Grand Teton, Two-Day Private Climb
Exum's two-day privately guided ascents of the Grand Teton are for friends or families wanting to climb the Grand together as a team, or individuals wanting to climb privately with a guide. Private climbs allow the flexibility of being able to move at your own pace, whether that be slower or faster than average. Your preparation can be done privately as well, or you can take our group classes. The climb will begin at Lupine Meadows. The seven-mile, 5,000-foot approach winds through hillsides blanketed in wildflowers and past gorgeous waterfalls to Exum's Lower Saddle Hut at 11,620 feet.
The hut is stocked with sleeping bags, pads, climbing gear, and cooking equipment. After a simple dinner you will climb into your sleeping bag. You will climb out of it again in the early hours of the morning to begin your ascent.
Looming above the Lower Saddle is your objective--the Grand Teton, which you will ascend via the classic Owen Spalding or the acclaimed Exum Ridge. The final route decisions are based on weather, route conditions, and your well being. Exum can also guide other routes on the Grand Teton when requested.
After celebrating on the summit you will descend back to the Lower Saddle. At the hut you will pack up and begin the hike out, arriving at the trailhead anywhere from mid-afternoon to early evening.
Price:
$995 for one climber
$795 each for two climbers
$665 each for three climbers
$620 each for four climbers
(Rates do not include preparatory classes or climbs)
(Rates do not include preparatory classes or climbs)
Availability:
June - September
Please call the office for information regarding other times of the year.
Prerequisites:
Multi-Pitch Level I
Multi-Pitch Level II
Private Instruction can replace the group classes if desired.
Multi-Pitch Level II
Private Instruction can replace the group classes if desired.
Snow School may be required for early summer climbs.
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You will meet your guide the first morning at Exum's office in Lupine Meadows. After checking gear, you will drive to the Lupine Meadows trailhead. (Please be prepared with your own transportation as Exum guides are unable to provide transportation in their personal vehicles.)
Carrying only your personal food and clothing, you will spend the day hiking up Garnet Canyon to Exum's private hut at the Lower Saddle (11,620 feet). Though the hike is long and at times strenuous, guides set a slow and steady pace so you may enjoy the exercise and the fabulous alpine scenery. You will arrive at the hut in late afternoon.
You and your guide will leave the hut before dawn for the Exum Ridge, the Owen-Spalding Route or the Enclosure. The Owen-Spalding is an easier route whose guidebook description reveals little about how thrilling it really is. There is as much exposure, if not more, on the first two pitches of the Owen-Spalding as on many routes of a much harder grade. The Owen-Spalding Route is the line of the peak's first ascent and holds many classic passages with sensational exposure like the Belly Roll, the Crawl and the Catwalk.
The Exum Ridge is reached via Wall Street, an exciting exposed ramp. The 13-pitch route then follows a pinnacled crest line up the Golden Staircase, Wind Tunnel, Double Cracks, Friction Pitch, Unsoeld's Layback, and onto the summit ridge. Some of the most high quality and aesthetic rock in the range forms the Exum Ridge, undeniably one of the most spectacular routes of its grade anywhere in the world.
Typically parties reach the summit by late morning. You then begin the descent, rappelling and downclimbing back to the Exum Hut for lunch and to collect gear.
After recharging you will begin the hike down Garnet Canyon, back to the Lupine Meadows trailhead. Most parties return to Exum's headquarters by early evening.
The Enclsoure, the Grand Teton's western summit, is a good alternate should bad weather, poor route conditions, or your personal well-being impede a summit attempt of the Grand Teton.