The Teton Grand Traverse: The perfect rack for an imperfect outing
In August 2019 my friend and climber partner Sam Miller and I went after the incredible Grand Teton Traverse.
The iconic skyline, beautiful Wyoming (and Idaho) backdrop coupled with some incredible climbing and scrambling makes this an ever classic peak link-up that is likely on any climbers list.
I personally had spent relatively little time in the Teton Range beyond climbing the Grand. I had taken a few laps up classic routes like the Exum Ridge and Owen Spaulding a few times. I’d even had a chance to climb and ski the Ford-Stettner Couloir the season prior, but this would be my first time on any other feature that makes up the Teton Skyline.
The objective is a classic that gets completed in a variety of time-frames ranging from a few days to the current FKT of 6.5 hours held by Nick Elson. It’s quite the undertaking, but I still enjoy hearing the tales of early quick ascents by Rolo and Alex Lowe.
I wanted to share my gear list with many of you looking to add this one to the adventure list this summer, or perhaps at any time down the road of your climbing career.
We all know gear needs and equipment will vary based on your style and anticipated time on route. Sam and I planned to do the entire Grand Traverse in under 24 hours. Some of our gear selection is indicative of the forecasted conditions and our competence (and confidence) in the given terrain. Your experience may vary, so please use this gear list...and any of my suggested gear lists at your own discretion.
As many of you now know, I try to steer away from creating these articles as full length trip reports and keep them relatively paired down to a gear list. In full disclosure, we ended up descending from below Cloudveil peak, thus acquiring a GT DNF in the process, but the gear list was near-perfect for us that day.
We cruised through the “meat” of the GT known as the Cathedral Traverse. The Cathedral Traverse starts with a healthy serving of 6,000 feet of vertical gain for breakfast up Teewinot then traverses over Mt. Owen ascends the striking North Face of the Grand Teton, bringing you to the Lower Saddle. The climbing here is the technical difficulties of the route and present the greatest route finding challenges.
We climbed Teewinot quite quickly and navigated all the way to the base of the Grand without much issue. We ran into a few major snags on the Grand that were out of our control, but that should be expected on any alpine outing.
After making our way to the Lower Saddle, we refueled and continued on. Our greatest hang-ups came surprisingly on Middle Teton and the Ice Cream Cone.
We had focused so much on the Cathedral Traverse as it was the anticipated crux of the outing that we got quite off-route on Middle, South and Gilkey. It’s possible the lack of beta memorization, fatigue and lack of light added more challenges to our outing, but now realizing we'd finish in just over 24 hours we opted to descend down valley from underneath Cloudveil with new unfinished business.
Regardless of the final outcome, I was very happy with the gear we chose to climb with. I know many folks climb this route solo, some with only approach shoes, and others with a double rack. If you are a solid 5.9 climber, a small rope, single rack and pair of climbing shoes add a lot of security on the Grand. We did bust out the rope one other time on the Ice Cream Cone, but we were comfortable in approach shoes for the rest of the terrain that we covered.
Footwear:
Your kicks are pretty important for this one. The Grand Traverse covers almost 14 miles and over 12,000 feet of vertical gain. You navigate a lot of varied terrain and footwear is important. I used one of my favorite trail runners with a custom dot-rubber resole on the bottom. We carried climbing shoes so that we could move quickly and with greater security on the longer technical climbing portion; the North Face of the Grand Teton, but this is optional based on mountain conditions and your personal comfort level on the terrain.
Layers:
A good mix of layers to combat the alpine chill, but be breathable and comfortable with constant movement in a variety of temps. Not needed, but I stashed a pair of boardshorts in my pack for moving through the midday sun.
Pack:
You could certainly go smaller, but I like a light and compressible pack with real shoulder straps and full size hip-belt in the 30-40L range.
Traction:
2 types! We carried a micro-traxion to add a layer of security so we could simul-climb the grand Teton in as few pitches as possible. We also carried CAMP aluminum ice axes and crampons. These were nice to have while navigating the Koven Col, and mandatory for our given bail route. We descended a snow slope somewhere underneath Cloudveil/Spaulding and it would have been impossible to navigate safely without an ice axe and crampons.
Beta: The intel gathering was monumental in our onsight success of the Cathedral Traverse. I uploaded a GPX track to the Gaia GPS App, then manually uploaded Mark Smiley’s beta found at MtnSense.com to each waypoint. Sure, you could argue that our onsight just got downgraded to a flash, but this combination of info made navigation a breeze….at least until we reached Middle Teton.
Bivy Gear:
We carried an emergency 2-person bivy. Warm-enough to use in an emergency, but not big enough to enjoy a few hours of real sleep in. I’d bring this same rig for another IAD push, but I’d pack more in the comfort departement if looking to do the traverse in 2 or 3 days.
Food:
I can go a longways on shot bloks and gu packets, but Sam Miller was the MVP here. First he taught me about his special on-the go wrap recipe, then he shared a pouch of fresh smoked salmon on South Teton. Total game-changer!
Alpine Arugula Wraps:
1 wheat Tortilla
Handful for extra spicy arugula
Hummus
Small Handful Craisins
1 T Feta Cheese
Rack & Rope:
We went with a pretty standard gear assortment, carrying 4x Alpine Draws and a single rack of cams (using Ultralights where possible). The “larger” rack allowed for longer simul-climbing pitches and/or climbing security where we wanted it.
Our rope was small: a 60M 8.5mm Mammut Genesis rated as a half rope. The 60M length was more than sufficient for the rappels off Teewinot and Owen, and if we ever wanted more rope security on a challenging pitch, we could fold the rope over creating a real 30M Half-rope system. Fortunately we never felt the need to do this, but it was nice to have the option.
EDIT: Having since returned for this objective a number of times, I have updated my rope system to include an small rope (7.8-8.5mm) and 42-45M in Length.
Sleeper Crux:
Don’t underestimate the easy stuff. Sam and I are both competent climbers with endurance experience. We found that our lack of research on the last portion of the Traverse caused us more issues than we anticipated. Although we read that there were multiple 3rd class options off various features on the back 9, we both felt like we were constantly climbing loose 4th and 5th class choss in the dark. This coupled with our impending “greater-than-24hour” GT time ultimately caused us to throw in the towel and head back to the Climber’s Ranch. We’re heading back in a few weeks to clean this up, but I will no doubt be glancing at the descents off Cloudveil and Nez Perce with a more focused lens.
As always, reach out with any questions and of course I hope this gear list aids you out on your own journey into the amazing Teton playground.
DETAILED GEAR LIST FOR THE TETON GRAND TRAVERSE or CATHEDRAL TRAVERSE: