3 of us plan on climbing The Grand Upper Exum route 3rd. week of July as our main goal with other peaks as weather and time permit. Looking for beta on best places to camp, AAC Climber's Ranch or Park campgrounds? Did not reserve a climbing permit, would rather check weather first. Is getting a walk-in permit a problem? What else you got?
N.

The Ranch is awfully convenient -- you can even start your hike from there. Campgrounds might be full, it being peak season, but I have car-camped near the Death Canyon trailhead without any problems. I can't speak to overnight permits, but if you're reasonably fast and not pitching everything out, you can do the Upper Exum in a day.

Sean is right on target, but note that reservations at the Climbers' Ranch may be getting tight for high season. Go to AAC website
https://www.americanalpineclub.org/gtcr ... ations.php

Anyone up the Grand this week? Upper Exum? Thunder storms?

Thanks for the reply. To anyone who has climbed Upper Exum or OS route, some of the descriptions indicate a single 60m. rope will work for the decent rappels. Others say double 60. Can we get by with one 60m rope?

Several people, including a climbing ranger told us that if you throw your rope South from the main rap station that you can get down with a single 60m. The ground is in fact higher to the South.
But, we had a single 60m, as did another party on the mountain. We tied both together and did the normal rap.

You can do the rap with a single 60m rope from the other rappel station which is located near the main rap station. If you are looking down the main rappel, the single rope station is located to your left a short distance away. It is higher up and there is lots of loose rock getting to it. The park maintains this station and you rap down to a halfway ledge which has another station set up. The second rap is dramatic and beyond vertical until you get to the big ledge below. Be careful of knocking loose rocks and wear a helmet because others will be knocking projectiles down towards you.

We just did the OS route - went up this last Weds (11th) and summitted on Thurs morning (12th).

Weather - yes, thunderstorms did roll through - quick and pretty violent on Weds when we were going through the Meadows area. Sat out some of it in one of the caves in the boulder field. It had been predicted as early afternoon but came through earlier - I think closer to 10:30am - 11:00am. We talked to a couple guys at the Climber's Ranch afterwards that had been about 100 feet from the summit when the storms hit - they ditched everything metal and sat it out. The weather reports that we saw prior to the climb at the Climber's Ranch were fairly accurate.

I agree with the previous posts on the Climber's Ranch. I made reservations for last week about a month ago and they were wide open. However, the ranch was pretty much full every night when we got there. So, if you are planning on staying there, I would recommend going online ASAP. The ranch is pretty much as described with the addition that they have a great library there and also a (slow) computer if you can't get away from email. The other nice thing is that you can talk to others that have either just come down or have a lot of experience - one of our "bunkmates" was a guide for JHMG (Keith ?) who was pretty knowledgeable about the weather patterns and such. Now, the caveat, as Lionel notes is that you are in a cabin that houses 4 - 8 people. I never got much sleep (even wearing heavy duty earplugs) as the other individual that was sharing the room snored really loud. But, if you can get past that the cabins have a bathroom, there are showers, a cook area, sink area, nice folks and resident moose and elk that wander by on occasion. Plus, you can probably find some of the cooking gear that we left there on mistake! OOPS!

Here is a link to the webcam at the Climber's Ranch - you can sort of see the weather going through.

http://www.jacksonholenet.com/webcams/c ... _ranch.php

As far as the campgrounds, I think the closest ones were Gros Ventre and Jenny Lake - Gros Ventre was not full but Jenny Lake was full every day that we went through. If you went early in the morning (say around 7:00am or so) you might be able to hover around if you saw people leaving and wanted to snag a campsite. Jenny Lake does not take reservations but I believe Gros Ventre does.

Have a great time!

We had some light but decent rain in the Jackson area the last few nights. Hoping we get significantly more. Supposed to be back to hot and dry Wednesday, at least for a bit.

The Grand needs to be a lot more regulated in my opinion. what happened in July 2010 is just unacceptable. Get out EARLY, off even earlier. you know what I mean. Have a great climb.

Just returned from successful summit of The Grand on 17th. No problem getting back country climbing permit and bivyed at the moraine below the saddle. Weather was a little iffy with clouds but no wind and finally clear on summit. Had the whole route to ourselves until last couple pitches when we met up with another 3 party and joined them on the summit and down climbed double rope rap together. Climbing rangers were very helpful with beta and good to talk to. Camped at Gros Ventre before and after climb. St. John mountain was also a beautiful area for a scramble climb after The Grand. Go to Dornan's in Moose for beer and pizza with killer view of the range from the outside deck.

Doublecabin wrote:We had some light but decent rain in the Jackson area the last few nights. Hoping we get significantly more. Supposed to be back to hot and dry Wednesday, at least for a bit.

The Grand needs to be a lot more regulated in my opinion. what happened in July 2010 is just unacceptable. Get out EARLY, off even earlier. you know what I mean. Have a great climb.

Rant!! More Regulation? What! The last thing we need is regulations on who can and cannot climb in the Teton's. More regulation would rob mountaineering of its independence and purity. Besides, regulations can't stop people from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I can't imagin how crowded the Owen Spalding route would be mid summer if everyone had to ascent the route before 9:00 A.M. or some other set time. People will do what they do.

punchline wrote:We talked to a couple guys at the Climber's Ranch afterwards that had been about 100 feet from the summit when the storms hit - they ditched everything metal and sat it out.

Sigh. I wish people would get that magical thinking about metal out of their heads. A little metal on the side of a mountain is not going to attract lightning (although you might see a little St. Elmo's fire). KEEP at least enough metal to clip yourself in, so when ground currents cause involuntary jerks you won't jump off the mountain. And stay out of caves, squatting on your coiled rope if you can, hands at your sides so they don't bridge any gaps and channel a ground current through your heart.