I Cannot Believe I'm here — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

On 8/1 I did 26.3 miles to just south of Lake Solitude in Teton NP. On 8/2 I did 18.4 to South Fork underneath the Middle Teton. On 8/3 I did 14.7 to the Alaskan Basin. On 8/4 I did 20.6 to Phillip's Creek Trail Head

Listen to “Gettysburg” by Ratatat. This song pumps me up and is what I listen to when I'm about to do something fun.

As I was making my way towards the Tetons I had to stop and triple check my maps to make sure I actually had to go over Littles Peak to get to my next waypoint. It was only a 1,000 foot climb from where I was standing but it was pure talos rock. This is a huge pain because all of the rocks are unstable and you never feel steady as you walk over them, plus it's a great way to break an ankle by getting a foot stuck in between rocks and falling. Unfortunately there wasn't a detour and I had to go up and over. I took my sweet time climbing over the scree and talos and when I got to the top I got my first epic view of the Tetons!

The Tetons were breath taking. I was on a super remote plateau looking at them from the West. I wanted to stay there and soak it in but a huge storm was coming my way. It was not a straightforward route to get from the plateau down to the basin below me. I got turned around a few times in my haste but could use the impending storm as an indicator of where West was. I made it to a steep ridge after crossing several knife edges and slowly descended down toward Lake Solitude. The only thing worst than going up a talos field is going down a talos field. It took me 45 minutes to decend as the skies started to open up. It didn't bother me because everytime I looked up from my feet I got the most spectacular view of the Tetons.

Once in the National Park the trails are super well maintained and I found a campsite about 2 miles South of Lake Solitude. The next morning I got a headlamp start to Jenny Lake. I ran into a few moose in the morning who didn't seem to be bothered by my presence. Once at Jenny Lake I went to the ranger station to get permits to climb the Tetons. When I explained to him where I came from and what I wanted to do in the Tetons he just smiled and said it was an awesome plan and he was a little jealous (anytime you can make a backcountry climbing ranger jealous you are doing something right). We reviewed my plan which includes me climbing the Middle and South Tetons from the East but then down climbing from the West which as he put it "I've never heard of anyone doing that but I think its possible". He seemed enthused with my plan and didn't try to talk me out of it, but it start to make me wonder if I bit off more than I can chew.

After getting my permits I had to hitch to a small town called Moose, WY to pickup a resupply package from the Post Office. I got a quick hitch there and back (it's all about the pink shirt, but the pink shirt is kind of looking brown because I haven't done laundry for 2 weeks). With a resupply on my back and permits in hand I headed towards the Tetons.

Once I started up the main route to my high camp at South Fork at 10,000 feet, I saw a bunch of climbers coming down after they had summited that day. They all had high end and fancy gear hanging off of them that I didn't have. Now I started to get a little worried. I am wearing trail runners, have carbon fiber hiking poles and the gear I have is supposed to go the distance but not necessarily the altitude. I start to wonder if this is a good idea, but while my mind is spinning I notice that I am effortlessly passing every climber that is also heading up to the high camp. They look out of breath and I'm just trying to be polite while getting around them. They maybe wearing 500 dollar fleeces but I've been moving in the mountains for the last 75 days and it shows.

I spent the night on the South Fork of the Middle Teton and had an awsome view of the South Teton from my tent. I still had plenty of day light left when I set up camp and just relaxed the rest of the evening. I got up the next day at 5am and was packed up and heading up to the South Saddle by 6am. I did not do an Alpine start because I wanted to give the snow fields a little time to soften up before I got on them. I reached the South saddle by 7a and started up the Middle Teton. I was moving fast and having a blast. There was a large snow field I had to put my spikes on to climb up. I then hit a short plateau before I hit the South Couloir which will take me to the summit. I was inside the couloir when the climb got difficult. I was hand over hand climbing, stemming and hand jamming my way up with a full backpack on. This was definitely class 5 climbing and had some consequences if I fell. This was very different than the route information I had received and I was a little caught of guard but I managed to pull myself up and got to the top of the mountain and take in the views of the Grande and South Tetons. I was not looking forward to the down climb when I saw a different route than I came up on. It was a much easier route and should have been the route I went up (this is what I get for climbing by myself and without any solid climbing beta). It was smooth trip back down to the South saddle. As soon as I hit the saddle I ate a few snickers bars and went straight for the South Teton. It was a rock scramble all the way up with a small snow field that was easy to navigate. I was moving quick. I had been thinking about and planning these 2 climbs for months and I was finally doing them and was bounding with energy. I got to the top of the South Teton by 1030a with no issues and started to down climb as I tried to figure out my route down the west side of the Mountains.

To get to the western side of the Tetons there was a spine I could follow down on the South Teton but I had to get around a lesser peak in order to get onto the spine. I could either circumnaviagte the peak from the north or from the south. I choose the south and ohhhh man did I choose wrong. I quickly got into some technical climbing as I was going around the peak. There was a sketchy 40 foot down climb I had to do. I made it about 10 feet down before I decided I couldn't do it with my pack on. The climb was in my ability range but having a fully loaded pack with 6 days of food in it was making things very difficult. I climbed up to a ledge and pulled out my food bag which had my bear hanging rope in it. I tied one end to my pack and used a corner of a rock as a shive to lower my pack down. I then down climbed the face. Once down the face I was in a chute filled with rock features and loose stone. I started to head down the chute trying to find the best way down to the valley floor. The number one rule when decending a route un-roped that you didn't come up is: don't go down anything you cannot see the bottom of because there maybe a cliff face you cannot see. With this in mind I was climbing over to different chutes along the backside of the mountain until I found one that I could see the floor of. It was a long scree field that eventually met up with the western spine which connected me to the trail I wanted to be on. I was so happy I kissed the trail when I hit it. Two mountains and a new decent all by noon! I felt like a million bucks. The Tetons were so grand, I had taken a 100 mile detour to do them and it was worth every step.

I walked another 2 miles down the trail found a tree to sit under and opened up my pack to make lunch. When I opened my pack I wondered "Where is my tent?”. I dumped my pack out but there wasnt a tent in it. My mind started to race and then my heart sank, because I knew exactly where it was. It was on the ledge where I had to lower my pack. My tent was ontop of my food bag in my pack so I had to take it out to get my bear hang rope and did not put it back in.

I went through all of my options and none of them were good. I had to have my shelter it's one of my most important pieces of equipment second only to my feet. I had to go back up the trail, up the scree field, find the chute and climb back up the sketchy section and retrieve the tent. It wasnt even 1p so I had plenty of daylight left, I was tired and the thought of another 3,000 climb wasn't ideal but being without shelter was not a possibility I was willing to entertain. I popped a few cliff bars in my mouth and headed back to the Western spine. The first two trail miles flew by as I was working off of adrenaline. I then hit the scree field where my pace slowed down. It was at a relatively high angle and for every 3 steps I took up the field I slid down 2 as the rocks slipped under my feet. I had to be super stategic with my foot placement so I didn't burn all of my energy getting nowhere. I finally made it up to the chutes and rock formations at the bottom of the peak. There were a dozen chutes I could have come out of. Luckily I had taken a picture of the chute as I had come out of it on my way down and was able to match my picture with some of the rock features and found which one I came out of. I scrambled my way to the top and reclimbed the rock face and there it was! My tent was lying right on the ledge. I have no idea how I missed it, but it didn't matter because I got it back.

By this time in was super fatigued and knew it, so I took my sweet time climbing down and making my way back down to the trail. When I got back down to level trail I slammed 2 liters of water and ate an entire bag of dehydrated mangos. That was not an ideal situation but it had a great outcome. I can assure you I will never leave my tent behind again. With the adrenaline leaving my body I just put my headphones in and danced my way down the trail. I hate doing stupid things like leaving my tent behind but it all worked out and technically I got to climb 3 mountains instead of 2 so I'm still counting the day as a win.

At the South saddle about to go up the middle Teton

View from the Middle Teton with the shadows of the South and Middle Teton on the lake below

Grand Teton in the background. I still didn't know I was missing my tent yet