Climb #3: Teewinot Mountain

One of the most unmistakable mountains in the Tetons is Teewinot mountain. It's sharp summit is the kind of summit most climbers dream of reaching and they're generally fairly difficult to attain. Luckily, the East Face of Teewinot is a class 4 route that can be difficult on the endurance side, but it's not as technically demanding as it may appear. The entire route is about 10 miles round-trip and gains 5600 vertical feet, more than a vertical mile straight up!

We got a pretty decent alpine start, leaving for the national park at 530am. We were shocked to see storm clouds over the peaks as we drove in! Sure enough, within 15 minutes, it was raining pretty hard, and we were sure that all hope for climbing Teewinot was lost. Without anything else to do at that early hour, we drove to the trailhead and watched the sunrise. We were lucky enough to see several herds of Elk grazing early in the morning as the rain fell.

As the sun came up, the storm clouds had blown past the mountains and there were clear skies beyond! We were in luck because it appeared to be an isolated morning squall.

By 6:40am, we shouldered our packs and began the approach to the mountain. Man, was this trail STEEP! Michelle referred to it as StairMaster on steroids, and we both kept uttering the word "relentless" as we ascended the lower slopes. I generally consider a 1000ft gain per mile to be a pretty steep slope, but this was well beyond that. The crisp morning air and the now glowing sunlight kept us moving up the hill.

Although we were making incredible time with our sizable packs (we brought a rope and a small climbing rack as a precaution), we were passed by a few REALLY fit groups, including a park ranger who appeared to be sprinting up the mountain. Us? We were going to enjoy the route at our own pace.

After another hour or so, we reached the start of the actual climb near the base of the "Idol" and the "Worshiper" rock formations shown in the picture (click the picture to see them in their full glory -- Idol is the taller one, Worshiper is the shorter one.) We stopped to put on our helmets, have a quick bite to eat and to get out our ice axes. It was time to climb!

The first part of the climb was the steep snow slope, which was airy and exposed, but also easy and fun. We began to cross paths with other people on the route near the snow portion, and we were able to get some valuable weather information from people coming down from the summit. The biggest issue with weather on this mountain is that you can't see storms coming in from the west, because you're climbing the EAST face. Once the weather in upon you, often times it's too late, and quickly down climbing wet rock is no fun.

Anyway, after the steep snow section, there was a lot of class 3 climbing leading up to the hardest part of the route, about 300 vertical feet of class 4 rock climbing. We did get a bit off route and had to rope up for a short pitch to get back on route, but all in all, this section was fun and exciting.

It is interesting -- this climb really brought together all of the different climbing techniques that Michelle has learned over the years, into a single climb. From carrying a heavy pack, to exposed alpine scrambling and rock climbing, to climbing steep snow with an axe, as well as altitude -- this one had a bit of it all.

After the hardest part of the route, another 300 vertical feet of class 3 climbing led to an absolutely stunning summit. To put this in context, the true summit was tiny and only had room for one person -- it was truly one of the sharpest summits I've climbed and the view was breathtaking. You could see the entire range with only Grand Teton appearing to be higher than Teewinot.

It was a long, hard day with a brutal uphill climb and an equally brutal descent. Steep slopes like this one can lead to knee replacement later in life -- seriously. Anyway, we took our time on the way down and it wound up being another full 12 hour day in the mountains. Thank goodness there was a beer waiting for us in the Jeep, we certainly deserved it after today.

You can see the rest of our pictures from this fantastic climb here.