Exum Mountain Guides on the Grand: thoughts?

[Jaskic]

Hello All,

A colleague and I are thinking about a guided climb up on the Grand in summer 2013 with Exum Guides- one day of multi-pitch training refresher with them, and then their guided climb up and down. Everything I can find online is nothing but positive with reviews for Exum, their people, and their history. But I wanted to see if anyone here had anything to say about them as well.

Thanks so much!

[summitfever1990]

Exum is a great guiding service. They're really hands on and know their stuff. Used them a few years back. The Grand is a awesome climb!

Best of luck,
Dalton

[aglane]

Exum is a great guiding service. They're really hands on and know their stuff. Used them a few years back. The Grand is a awesome climb!

Agreed. I've climbed with a half-dozen different Exum guides on shorter and long, rock and snow. From your personal page it seems you may not have experience with roped climbing, in which case the normal two-day prep for the Grand may be a real benefit. Depending upon weather, number of folk on the route chosen, etc., you may be in a position to let your guide know your own preferences if there are discretionary options--e.g. a more rapid or more leisurely ascent, minor variations (I'm presuming the Upper Exum, but same holds for the O-S), and whatnot (though some guides may not take kindly what sounds like an expectation rather than a query). I had the good fortune to get led over the horseback ridge on approach to the summit, a pure joy and nice capstone.

[Jesus Malverde]

FWIW,
Both Exum Guides and Jackson Hole Mountain Guides (JHMG) are excellent companies with excellent guides. I don't think you can go wrong choosing one over the other. However, if you have a very specific route that you want to climb guided, you may have slight restrictions.
If I remember correctly (and I could be wrong here), I thought that Exum and JHMG had negotiated which company would guide a couple of the popular routes during the peak summer climbing season on The Grand. That is, I thought that Exum guided the true/original Owen Spaulding (OS) and JHMG did a variation of the OS until the beginning of September. Also, the JHMG camp is located lower down from the saddle (If I remember correctly it was about a 20 minute hike to the saddle) on the standard/OS route. Exum has their camp right on the saddle, so you start a little higher. In the scheme of things the guide camp location matters little I admit. If your exact route is a concern, I would double check with the guide service. Any route on The Grand is awesome. Even the dog route is a fantastic alpine rock climb. To paraphrase Libeki: life is short, the time is now.

[Fletch]

I climbed the Grand via the Upper Exum with EMG. Super solid folks. We had three different guides over four days and they were all world class climbers (piolet d or, sponsors, first ascents in Nepal, AK, Tetons, etc) and very good people. That was half the fun, just chatting with the guides about climbing.

I recommend them 100%.

[Doublecabin]

Both companies are indeed great groups of people. I would try and pick the least crowded dates you can. I'm a bit surprised that after the 2010 lightning debacle that they haven't restricted the number of people on the mountain more.

[Jaskic]

Thanks all, guidance and words are much appreciated.

We're trying to decide between Grand Teton and maybe the Mountaineers Route on Whitney- I know they are two completely different animals, but each has a particular sway for us.

[TimB]

I can certainly recommend Exum after my "Grand" climb with them last August. I also climbed with them on another Teton peak in September.
I plan on climbing with them again soon, if that says anything!

[Clark_Griswold]

Thanks all, guidance and words are much appreciated.

We're trying to decide between Grand Teton and maybe the Mountaineers Route on Whitney- I know they are two completely different animals, but each has a particular sway for us.

Personally, I would go with the Exum service on the Grand Teton. You can always make another trip to do Whitney, and it is worth the travel expense and time, but the Grand Teton area is something really special. However, it depends on the route you want to do on Grand Teton. If you are a decent climber with experience leading, you can easily do the 5.4 to 5.5 OS route(s), and don't need a guide. If you do a harder route, like upper or direct Exum, you will likely want them and enjoy things more with them. A harder route might be more fun as that would exclude the truly tourist climbers who have never done anything before and find the short backpack trip up to be hard work. I ran into a number of guided groups when I did the OS route in 2010. They ranged from students to retirees, and for a few, you could tell this was their first time even doing a long hike. Whitney can be soloed in a day or two, and I had fun, but I enjoyed it more in winter when the route was empty. The eastern Sierra is awesome, but larger in scale, whereas the Tetons-Yellowstone area seems smaller to me and is very diverse relatively speaking. Of course I say this, but if I take any trips over the next year outside of NM, AZ, or CO, I plan to go to the Sierra. Never the less, I recommend you go to the Tetons. Publish a picture filled Trip Report, and that way we can live vicariously through you.