South Teton with Emma, dad and mom

South Teton climb with Emma

Dad, Emma and Mom climbed the South Teton in July 1998. As usual life was hectic before the climb and packing was not complete until late the night before we left. We got up at 4 am and drove to the Tetons. The drive was beautiful, even seeing a moose just before Star Valley. We arrived at the Ranger station about 9 am, the day was beautiful, but the Rangers were slow and it took a long time before we got registered. We went back to the car and packed up. About 15 minutes into the hike we realized we had left the camping permit in the car. Dad dropped his pack and went back to the car. Once dad got back we continued to hike, and even though mom is a slow hiker we went made steady progress. We hit the switchbacks and dad reminded us that Chad had called them “the Hill from Heck!” That may be so, but mom hates the bolder field more!! The meadow was very wet, with lots of people in it. We were camping at South Fork so we hiked up the snow to get to the campsite. When we reached the rocks at the top of the snow field we traversed across to our campsite. The site was beautiful, lots of snow and water, but one area was dry. Clouds had moved in so we put our tents up quickly and got inside before the rain came. Emma came into mom and dad’s tent during the storm. It rained, hailed and blew for about 3 hours. When it finally stopped we were really wet. Emma and mom’s sleeping bags were wet, the bottom of both tents were wet. We took everything that we could out of the tent and let it blow in the wind and most of it dried off. Dad got us hot water and the cup o’noodles tasted great.

The next morning we got up at 6 am, a little late for a dad start, but it was just beginning to get light and it was beautiful. We went up the snow and boulder fields. There were still lots of clouds and it rained a little, but we kept going. At one point mom became fatigued and felt like she could not go on. After some rest and water we all continued on. We hiked up the boulders on the side of the last snowfield and then put crampons on and traversed across. We went up the last couloirs and then the last 200 yards to the top. We all made it and it was great!!! Emma was really excited to be on top of the mountain We took many pictures, then began down. We had drunk all the water and we were all very thirsty. There were packets of hail on the snow and rocks and we decided that we could eat them because they had fallen the day before. They tasted so good and were so refreshing, we were all grateful for something wet in our mouths. We slide down many of the snowfields and made it back to camp. It was looking very stormy so even though we were exhausted, we packed up and left camp so as not to get caught in a bad storm. Down the snowfield below camp, toward the meadow Emma and Dad slid, but mom was very cautious and hiked down. Across the boulder field and down the trail, hiking as fast as we could, but Emma and mom were very tired and it was slow going. We went to Wendy’s and then home arriving around 10 pm. Emma used the experience as one of her Young Women 10 hour projects. She gave a talk on it at a Young Women in Excellence. Mom decided that climbing in the Tetons is like labor and childbirth, while you are in the middle of it you hate it, feel that it is very hard and that you will never do it again, but later the memory fades and you do it again!!

The mountains are beautiful and have a draw for mom and dad!