Mt. Sepulcher and Climbing in the Tetons

The day after hiking Bliss Pass, I went up to Mammoth and hiked Sepulcher Mountain. Sepulcher overlooks Gardiner, MT and also looks out onto Electric Peak. I started the hike on the backside of the mountain and took a bunch of switchbacks up to the top.

Electric Peak to the left, Sepulcher to the right:

Electric peak was just staring at me the whole way up, calling for me to climb that next! 

Starting to head down:

After making it to the summit, I started descending on the side facing Gardiner. There were a bunch of cliffs and cool rock formations  on this side of the mountain and the trail was VERY close to the edge at points.

View of Gardiner from up top:

Trail is getting VERY close to the edge!

Mt. Everts in Mammoth:

 I originally planned on doing the 13 mile loop so that I would end back at my car, but after the hike the previous day my legs were really tired, and instead I decided to cut off 3 miles and hike into Mammoth to get some ice cream!

Me Staring at my next conquest, Electric!

Wednesday I finally made it down to Grand Teton National Park. I went with one of the other PA’s and one of the nurses to do some rock climbing. We started at Jenny Lake which is right at the base of the Tetons and hiked half way around the lake to the Cascade Canyon area. Just past the Canyon trail is another trail that leads up to some cliffs on the side of the mountain. The cliffs looked very intimidating and I was getting a bit nervous about climbing up them.

View of the Cliffs we were about to climb:

Still a bunch of snow up there!

It took us about an hour to put on all of our climbing gear, to go over knot tying, climbing strategies, and safety info before we got going. The PA is an experienced climber, so he went up first and placed all the protection gear and then anchored in up at the first pitch. Next was my turn!



At first the climb started out fine, but about halfway up I got to a point where I just could not find a place to put my feet next and my muscles were starting to get really fatigued. I kept trying and trying, but it seemed like my leg muscles wouldn't stop shaking! I really thought I physically wasn't going to be able to go any further, even though in my mind I really wanted to make it up! After about 5 minutes or so I somehow pushed through and continued to climb. I hit one other rough spot, but I was finally able to make it to the top.

I hadn't even looked down yet because I was so focused on the physical aspect of the climb. Once I did look down though….holy anxiety!! I was nervous as hell! I found a rock to wedge myself between up on the pitch and waited about 35 minutes or so for the other guy to climb up. The views of Jenny Lake and the Grand Tetons were awesome, but honestly I couldn't stop thinking about falling and dying! After a long 35 minutes I was finally able to repel back down to the ground.

After having some time to ponder on the experience, I think I would rather mountaineer with some minor climbing, rather than climb straight up sheer cliffs in the future! It was a great experience though!