Climb #1: Table Mountain

Ok, I'll try to describe these climbs in order so we don't lose you.

First up was Table Mountain on Sunday 8/17, the morning after we arrived in Driggs on the west side of Grand Teton National Park.

Since we were coming from sea-level and looking to slowly acclimatize to the altitude, we chose this "easy" class 2 climb on Table mountain to start.

The route is basically a long hike with a short section of "steeper" class 2 climbing near the summit at 11,106 feet. The route was 11.2 miles round trip with a vertical gain of 4206 feet. You can see the route in Google Maps here.

I had heard that people have seen both moose and bears on this route, but unfortunately we only saw other humans. Most of them were on the way down, and we were lucky enough to share the summit with only one other guy, a local named Mike. One of the best reasons to do this mountain is for the view from the summit -- you can see the Grand Teton very closely, as well as the rest of the entire Teton Range. It's a spectacular summit and a great way to start a three week trip in the national park.

We have been carrying a GPS tracking device that records our movements as we hike and climb, so we can retrace our steps and/or remember where we've been. Once back in town, I plotted our hike in Google Earth, so you can see a 3D image of the route we took. It also shows how close we were to the Grand Teton (click the picture to see a larger view).

Also, as some of you read earlier, we were able to post a note and picture from 11,000 feet using my cell phone -- pretty amazing what you can do with technology these days.

All in all, it was a pretty successful day in the mountains, but having just driven 13 hours over the past 2 days, we were pretty tired afterwards. A quick descent, and we were off to the Pines Guest House in Driggs for our second night.

As they say, climb high, sleep low. We'll keep doing a few of these easy class climbs to prepare for the other big climbs we have planned.

You can see more of our pictures from this day here.