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MIGHTY
HIGH FOR A SELF-DESCRIB ... 09/20/2001
Lewiston
Tribune
Section: Outdoors
Date: 09/20/2001
Page: 1C
Keywords: Climbing
Caption: Phil
Druker
photos
Thane Berg, Phil
Druker's climbing partner, sits on the top of the Middle Teton
with another climber looking over the precipice in the
background. On the way down, Berg contemplates the route.
Mighty
high for a self-described 'chicken'; Middle Teton climb goes up
and up and up
Byline: Phil
Druker
Basically, I am a chicken. I'm afraid of snakes. I
can't stand scary movies, and heights make me dizzy.
But despite my fear, I had to say yes when a friend who
lives near Grand Teton National Park invited me to do some
climbing.
The Tetons provide some popular climbs for a number of
reasons. First, the peaks are readily accessible. The most
popular big climbs are within a day or two of the trailhead.
Second, the granite of the range's main peaks is fairly
solid and climbable. Third, those peaks are impressive --
spectacular spires that offer routes of varying degrees of
difficulty.
After some discussion, we settled on climbing the Middle
Teton, which reaches 12,804 feet. There are lots of routes
up the peak, but Thane Berg, my climbing buddy, had already been
up the Middle a couple of times on the easiest route, which
takes climbers up the mountain's southwest ridge.
It's a Class 3 climb out of a classification that
has five levels.
A Class 1 climb basically is a hike. A Class 2 climb
involves a little scrambling. A Class 3 climb
involves a scramble -- climbing using your hands and basic
climbing techniques -- but the exposure to dangerous falls is
not so great that most people feel the need to rope up or use
protection.
Class 4 climbs expose climbers to bad falls, so roping up
often becomes necessary. But it's still not technical climbing.
Class 5 involves technical climbing. Climbers use
ropes to belay their partners -- which means they anchor
themselves to the rock and hold the rope tight so if the partner
falls, it won't be too far. Also, as they climb they place
anchors into the rock, and to these anchors they attach ropes to
prevent long falls.
The basic climbs on the Grand Teton are Class 5.4 or 5.5,
on a scale that runs to 5.14. I guess to do a 5.14 climb, a
person would need to be some kind of human spider.
We had hoped to be able to camp in Garnet Canyon, a
beautiful (but overused) valley at the base of the Middle
and Grand Tetons. But the National Park Service had issued all
the permits for the area.
That meant if we wanted to climb the Middle Teton, we
would have to summit and descend in one day -- that's seven
miles and 6,000 feet up and then seven miles and 6,000 feet back
down.
So we started at 6 a.m.
As we hiked through the cool August morning, we passed
some mule deer and a group of elk just as the sun was rising.
Then we herded a family of spruce grouse up the trail until they
finally got tired of us and let us pass.
We did the three miles and 3,000 feet to Garnet Canyon in
a couple of hours. We left the maintained trail as we hiked by
the campsites in the canyon.
Next we followed some faint climbers' trails that headed
toward the Middle Teton. Generally the route was pretty
easy, with some minor scrambling up big faces of granite.
By noon, we had climbed to the saddle, 1,500 feet below
the summit. Our route rose above us -- a couloir (gully)
that creased the peak right to the summit.
Here we ate lunch. The 11,000-foot elevation was
making me a little sick, and altitude sickness isn't much fun.
It's like having a hangover, but without the pleasure of getting
drunk. Your head and stomach ache and you generally feel woozy.
After a short nap, which made me feel much better, we
started the serious part of the climb.
We scrambled up a steep rock face and headed up the
couloir. Here the rock often was loose, so we couldn't count on
it for good footing or hand holds. That meant we couldn't just
climb with our feet and hands, we had to climb with our eyes.
The route was steep, 50 or 60 degrees in places, and a
couple of big steps made me wonder how I was going to get down.
In other places, the route ascended gravel that was like walking
on marbles.
It took a while to get up, but we finally made it.
I joked with Thane that he should have covered my eyes with
blinders and used a rope with a bunch of pulleys to haul me up.
At the top, we found a flat spot to enjoy the view. The
peak of the Grand Teton rose 1,000 feet above us just a half
mile to the northeast.
Everything else except the sky was below us: the other
peaks of the Teton range, the peaks of mountain ranges all
around, the lakes, the glaciers, the Jackson Hole valley and the
flat plain of potato fields in southeastern Idaho.
On an exposed summit, the wind usually blows hard. But on
that August day, the air was perfectly still. So we sat and
enjoyed the view for more than an hour.
One climber scaled a difficult 5.5 route on the south
face. A few other people followed our easy route.
I felt about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room
full of rocking chairs whenever I looked over the precipice that
fell more than 3,000 feet to Garnet Canyon below. Others seemed
nonchalant.
We retraced our route down the mountain. A few places
seemed a little sketchy, but I made it down with just a few
scrapes and bumps. One steep step was particularly
difficult for me, but I found a way down with Thane's help.
Once I got down, I couldn't figure out why I had found it
so difficult.
When we entered Garnet Canyon, we watched a National Park
Service helicopter circle near one of the canyon's spires,
Disappointment Peak. It left and then returned, hauling a rescue
line.
We later learned a man had fallen about 15 feet when he
pulled a loose rock down on himself. He was the 24th climber who
required a major rescue in the park this summer.
As we headed down, I remembered what the director of the
University of Idaho's Outdoor Program, Mike Beiser, likes to
say: There are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but
there aren't many old, bold climbers.
I'm glad I'm an old climber, and climbing the Middle
Teton left me itching to gain the skills to climb some more.
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