13,770 ft.

This past Saturday, a team consisting of Dave Tanis, Wes Vander Ark and I climbed to the top of the Grand Teton via the Owen Spalding route - the same one used by Paul Petzoldt as a 16 year old in 1924 who climbed the Grand in cowboy boots and blue jeans. Petzoldt and a friend used a pocket knife to carve steps into the ice during the ascent. The near experience caused Petzoldt to dedicate his life to educating others about how to conduct themselves safely in the outdoors. For Dave, who had met Paul Petzoldt several times, it was walking in the footsteps of one of the greats (if the not the great) in American wilderness education. For me, it was a fantastic ascent with one of the people who mentored me as I first set out into the wilderness.

The Grand Teton is the centerpiece of Grand Teton National Park. It is the 2nd highest peak in Wyoming being only 34 ft. shorter than Gannett Peak in the Wind River Range (13,804 ft.) William Owen and Frank Spalding made the first ascent along with two others in 1898. There is some debate as to whether or not they were actually the first party to reach the top as there are earlier claims by other parties and evidence that Native Americans reached the Upper Saddle on the mountain. They are the most likely to have constructed the Enclosure, a mysterious rock structure at over 13,000 ft.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but they don't quite capture the whole experience of this climb. Perspective is lost in many of these, but to give you an idea, most of the technical climbing is done above a 6,000-7,000 ft. drop - all the way to the valley floor. While the climbing is not difficult, the exposure and the technical scrambling made for an exciting trip.