| Grand Ascents log (2005-06-21 -> 2005-07-11)
Leaders: Anderson Heagy and Abby Bullock
Students: Kat Barnes, Will Barrett, Hugh Hilsman, Mary Ireland, Rally Killian, Will Morgan, Billy Parr, Colin Sigler, Heather Warburton, Graham Wolf
July 3, 2005
Wow! What an amazing start to this incredible expedition! The kids are all amazing. We just came out of the Wind River Range this morning after a strong ten days of backpacking. Our trip started out with a climb up "struggle-up" mountain. This day was long and hard with heavy packs and an increase in altitude. But smiles remained present as we told jokes all the way up. We brought a few fly-fishing rods with us in hopes that we would get a chance to fish. Our guide Mark was able to take us to some great fishing lakes throughout the course of our
travels. One day was especially "Lucky," when we caught ten fish and had a delicious pasta and trout dinner. Mark was great at cooking the fresh trout and he passed some of his skills on to the students!
On the fifth day of travel we decided to make a summit attempt for Raid Mountain, one of the taller peaks surrounding the valley we were traveling in. We woke
at 5 a.m. and began the climb. There was still a lot of snow that existed, due to a late snow fall, but we continued. By 10:30 a.m. we had reached the summit and had a mini picture party on top. All the kids were so proud of themselves. They deserved it! We quickly packed up as we saw the afternoon cumulus clouds forming. We made it down to tree line just in time to see our first thunderstorm at altitude. Each student reacted perfectly under the stressful situation. We all ade it down to camp safely and enjoyed a lunch of peanut butter and honey torts. The next days were slower and more relaxed as we took our time getting out of the valley and back down to the van. All in all this has been a great start and I can't wait for what is to come. Each student wanted to tell his or her parents their highlights and what great things were being accomplished. So here they are:
Hugh: He helped everyone make it down the mountain safely and enjoyed learning how to fish.
Mary: She loved climbing Raid mountain and bonding with everyone on the rest days.
Rally: He enjoyed fly-fishing and the beautiful scenery.
Will Barrett: He loved catching all the fish and cooking them. He also has enjoyed painting and drawing in the backcountry.
Heather: She has enjoyed learning to fish and climbing Raid Mountain.
Billy: He enjoyed playing with Gracie, Mark's dog, and also liked learning to fish.
Kat: Enjoyed being the Leader of the day for the climb up Raid Mountain. She also has like getting to know everyone.
Will Morgan: Enjoys making the group laugh and loved the summit of Raid Mountain.
Graham: He enjoyed eating the fish for dinner and telling his soy sauce joke!
Colin: He enjoyed climbing Raid Mountain and looking at the new scenery.
July 6, 2005
The past few days have been rad! We are back in the Jackson Hole area, and we have been climbing with the world famous Exum Mountain Guides! The first day on the rock was a beginner's climbing school. This day was chock full of technical information as it entails basic climbing, and a solid foundation for our new climbing skills was created. On the second day of climbing we really saw a lot of progress. For the intermediate climbing school we were joined by Jack Turner, world famous mountaineer and accomplished author. He led the group up more technical terrain, and provided some small group instruction for Kat, Hugh, and Will Morgan. The second day was also a big day for Mary who worked through her fear of heights, repelling 120' off of an overhung cliff. After climbing school we headed into Jackson to celebrate the 4th of July, Colin and Will Barrey exercised their culinary skills on the grill before the fireworks. A good nights sleep set us up for another great day with the Exum Guides at snow school This was the groups favorite day, as we got to play around on the snow and hang out with Jack Turner again.
Billy was able to fulfill his life long dream of using an ice axe, while Rally really enjoyed learning snow craft from some of the best in the industry. Heather also found this day to be one of great challenge and reward. The last three days of climbing have been great! We have learned a lot and feel well prepared for our climb up the Grand Teton. We will get back toyou soon with amazing details of our big adventure.
abby and anderson
July 8, 2005
Summit Day - Word from the Exum office is that all have summited!! They are working their way down to the Exum hut and will check in later today. Happy Birthday Billy Parr!! Not a bad way to spend your 17th birthday. Don't think you will forget this one.
July 9, 2005
Incredible!!! To look back now from below the Grand Teton is amazing. We are all amazed that we were up there. The Journey was flawless! We started up The Grand on July 7th with 7 of Exum's most senior guides. The word was that the Exum guides were bidding on this trip to get to work with our Moondance students!! They were all excited to be with us!
The first day of travel took us from the valley floor around 6,300 feet up to the lower saddle at just over 11,000 feet, which is nearly 4000 vertical feet. We set a slower pace then normal to conserve our energy for the many hours that followed. The trail led us up Garnet canyon where my group, with students Will Barrett, Rally, Will Morgan, and Heather all learned about the many types of rock that make up the granite in the canyon. The trail wound up the mountain and above tree line where we had views of both the Middle Teton and the false summit of the Grand. As we began to climb, cascading waterfalls appeared on the walls of the canyon from all of the melting snow off the mountain. Rally made sure to capture the fall on film. We arrived at the base of the saddle to our first ascent of snow. We got out our ice axes in preparation to climb up to the top of the saddle. It was great actually using what we learned in snow school two days prior on a real climb. This began to fulfill Billy's dream of using his ice tools! He especially thought they were cool! Once we reached the top of the saddle the Exum hut was in view. We arrived there around five o'clock. Kat thought it was cool to be able to see Idaho looking over the back side of the saddle. The mountains were incredible. And this was only a taste of the views to come.
That night we ate a hearty dinner in preparation for the early morning climb. We snuggled into our sleeping bags just as the sun was setting and tried to get some rest. The morning however came way to fast. Our guides woke us up around 2 AM. We were all full of anticipation. The time was here! We ate a quick breakfast of bagels and hot chocolate, got our packs together and headed off. We were split into groups of three, two students and a guide. I was paired up with Mary and our guide was George. His son Michael, who is 13, came along for the climb. It was his first time up the mountain also. We felt strong out of the gate knowing that it was mostly adrenalin that was keeping us going. We hit our first snow at the base of the upper saddle. We then put on our crampons and roped up for the first few pitches. This was the real deal. It was so cool to be moving up the mountain as a team! We traveled up the Owen Spalding route, the most climbed route on the Grand. The route consisted of some chimney climbing, 5, 7 face climbing, and some exposed pitches like the belly roll. Everyone did great!
We all met at the summit for a celebration of Snickers Bars and Happy Birthday wishes to Billy!! What an amazing way to spend your 17th Birthday. We took some pictures then it was down from there. We descended the same way we came up but added in an 80 foot rappel. It was so cool!! Graham and Hugh thoroughly enjoyed the free hanging part of the rappel. Heather had the biggest smile on her face at the bottom of the rappel. I could tell she was proud of herself. We all then hiked down to the Exum hut for a quick lunch of Peanut butter and Jelly sandies. Colin proceeded to congratulate everyone on their summit! This is an amazing team. We then all packed up and began hiking to the trail head. The snow that we first hiked up to the lower saddle provided a great route for glissading. We all sat on out bottoms and slid down the 100 foot climb. It was like a lounge. Graham takes the award for the most aggressive self arrest! Most of the group hustled down the mountain except for Will Morgan and me who were taking our time and occasionally sticking our heads in the river to cool off. We arrived back at the car around 7 o'clock exhausted. The climb was a success! Everyone had so much fun.
And the fun continues..... This morning we woke up and went rafting down the snake. It was a bit more relaxing adventure then the climb up the Grand; however, it was still an adventure. These students will remember this journey forever. I am so proud of all of them for pushing themselves and accomplishing their goals for themselves and the group. These next few days we will be finishing up our adventure.
Parents, thanks for sharing your kids with us these last three weeks. They have all been so much fun to get to know. We will send them back to you clean (somewhat!) and a bit exhausted, but very proud!
Sincerely,
Abby and Anderson
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