Fall Climbing in the Winds

It's snowing in Lander today, just as I come off almost two months of work. Hopefully the new snow will bring good conditions in the Tetons. I have a little more than two weeks off, but it's hard to get motivated again when you've spent the last two months disseminating climbing knowledge without the opportunity to climb yourself. The snow on my face this morning reminded me of crisp winter mornings, and I think seeing the mountains coming over Togwotee pass tomorrow morning will likewise rekindle some forgotten wanderlust.

In late September, I took a morning at work to climb the Southwest Face of Midsummer's Dome. Anne Peick and I hiked up from the John Day Cabin site in the early morning light, hoping to be off the face and back to work by midday.

Approaching Midsummer's Dome. The SW Face roughly follows the sun-shadow line.

When I was in the East Fork Valley in early August, I climbed the Southeast Face several times, but I had yet to do any other routes on the dome. On the Southwest Face, I was impressed by the quality of the rock and of the climbing. Midsummer's Dome is a crooked neapolitan of granitic rock, and the Southwest Face follows a vanilla-esque layer of creamy orange and tan rock.

Anne, pitch four.

We swung leads up easy fifth class punctuated by the occasional boulder problem. The route was straightforward, necessitating little thought and allowed for concentration on the joy of climbing. Sometimes I get caught up in longer, colder, darker and forget how type-one-fun climbing can be. I gazed out to the horizon line, the East Fork Valley dropping off to the West, yielding breathtaking views that stretch out to the Pinedale Anticline.

Looking down into the East Fork Valley

A few days later, the course was almost over, and I was itching to get out of the mountains. Fortunately Anne and Jim Margolis had the requisite gumption and suggested another go at Midsummer's Dome. This time it was the South Face Left. A natural line, the South Face Left has fewer ledges than the Southwest Face and offers fun climbing on good rock.

Jim and Anne following pitch three.

We third-classed up low-angle slabs to a good ledge and the start of the roped climbing. Jim led the first pitch, a slabby corner pitch that gained us a hanging belay below the route's crux: a flaring offwidth to a sloping lieback groove. We had only one rope for the three of us, and we either tied into the middle and made the pitches shorter or the second and third moved together at the end of the rope.

Jim demonstrating appropriate brake strand management.

It seems that this north-easterly cold front is dropping most of its snow along the Absaroka's and Eastern Winds, leaving a small dusting in the Tetons. Things are looking good for a trip to the Teton Glacier with Landon Wiedenman tomorrow and Thursday. More to come!