Road Trip Part 3 - Melanie's Grand Teton Attempt

Submitted by: Melanie on: 30 January 2012 - 01:43pm

After warming up our Teton legs earlier in the week (see Road Trip Part 2), we decided to got for something bigger on day 3 of our exploratory mission… the Grand Teton! This time, local guide and friend through ski mo racing Zahan Billimoria joined us for the long day trip and was a great leader. This mission is pretty much a story on it’s own. With an early alpine start, we climbed to the lower saddle of “The Grand” under a breath taking sunrise. Not only the sunshine was breathtaking, so was the growing power of the wind.

As we reached the lower saddle we left our skis behind and started climbing the “Owen-Spalding" route to the upper saddle. Unfortunately, due to strong winds and a ticking clock, we had to turn around at “the Balcony” just below the upper saddle. We were litteraly fighting the elements by that point in time. It still was a great experience and a lot of fun!

After a 12 hour day in nature's washing machine, we recovered in front of a nice meal thinking about all the ground we had covered since we first arrived only a week earlier!

The forecast was finally calling for more precipitation... Mmmm… I wonder what next week has in store? Loving the life on the road and dreaming about the ski days to come.