News Releases
June 10 Grand Attempt
Jackson Hole Mountain Guides Doug Workman and Dennis Sanders attempted a guided ascent of the Grand Teton this week, the first non-ski trip of the summer 2009 season. To put this in perspective, we have had terrible, wet and cold weather for the last ten days in the Tetons--rain in the valleys and mixed rain and snow in the peaks. This weather pattern, while not unusual in early June, has been somewhat more persistent this year. Those of you who have been caught in bad weather in mid-summer conditions can relate to how uncomfortable it is to be at 10,000' and above in such conditions. Combine this with the early season snowy conditions, and the Grand Teton becomes a different sort of beast altogether, as seen in Doug's photos. The crew only kept pushing it because noone was getting hypothermic, the lightning conditions were safe, and the clients were game! 
Doug and Dennis went up to Corbet High Camp with Tom Neilan and Anne Griffin of Cambridge, MA on a two day Grand Teton trip. Here is Doug's narrative of summit day:
"We attempted to climb the OS (Owen-Spaulding route). It was burley. Left high camp at 4:15am in a blizzard. 40mph winds and sideways snow at the Lower Saddle. Kept putting clothes on and moving blind. Could not see a damn thing. Went around the Eye of the Needle b/c kind of nervous about sluffing the regular winter way (and could not see a damn thing). Started the Bellyroll (the beginning of the fifth class climbing) at 9:30am and did not finish the Owen Chimney till 1PM !!! Despite the summit being very close, we opted to descend due to fatigue. 9 hours of climbing was enough. Descent went smoothly and we got back to the car at 10:30pm."
