Tetons III

I need to let you all know that I did have a previous trip to the Tetons a few weeks ago, but it didn't go well from the start, so we didn't even do any climbing... hence it's not up here. But, I did just get back yesterday from another trip down yonder to the motherland of alpine climbing... THE TETONS!!!!
I had been planning this trip with Loy, who lives over in Oregon, for quite a while. She was going to be in the area for a previous engagement, so I suggested she come climbing with me. Since she loves mountains as much as I do, she was in from the get go.
Well, we met in Jackson on Monday night and woke up bright and early (4:30am) to get to the ranger station and get our permits for camping. After that we spent the rest of the day walking around town and drinking a couple beers. You're right, we really should have been drinking water rather than beer, but there's a microbrewery there; we can't resist that temptation. So later that evening we had dinner with some friends of Loy's father. After that, we started packing all our gear to get ready for the hike in the morning. Since I was carrying the tent, I had to wait until morning to pack because we were sleeping in the tent that night. That being the case, I was a little late in the morning. I thought I could pack faster than I really could. I wasn't too late, but late nonetheless.
Well, our permits were for the Lower Saddle camping area between the Grand Teton and the Middle Teton. This is the highest camping area in the Tetons at 11,100 feet. It's a good 8 or 9 miles from the trail head, so we took off early. The hike in was a good hike and both of us were making good time.
When we got to the Lower Saddle, we set up the tent and got everything ready for the next day. Drinking water from the snow melt and cooking some food felt pretty good after the hike. Luckily this hike isn't real long, but it definitely is steep. A fair amount of vertical is had over the last half of the hike.
We would be leaving for the Grand Teton at 5:00am, which means we were getting up at 4:30am. It was dark, cold, and very windy. Ridiculously windy we would later find out. Well, we started hiking and before long we were at the start of the route. The had picked up even more and I was a little worried about the climbing. It's not really exposed, but gusts of wind this high do make a person nervous when clinging to a rock at 13,000 feet. The first pitch is a short traverse to the ridge proper, but has some really good exposure under your feet. A good start to the route really. After this pitch it's roughly eight pitches of climbing with a little scrambling here and there. We were climbing well and made a lot better time than I had expected. Part of this was due to the fact that I didn't place a lot of gear for protection. This means I don't place much gear and it also means Loy doesn't have to take it out. It's all about efficiency.
Almost every pitch, Loy would come up to meet me and ask if I was getting really cold, e.g. hypothermia; and I always said I was fine. Apparently I thought my shivering wasn't visible. She was being a good partner keeping tabs on me. Even if I wasn't answering her properly sometimes, I didn't want her to know I was pretty freakin cold, she still knew how I was doing.
After quite a few cold pitches, we were getting closer to the top and the wind was getting faster and faster. We could also see the cold front moving in. There was a layer of clouds almost level with us heading straight in our direction. As we moved on to the top, we were essentially sitting in the clouds. Visibility was decreasing, both of us were cold, but I still wanted Loy to touch the summit (this is what they call summit fever). Luckily for us, she was smarter than I was and suggested we go down for safety reasons. I had to agree, but it sucked turning around about 200 feet from the top. It takes a bad situation and a good mind to recognize this.
Well, we started rappelling and the wind felt like it was going to throw us off the mountain at times. It would literally knock you over and push you around. Luckily we only have two rappels to do, then we hike the rest of the way. As we got further down we could see we were walking out of the clouds, but not the wind. We were both a little worried that our tent was going to be gone. Winds this high were definitely making me nervous, but I really thought we'd be okay.
Once we got down we could see that our tent was waving in the wind a bit more than usual. Not a good sign. When we got up close, we could see the tent was completely collapsed! It was a disheartening sight. If we couldn't fix the tent with what we had with us, we would have to hike all of the way out. Mind you, we were pretty tired by this point. Well, we look at the tent, and it has holes all over it. Some of the seams are torn, the poles are bent, and there are some good holes. At least the holes in the rain fly weren't too bad...
well, we taped a few sections of the tent, and the poles went back in and luckily held. At this point I'm more than a little nervous that this thing is going to collapse again. I was putting money on midnight. Then it would be dark and make everything harder. Good times. Luckily it held that night and we made plans to hike out the next day even though we had permits for two more nights.
The hike out proved to be very fast and everyone was amazed that we had been up there the last day. "Well, the winds were pretty high, but was it really that bad that these people are amazed?" It was that bad. When we got down we went to the ranger station to ask the rangers what the wind speed was up there (they have a weather station up there). When we drove over there I dropped Loy off and asked her to go in and check it out while I waited in the car since there weren't any parking spots. Her conversation went a little bit like this:
Loy: "We were up at the Lower Saddle yesterday and we were wondering what the wind speed was."
Ranger 1: (amazed look on his face) "Hey guys, we've got a survivor from the Lower Saddle in here." A few other rangers poke their heads out from the back room and all give her a surprised look.
Ranger 1: "Well, it was 50-60 mph constantly with gusts up to 95."
Loy: (amazed look on her face) "Really?! That's crazy."
So, my tent's breaking point is apparently 95mph.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around town and showering over at the friends house. We went and had lunch/dinner over at the brewery and had a couple beers. Quite a relaxing afternoon after all that went down. We had been cold and shivering and bearing 95mph gusts and now we're in a brewery having a couple beers toasting the successful climbing experience. Successful in the sense that we didn't die or get injured.
Loy took off on Saturday morning and I stuck around town for a little bit just taking it all in. I sat at Jackson Lake Lodge in the park and started thinking "when do you really start to question what you're doing? Is it when your tent collapses from hurricane force winds?" Maybe, maybe not. I always wonder when climbing will take me too far, but I imagine I'll never fully get myself away from it. No matter how tiring and crazy it may seem sometimes, pushing your comfort zone of what's possible always puts a smile on my face.