The Grand Teton

We climbed the Grand Teton and summited at 2:30pm on August 16, 2008.  On Thursday we waited in line outside the Jenny Lake Ranger Station at 7am.  They opened at 8am and we were able to get a permit to camp.  That night we met up with a friend who gave us awesome advice on the climb.  He talked us into bringing only one 60 meter  rope.  We used just one of our 8.8 double ropes where one of us tied into the ends and the other tied into the midpoint, effectively making it a 30 meter climbing rope.  Our small rack consisted of a full set of nuts (no doubles), and BD camelots sized .3, .4, .75, 1, and 2.  We also brought only 6 quickdraws and 3 long slings and a cordellette.  We left our tricams behind as well.
We started by hiking up to the Meadows on Friday where we set up camp.  We had an early night and went to bed at 5pm.  We woke up at 2am to a full moon!  By 2:30am we were on the trail and even saw a bunch of people hiking up from the Lupine Meadows parking lot.  By 4:30am we were at the lower saddle freezing our butts off.  We made our way over to Briggs slab (12.200 ft) and climbed up.   Shortly after we saw a beautiful sunrise. By 6:30 am we were on Wallstreet waiting in line for the climb.  Don ended up leading the entire technical climb.  We stayed roped up from Briggs slab to the summit.
Around 8:30am we were finally on deck to cross wallstreet and climb the golden staircase.  HOLY FREAKIN EXPOSURE!!! It was unbelievable and the move off of wallstreet made you dizzy.  The staircase was really fun.  Then we climbed over to wind tunnel, which is windy!  I was having trouble climbing with the pack and ended up crying my eyes out on the friction pitch.  Don led some variation that no one else was doing (because of the crowd of people waiting to get on it) and that was when I broke.
Don took the pack off me after that and we climbed up the V-Pitch which took us to a couple more technical pitches that led to a scramble to the summit. 
We hiked down the Owen Spaulding Route to a monster 120 foot rappel where the last 60 feet was overhanging.  We met up with another party that had only one rope and we tied our ropes together for the rap.  It was a freaky rappel.  If we did not hook up with the other party we would have hiked out to the 70 foot rapell that took us to another 70 foot rappel.
We hiked down the rest of Owen Spaulding and got back to camp at 6:00 pm.  It was a long but fun day.  We made dinner and went to bed.  We couldn't have been prouder (or stinkier)!  On Sunday we found a river that Don did some cliff jumping in and then we tried to climb the rock wall he jumped off of but it was just too tricky for us, but we did see other people climb up it.  That night we finally got a shower and a big dinner that came on a plate instead of in a bag!  It was a great trip!
Pics can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfolcik/sets/72157606838988424/

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