Grand Teton, Direct Exum Route

By: Mike Sofranko | Climbers: Mike Sofranko, Tom F. |Trip Dates: July 5, 2000

Photo: Joe Catellani

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The Exum in a Day

The Grand Teton is something that I have always wanted to climb, but never seemed able to get it together enough for a trip. One day at work I received a phone call. On the other end of the line, Tom mentioned an "opportunity" and I gave a reflexive, immediate, and definitive "yes."

After putzing around, clipping bolts, and bleeding all over Wild Iris for 3 days with a group of friends, we packed up on July 4th and drove to the Tetons. After flashing my National Parks pass at the gate and entering the park, we were promptly busted for speeding as we gawked at the landscape. The officer was friendly and we got off with a warning - and continued on to the AAC Climber's Ranch. We were very impressed by the Ranch - we got a whole cabin to ourselves and enjoyed nice hot showers, not bad for $6 a night.

Tom and I were both Teton newbies in all respects. I had done a single day hike there a few years ago, Tom had done similar, and that was the extent of our experience. However, we were both able to identify the Grand Teton without consulting a guidebook - a good sign because our main goal for the trip was the complete Exum Ridge - a 50 Crowded Classic and a great looking line. We really wanted to do it car to car (cause the Ranch is so comfy). It looked like a 7000 vertical feet and 16 mile round trip. We started the debate around a 2:00am start. That was soon 3:00, then 4:00. Eventually we settled on a 5:00am departure time so we could get a nice full nights sleep. We sorted gear and scoped the start of the trail by the bridge on the road to the Ranch, and got to bed around 10:00pm.

The alarm went off around 4:20am. It felt early, and I told Tom to have a nice climb. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed. After personal maintenance and waste disposal activites, we started walking from the Ranch at 5:00am exactly. It was just getting light enough to see, so the headlamps stayed in the packs. We carried cams to #3 Camalot, a few nuts, and a 60m rope in addition to our personal stuff. I brought a pair of extra-light descent shoes in addition to the light hiker approach shoes that I was wearing - kinda wierd, but worked out great in the end.

We promptly got lost - the unofficial climber's trail meanders a bit and isn't marked. After bushwacking up and over a steep hill (instead of easily contouring around it on a nice trail on the left side) we joined the Garnet Canyon Trail and started motoring ahead, relieved to be back on route. Things got really steep after the Meadows. We passed the Caves, then the steep moraine. My quads were killing me and Tom was consistently 5 minutes ahead, even with stopping and waiting for me several times. We took the rising traverse across a last steep snowfield and finally arrived at the Lower Saddle (approx 11,600 feet) at 8:45am. I was wasted. I was surprised at the number of campsites up there - it is apparently the main staging point for a lot of groups headed to the summit. I cannot imagine carrying a tent up there - that hike hurt so much!

The wind was blasting and I was freezing. We put all our clothes on and rested for a bit as we scoped the start of the route. After reaching a consensus on where to head and deciding to leave the packs behind, we grabbed the rack and rope and a water bottle each and started moving again at 9:20. There was a faint climber's trail from the saddle to the general area of the start of the ridge. After some scrambling we roped up on a little bench and Tom took off on the first pitch. Soon he was off belay and I quickly followed, only pausing to remove the two pieces he placed. At the belay I grabbed the now disorganized rack and took off on pitch 2. It was mostly an easy rising traverse, but got a little steeper towards the end. I placed a cam or two and clipped a pin - and caught a party of two at the belay. There was a group of 3 on the pitch above us, and the third was just starting to climb. At this point I noticed that I had lost the top to my water bottle - not good since I only had 12 ounces of water remaining and over a thousand feet of climbing above. I tried to be careful about keeping the bottle upright through the rest of the climb.

Tom quickly joined me, and the group of 2 offered to let us pass. Tom led off and quickly passed the third of the group above us who was obviously struggling on the 5.7 terrain. He planned on climbing to the end of the rope and belaying where he ended up. Soon the rope was tight and I was on belay. I climbed the fun crack, then up through bulgy terrain, and reached the ledge just as the third climber of the group (not above us anymore) did. I continued on to Tom's perch at the top of a V-slot, grabbed the rack, and hopped up onto the beautiful Black Face.

This pitch was fantastic. Nice and steep, with very clean rock. I worked right, and then headed straight up. I clipped a few pins and placed some nuts and small cams. I took a bit of time setting up the belay, but soon Tom was climbing. From the belay, Tom headed straight up 5.7 ground and belayed on Wall Street. I joined him at 12:00 noon.

We decided to unrope and solo the Upper Exum. It proved easy, although we did end up on some 5.5ish terrain while bypassing snow and ice. Route finding wasn't a problem as we basically just tried to stay close to the ridge. The Friction Pitch was nice, and I also remember a cool layback crack. We passed several parties on the upper half of the rout;, everyone was very friendly and there is plenty of room for passing. We stopped about halfway up for a drink and some food. Nearing the summit we encountered an unavoidable bit of snow, so we changed into our descent shoes. This was when I discovered that I did indeed lose a bit of water from my open bottle - my shoes were soaking wet! I squished the rest of the way to the summit. Feeling the altitude a bit, Tom lagged slightly (payback for the hike in the morning!) and joined me at 1:05.

Tom has never done well over 13,000 feet. He was obviously not his usual self on the 13,770 foot summit of the Grand, so we headed down pretty quickly after taking a few summit photos. After some (squishy for me) scrambling, we ended up above an icy chimney with anchors, so we rapped. Some more (squishy) scrambling and two more raps saw us on the Upper Saddle. I really wanted to tag the summit of the Enclosure, but Tom was dragging so I didn't press the issue.

We promptly got lost on the descent, and headed down the gully below the west face of the Grand. After scree surfing down to Wall Street, I realized we were in the wrong place, so we hopped over the ridge and rejoined the Owen-Spalding. We reached the Lower Saddle at 3:10, taking a little more time than we expected.

After a 15 minute break to pack up and hydrate (I changed into my dry shoes, too), we started the grueling hike out. The steep snow just below the Saddle was sketchy - very soft and we had no axes or crampons. However, we took our time, and were soon sliding down the moraine. With only a couple breaks to remove rocks from our shoes we made decent time. We passed many people that were heading up with HUGE packs - better them than me. I did not envy them and their loads at all. That trail is SO STEEP!

This time, we managed to stay on the climbers' trail back to the Ranch, which is much easier to follow on the way down. We were back at the Ranch at 6:25 - feeling wasted and pleased with an excellent day. On to Dornan's for some pizza! Perfect weather, perfect rock, and an amazing summit: The perfect intro to the Tetons!