| The Middle in a Day Trip Report |
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| The Middle in a Day   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Wyoming, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 43.73010°N / 110.8189°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Sep 27, 2003 | Page By: mr kieran Created/Edited: Nov 3, 2003 / Object ID: 169147 Hits: 756 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
After driving down from Helena (MT) the evening before and enduring a good two and a half hours of half-sleep delirium during the night, I started up the trail at 5:00 a.m. on the nose, in perfect darkness, and for two hours I watched as the dinky light from my cheap Energizer flashlight faded slowly into a little brown splotch that helped very little indeed--headlamps are wonderful things. There is a certain magic about ascending the switchbacks into Garnet Canyon in the dark...unseen animals fleeing uphill in the blackness, the runway lights at Jackson Hole airport twinkling in the near distance, stars reflected in the mirrors of Bradley and Taggart Lakes a couple thousand feet below. Because I had no light of any function, I had to move more slowly to keep from tripping over things, and so didn't tire myself out as quickly as I would have otherwise.
By the time the sun rose above the Gros Ventres across the valley and hit the wall of the Tetons, I was halfway up the talus below the east face of the Middle, looking toward the alpenglow on Cloudveil Dome and Nez Perce as I filled my water bottles from a frigid rivulet gushing down from the Middle Teton Glacier unseen above. Ascending the trail above Garnet Meadows, I had gone all the way to the base of Spalding Falls before cutting over toward the Middle Teton--mainly through ignorance--so that I skirted the top of the massive talus field below the cliffs that compose the upper mountain. From the base of the famous and very visible black dike, the route to the South Saddle between the Middle and South Tetons follows the base of the Middle's south-facing cliffs. Unless covered with snow, there is a fairly evident climber's path most of the way up.
The South Saddle sports a tremendous view into Idaho, and straight down to Icefloe Lake. It was also very windy and cold. I scarfed down a half-petrified roll I was carrying, and a package of Little Debbie swiss rolls. Ahh...breakfast of champions.
As I headed up the ridge toward the southwest couloir (mostly free of snow) I began to feel not at all well: perhaps my almost total lack of sleep the night before had had an adverse effect on my energy level, or else my digestive system was trying to reject my spartan repast. Whatever the cause, it seemed to me I was moving very slowly and stopping to rest far too often. A few times, heading up into the southwest couloir, I felt myself beginning to hyperventilate and had to slow my pace.
The climbing, fortunately (for me) was far easier than I had anticipated. Certain accounts I had read previously of the southwest couloir summed the climbing up as "loose, and somewhat exposed." Nonesense. It was anything but. Rather than slog up the center of the couloir (mostly melted out and punctuated by the deep boot-prints of a summer's worth of activity), I stuck to the rock on the left-hand side, close to the top of the ridge slanting toward the summit. While certainly interesting, the climbing was far from difficult, loose, or exposed (although I realize such measures are purely qualitative). By the time I reached the summit, I was moving well (if only intermittently) and checked my watch shortly after patting the survey marker on top: 9:45 a.m. The climb from valley to summit had taken 4 hour and 45 minutes, so I had moved a little faster than I thought I was.
Since the day was yet young, I gave serious consideration to ascending the South Teton as well after I got back to the South Saddle, but finally decided against it to save myself the excruciating pain I knew would spring from my left knee were I to adopt such a course. I had hyperextended it the summer before on a stupid dayhike up Tempest Mountain in the Beartooths (see my trip report under the Tempest Mountain page detailing this ordeal) and things were still a bit tender. As it was, it was still a long way down to the trailhead. A LOOOONG way down.
On the descent, I met up with a few parties headed up, mostly strung out sporadically below the saddle between the Middle and South. Rather than traverse over to Spalding Falls (my route from the morning), I decided it would be more efficient to simply head straight down to Garnet Meadows, dotted with minute tents far below. This was a mistake. This miserable talus slope proved to be the most unpleasant experience I had endured in a good long while; each rock stacked loosely upon the other, big rocks on top of small rocks underlain by ball-bearing like nodules of pulverized gneiss, the whole mass constantly shifting by degrees. Cute little cairns litter the place here and there marking despicable pathways that wind all over. It makes no difference. It all sucks.
The trail switchbacking into the valley bore little resemblance to the one I had ascended in the star-studded blackness that morning. For one thing, it was full of people, something I wasn't quite anticipating this late in the year. My guess would be that most of these were folks like me who lived relatively close by (Salt Lake City, Idaho Falls, Bozeman etc) and wanted to avoid the main crush of the tourist season. No matter...everyone was friendly and good-natured. The only thing worse than too many people in the mountains is a snobby climber who refuses to be sociable (or too tired to care).
In summary, for those in good shape (I am hardly an elite mountaineer), the Middle Teton makes a great day hike under good conditions, despite the over 6,000 feet of elevation gained from the Lupine Meadows Trailhead. A pre-dawn, headlamp-assisted start is a good idea, however. This late in the season, the campground at Jenny Lake is closed, as are, I believe, most Park campsites. Additionally, the ranger station at Jenny is also shut down after the 20th or so of Sept, meaning that those desiring a backcountry permit for Garnet Meadows (i.e, anyone who doesn't want to do the thing in a day) must acquire those at Moose.
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