Tetons part 5 of 6: South Fork to Windy Moraine

Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4 Part5 Part6

The next day, my partner said that he would not continue.

There were two nights left on the permit.

I can't remember if we concluded that he should just leave the gear at the stash by the base of Disappointment. Somehow in my naive little mind, I thought if he got to the gear stash before me, he'd wait around and we'd discuss what to leave and what to take down.

Of all climbing destinations I had been prior to this, none had the combination of steepness and far-away-from-basecamp-ness as the Tetons. Having never been to the Grand, I didn't have a firm enough grasp of what was the bare minimum of gear that I could get away with, solo. I could have memorized the all the guidebooks' recommendations and still feel totally uneasy about which gear to keep or leave.

image by Brendon, from Summitpost

The idea of going back down two nights early never crossed my mind.
The only way that would have been an option was if it was in a cache and
I was cold. And dead. (yeah, I know I shouldn't joke about that)

Far less unappealing (though still unappealing) was the idea of descending (with a 2-man tent, sleeping bag, stove, etc on my back) from the South Fork down to the Meadows, then huffing it up to the Caves, then up towards the base of Disappointment to hunt and peck for the gear stash.

Was I being a lazy bum for wanting a shortcut?


What if I crossed over the Middle Teton Glacier?

My mind was dominated by the thought of the shortest distance between two points being a straight line. I think I even had a country song with those lyrics going through my head.

Having only seen a glacier in person the day before my thoughts went something like:

• don't you need crampons and an ice axe to cross a glacier properly?
• don't glaciers have crevasses?
• do all glaciers have crevasses?
  
• what if there's a crevasse?
• what does a crevasse look like?
• The names "Joe Simpson", "Khumbu" flew around my head a few times.
  
• the only crevasses I'd ever seen were in IMAX movies, and those crevasses eat people. whole.
  
• Ques'que c'est les pied en canard?
• who cares about ducks' feet if je n'ai pas les crampons.
• Je n'ai pas my ice axe either... the Ranger said I didn't need (they weren't wrong, but...)
  
• wish I had one of those whippet thingies.
• how could anyone leave the Tetons early?
• there is something wrong with this equation: I've lightened the load (partner) but doubled my gear.
• the texture of this stuff reminds me of snow cones.
• if I'm thinking of snow cones, this can't be a glacier so there won't be man-eating crevasses
  
• getting up to the Caves from this side of it will be kinda steep.
• Mountaineering, Freedom of my ass!
  

looks simple enough, right?

The area where the snow/ice met the rock was a really tall wall/drop off. I kept looking for a place to get on the glacier. I chose a crumbly 15 ft? down climb. Once I hit bottom, I stood in what I guess was a baby bergschrund and climbed onto the Middle Teton Glacier. It was slippery. Having a big pack on was annoying.

Next year, I plan on seeing real live crevass(es). In person.
The blog entry will be called Demystifying the Crevasse.

fresh butt tracks

I started on my feet, but without crampons and an ice axe, became a bit chicken-shitted. I crossed the rest using a butt-scoot, heel-dig technique. If I slipped, it was a steep and long way down. Digging my heels along with shortened trekking poles in felt somewhat secure.

Honey does this glacier make my butt look big?
No dear, your butt makes the glacier look small!

Pardon the bad variation on a bad joke... but I took this picture to see if my shorts survived intact. Why was I wearing shorts? I have no idea but there must have been a good reason. Fortunately, since I had long underwear on, I didn't get any snow up where the sun don't shine.

I was basking in my great feat of mountaineering badassness for about thirty seconds when a guy fracefully snow boards down past me. (actually, I was feeling a bit silly for my ass-heel glacier crossing... and the snowboarder made me feel just that much lamer). Oh well. I made it without falling all the way down and that's what mattered. Onward and forward!

I eventually made it to the Caves. Once again, I was being lazy, not wanting to descend and then hike up the "right" way with a giant pack on. Climbing up to them with a big pack on from the left side of this picture was a lot trickier I thought it would. It was actually kinda steep.

At one point I sorta wished I had my helmet... my rational being that it was a long way down, if I fell, and maybe my skull would stay in tact (so that if I survived a fall, I'd be a quadraplegic, as opposed to a vegetable).

When I got up, there were two guys from NY taking a break from their hike down. It must have been bizzare to have someone appear from the canyon side of the Caves. They were funny and cheered me on.

During my struggle up to the Caves, I watched my partner descend down to the Meadows with his helmet clipped to his (now smaller, lighter) pack. He had picked out his harness and helmet from the stash and left me with the whole rack and both ropes. In his defense, I didn't ask him to carry anything down.

After taking a break at the Caves, I slowly made my way up and pecked around Disappointment Peak in search of the gear stash. The last thing I wanted to do was pass it and have to descend, then ascend. All the rocks piles looked alike.

After what felt like an eternity of going up to numerous rock piles and asking "are you my gear stash?", I finally found it! I probaby did this out loud. I added my harness, helmet, the two ropes, the rack to my load and continued onward.

I was almost at Moraine Camp when dark clouds rolled and the wind picked up quite a bit. The skies began opening up. Coming toward me were another two guys on their way back down. Then came another random act of kindness- despite the incoming weather, they offered to help me carry my ridiculous amount of gear to the Moraine. This meant they had to backtrack... and could end up getting even more soaked. Like the guys at the Caves, they too made me laugh. Their names were Chase McMillan and Gentry?? from Logan(?). They said that if I was ever in Logan (or where ever they were from) that I should stop by for warm soup. What a beautiful idea....warm soup. Kind, cute boys and warm soup... Yum!

We dropped my gear at the first area resembling a tent site. As they ran back down, rain was blowing in every direction. The winds were ridiculous and it took forever to put the tent up. When I finally clipped the fly on, I threw everything in and crawled inside. As I laid there for the worst of the weather to pass, the wind blew the tent walls in so that it mushed up against my face on one side, then another. There wasn't a whole lot to do other than wait and hope the tent would hold up.

After the strongest winds passed, I sat up, fired up the stove
and had some warm soup: Trader Joe's Miso.

I looked up the weather data for Jackson Hole that afternoon.

Wind Speed	4 mph / 6 km/h (NNW)
Max Wind Speed	23 mph / 37 km/h
Max Gust Speed	36 mph / 58 km/h

It got pretty windy in town... which meant it was super windy up high.

edit Dec 8, 2007:

Photo-stiched picture of the Middle Teton Glacier found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ynpk9/234034029