I will start from the beginning. Way back in the winter I was casually chatting with some girlfriends about climbing the Grand Teton and how much fun it was. I said to them "We should totally do a climb this summer...." (not really thinking it would actually happen). I should have know better after talking to Lindsey Dewey and Annalise Summers that it would in fact happen. Both ladies looked at their calendars and we set a date for July 27, 2013. Our husbands would all climb, and Mike's little sister Michelle would be our fearless leader and guide, bringing the total to 7 climbers.
We trained hard, stadium stairs for weeks and all felt very ready and prepared for what lay ahead. We met with Michelle, determined our route, (a one day Exum Ridge route) practised our knots and figured out our climbing order. We watched the weather closely and the day finally arrived! We left the kids with Grandma and headed to Jackson for dinner before we began our climb.
We ate at a yummy pizza spot in Jackson and eagerly talked about our climb, the weather and how excited we all were!!!
Mike and I
Daniel and Lindsey Dewey
Rhett and Annalise Summers
We headed to the parking lot at the base of the Grand where we had originally planned to sleep for a few hours. But because of threatening weather (rain) we decided to push our departure time up and only had an hour to try to sleep and rest. (I don't think anyone did much sleeping) and before we knew it, we were dressed with our headlights on heading up the trail towards the Meadows where Michelle our leader was sleeping (she had done another climb the previous day... GO MICHELLE)
We made great time to the meadows. We all felt great, it was warm and we woke Michelle from her slumber to start up the next lag of our journey!
Annalise and I
One with Babylicioius
By this time in the climb the sun had just rose and we were making our way to Wall Street which is the point of no return.
Mike with Wall Street in the background. Weather is still looking great at this time!
Here is our group heading up to the base of Wall Street. We all felt great except poor Lindsey, she began getting terrible altitude sickness before sunrise and began throwing up.
As soon as we cleared Wall Street clouds blew in and it got COLD!
It was cold, foggy and wet, we were all starting to get nervous and tired.
Every chance we got we would sit down and huddle together to try to get warm.
Look at all that SNOW
We FINALLY reached the top of the Grand. After tears, prayers, blessings and lots of hard work we all summited!
Michelle was such an amazing leader. She never faltered, doubted herself or let us down. We couldn't have asked for a better guide! (After all she has climbed 19 times at age 19!!)
The ladies all huddled together trying to get warm, we all said we could have just stayed there forever we were so cold, tired and depleted at this point. We had 14 children at home between us that needed their parents, there was no choice but to go on.
The big repel! On our way down!
We were soaked. It was icy and wet we defiantly had some guardian angels helping us along the way
After 25 hours of climbing we reached the parking lot at 12:30 AM.
By far the hardest thing I have done in my life. We all learned so much about our selves and our faith in the Lord was tremendously strengthened. I couldn't have asked for a better group to climb with and lifelong friendships were formed! We had some pretty special and spiritual experiences on the mountain.
We all said on the way down that we would NEVER EVER CLIMB THE GRAND AGAIN! By the next day though after we had rested and contemplated what we had been through I think we would all do it again in a second!
