Mountaineering the Middle Teton

Last week as I was browsing through some of the outdoor activities offered through BYU-Idaho’s student activities program, I noticed that they were planning an advanced mountaineering trip to the Middle Teton, and I thought, “hey that sounds like fun!” So, I signed up. It cost $20, which is a bit more expensive than some of the other trips offered through the school. However, keeping in mind that this included entrance into Grand Teton National Park, necessary gear, and guided instruction, $20 is next to nothing. A trip like this, through a guide service, would have easily cost $100 or more.

We left the ORC (Outdoor Resource Center) parking lot at 2 am Saturday morning. I was able to manage about three hours of sleep the night before, and didn’t sleep a wink during the drive to the park. I was too excited! This would be my first big mountaineering trip, and I couldn’t wait to get up there. Not including our guide Scott Hurst, there were ten of us on the trip. That included six guys and four girls. We hit the trail head at about 4:30 am after collecting our necessary gear, like crampons and an ice axe, from the back of the van. The first three miles of terrain were fairly straight forward, with the occasional patch of snow. About three and a half miles from the trailhead the ground was covered in snow and ice. After slipping a few times Scott told us all to put on our crampons. This was the first time I had ever used crampons, and I was amazed at how well they bite into the snow and ice. We hiked a couple more miles until we stopped in the valley just west of the Middle Teton. There we learned the proper way to use an ice axe, and practiced self-arresting. Learning how to Self-arrest is an essential mountaineering skill that teaches you the correct way to stop yourself from falling down the mountain, should you chance to slip. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures past this point as the weather made a turn for the worst. By the time we reached 12,000 feet the wind was blowing at about 30 Mph, and each of us was exhausted. With all the snow blowing around it was actually quite difficult to see, and I remember focusing on the person in front of me just taking one step at a time. Unfortunately we never made it to the summit. About 200 feet from the summit, the snow and wind was so bad that our guide could not see the correct way to go. He had a general idea, but thought it best not to take a bunch of novices up a path that would prove way beyond their skill level. So we made it to about 12,600 feet which is still the highest that I have climbed thus far. Still, I’d like to go back someday, and I hope I get the chance to try it again.

Well we got back to the van at about 7:15 pm, and drove home for Rexburg. Let’s just say I slept very well that night.