Our day-long instruction takes place on-rock, away from facilities and lasts from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. In addition to course-specific equipment you will need items to get you through the day, such as food, water and sunscreen, and gear to protect yourself should weather set in.

Essential Items

• 2 liters of water in “Nalgene” style bottles
• Lunch and snacks that are high energy, easy to eat, and heat tolerant
• Dark sun glasses, sunscreen, lip balm and a hat for sun protection
• Approach shoes with sticky rubber soles. You can rent these from us or from the local mountaineering shops in town. We do not use actual climbing shoes in schools or on the Grand Teton climb. Shoes should fit you comfortably because you will be wearing them all day. Please call us if you decide to purchase shoes prior to your arrival so that we can help you decide what to buy. The sticky rubber soles are essential and many shoes that are advertised as sticky rubber are not as good as others on the market. Exum is currently partnering with Scarpa to design an approach shoe specifically for climbing the Tetons. A prototype of this shoe should be available for rental by summer 2010 and is our recommended shoe.
• Comfortable shorts/lightweight pants and a cotton T-shirt are fine in nice weather – jeans and sweatpants are not recommended
• Fleece jacket/pullover or synthetic sweater
• Waterproof rain jacket – Required regardless of time of year or weather forecast. Brief rain showers are common in the afternoon. Rain ponchos interfere with climbing harness and movement, and are not allowed. Exum recommends Marmot’s PreCip jacket.
• Waterproof rain pants
• Gloves for rappeling (cotton work gloves are fine – leather is better)
• Day pack that is large enough to carry all of the above items

Optional Items

• Camera – light-weight, point and shoot model recommended
• Camelback or other bladder type water system instead of water bottles
• Custom orthotics can be used in approach shoes

Items Provided by Exum

The following items are provided by Exum. If you have one or more of these items, you are welcome to use your own upon signing a release.

• Helmet
• Harness
• Carabiners
• Belay device