my trip.
The Ranch is a great spot. I met people passionate about mountaineering who were willing to share their experience. For that, I thank all the climbers I met during my stay. This trip also made me want to do more climbing in the future. France offers quite a few spots, I am lucky…
Bill Fetterhoff, John Clegg, and I met at the String Lake parking lot for a 4:00 am start on June 18, 2008 to climb Rockchuck Peak by the East Face. We had a beautiful day and conditions were finally good after lots of snow until June 13. On a previous solo attempt the week before, I had misjudged the approach and ended up on Mt. St. John instead, so I was determined to get it right this time. This turns out to be easier to do in the daylight, but we managed to leave the trail at about the right place and found ourselves at the base of the snowfield just as the sun came up.
The snow was in good condition until we reached the headwall that leads to the East Ridge, where we found ourselves in waist deep powder requiring a great deal of effort. After reaching the top of the headwall, conditions improved somewhat and we took a short rest near the corniced ridge where we could look over at Mt. St. John. The next stretch was more manageable until we reached the intersection with the Northeast Ridge, where the snow again became deep and soft. Fortunately this portion was shorter. The cornice on the ridge leading up to the summit added a thrilling finish and we were on the summit around 11:00 am. We enjoyed spectacular views in every direction. After a leisurely lunch we started down just before noon.
The descent was without incident, though the snow was softening and we were glad we started when we did. All in all, it was a great day in the mountains.
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A few photos, none on the CMC face ascent.
Up to the campsite is a bit of a pull.
From lake shore to E & West Horns & Falling Ice Glacier
West Horn and Falling Ice Glacier
Looking toward campsite, in upper tree band left of center
But the campsite is worth the hike, and the views are magnificent.
Campsite, JHMG guide Rob Gowler in background
View ssw from campsite, across Leigh Canyon to peak 10,919 and Mt. Woodring
and across Leigh, Paintbrush, and Cascade canyons to Owen lying against the Grand
and again
The hike toward Drizzlepuss is a mixed pleasure.
Starting toward Drizzlepuss there's a climbers' trail.
Seen from high on the face the West Horn rises above Jackson and Leigh lakes.
West Horn
From the summit the East Horn is as intimidating as its eastern slope is mild.
East Horn
And the sedimentary summit plateau is a rubble field.
Exum guide Jeff Witt, AFN, Ishi Fales
The descent goes nicely as a down-climb, except for a rappel north of Unsoeld’s Needle.
Rappel on Moran descent
Baxter's in the Morning
Lower Baxter's
Exiting chimney, pitch 3
Above top pitch crux, belay ledge below
Beginning of lieback, top pitch
Evan Fales topping out
Atop Baxter's, view of Teewinot Grand and Owen
Northside from notch at bottom of rappel
Dave Carman in notch below rappel
with thanks to Evan Fales and Dave Carman for camera and photography
Evan Fales on Lower Cube
Upper Cube, above Jenny Lake
Traverse to top
A few tourist shots, from an Upper Exum climb, with the side-trip to Carman’s Pillar, Dave himself leading.
East from Lower Saddle
Shadow Range
Beginning Friction Pitch (?)
Peter Crompton (UK) on the Friction Pitch, with Middle Teton glacier below (photo Judith Brown)
Dave topping Carman's Pillar
Summit view se: Delta, Surprise, Amphitheatre, Bradley & Taggart Lakes
Summit view northeast, Mt. Moran and Jackson Lake
Summit view, no. fork Cascade Canyon with Mica Lake and Lake Solitude
Summit view sw, Battleship Mt. (?) in haze
Summit view south, Exum guides Bill Dyer and Dave Carman
Erin Mauldin and I attempted the Skillet Glacier on June 10. We hiked in via the String Lake trail and the infamous bushwhack from the Bearpaw Bay campsite on June 9, which happened to be the best day (weatherwise) in the entire 18 days I was in the Tetons. We established a camp not far below the Skillet proper. Not 30 seconds after zipping the tent it began to rain, and continued all night. Our enthusiasm for the 4:00 am start was minimal, so we caught a few more winks, and the rain finally stopped about 6:30 am. We headed up the glacier about 8:00 in heavy fog. The snow was navigable, though there was considerable moisture in the top layers from all the rain.
The skillet portion proved no problem, and the bergschrund that had stopped me on a previous attempt in 2002 was no where to be seen. Visibility continued to be poor, and at about 10:00 it began to snow. We reached the handle as snow began to accumulate, which was a cause for concern. We had established a 12:00 turn around time, but the rapidly deteriorating conditions had us pondering what the descent would be like in a few more hours. By 11:00 we were convinced it would not be pretty, so we turned around just above 10,000 ft.
The bushwhack out was a little better than it had been going in, but still a “non-trivial” affair. We were back at the ranch by 5:00.
(See Scott Fife’s post of Aug. 3, 2009 about their climb of June 2008–more photos, and success getting to the summit.–AN)
Four of us, Haley and Ian Mauldin, Paul Hartman, and I, started off June 18 something before dawn from the String Lake parking lot, for a go at Rockchuck. We found good enough animal trails, but started somewhat south of what might have been the best departure from alongside String Lake, coming onto snow above 8500’ and proceeding upward with fog and cloud, sheltering briefly under a boulder from rain.
Ian, Haley and Paul given shelter
Then upward to steeper snow, past evidence of slight snow slides and some long tracks where a few boulders had made glissades downward for a hundred or more feet. Perhaps five hundred feet below the ridge we switched from hiking poles to axes for security and arrived at the ridge in mid-late morning. From there it seemed wisest to note the rapidly softening snow and to turn back, though Paul made a brief rapid foray nnw up the ridge toward the summit into softer snow from which he turned back shortly.
We down-climbed, then plunge-stepped and glissaded down at a rapid rate, moved onto rocks for a last break,
and of course then found the weather clearing not far below snowline.
Another typical June day, another bit of evidence that true alpine starts are counseled for June in the Tetons. Perhaps if we’d set alarms for 1:30 ….
