Intro

My sister Jenny was in the Tetons for a month working remotely and exploring the area in her free time as her boyfriend Michael guided people up the Grand. It had been four years since I had last climbed in the Tetons (when I climbed the South Buttress of Mt. Moran in July 2019), and three years since I had last seen Jenny (when she briefly came to visit me in Boulder when I had my knee injury). So Jenny and I planned a four day trip together. I drove up after work on a Friday, and we climbed The Snaz (5.9-5.10+, 9p) on Cathedral Buttress (Saturday), Do It For Doug (5.10c, 4p) and Exum Arete (5.10a, 3-6p) on Rock Springs Buttress (Sunday), worked/rested Monday morning and hiked to the Lower Saddle Monday afternoon, and climbed The Complete Exum w/ Gold Face (5.10a) on The Grand Teton (Tuesday). I drove back to Estes Park on Wednesday, after putting in a full day working remotely from the library and Whole Foods in Jackson Hole. What a stellar 4 days of climbing and hanging out with my sister!

This page gives a trip report for our first route of the trip: The Snaz on Cathedral Buttress. This was a great choice for our first route. The Snaz has lots of crack climbing and lots of variety. We chose a couple of popular variations: For Pitch 4, we moved left for a 5.10 finger crack (the Snazette) and for the final pitch of the route we climbed the 5.10+ undercling past roofs of Cousin Leroy's Uncle. We had started early (we left the trailhead shortly after 6am) so we were the first party on the route (behind us were four other parties on the wall that day, two others climbing The Snaz, one climbing Caveat Emptor, and one climbing Aerial Boundaries). Jenny and I had a great time climbing this route. We swung leads and enjoyed the fun climbing.

(Update: Two weeks later, I climbed the first five pitches of Caveat Emptor. This report is also on this page.)

The following page gives a route overlay, time stats, and photos from our climb of The Snaz.

Time Stats

Trailhead to base of route: 1 hour 20 minutes
Climb route: 4 hours 30 minutes
Descend: 1 hour 1 minute
Hike back to trailhead: 1 hours 15 minutes
Total car-to-car (includes breaks): 9 hours

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd-4th

Hike the Death Canyon Trail to the last of eight switchbacks beneath the southwest corner of Cathedral Wall. Take a steep path that cuts back to the right. Climb a short cliff (4th) and follow the path east to its end beneath the middle of the wall. The route begins below an immense open-book dihedral that runs up the center of the wall.

Pitch 1

5.5

Climb up and right into the corner and work up to a broad grassy ledge (5.5). Run the rope out and belay beneath or just above a blocky overhang.

Pitch 2

5.7

Work up a steep, not too clean, left-facing corner, then move right and up to a belay at the bottom of another left-facing dihedral (5.7).

Pitch 3

5.7

Follow the dihedral up through a wide slot and continue up to a good stance beneath an off-width crack with a wedged block (5.7). Or, if you decide to climb the Snazette variation for Pitch 4, belay below the finger/hand crack splitting the face left of the corner.

Pitch 4

5.9 or 5.10

Standard Pitch 4: Jam up around the right side of the block (5.9) and continue up the long, wide crack (5.8 or 5.9) to a roof that is turned on the left (5.8). I toproped this pitch a couple of weeks later while rappelling after climbing Caveat Emptor.

Snazette variation for Pitch 4: This is a 5.10 variation to Pitch 4, climbing a steep and sustained crack that splits the face left of the standard Pitch 4. The pitch starts off as a finger crack and widens to hands as you get higher. If you prefer finger and hand cracks to old school 5.9 wide burly corner cracks and want to clib with a lighter rack, Snazette is probably the more enjoyable/easier way to climb Pitch 4. This is the way Jenny and I went.

Pitch 5

5.7 or 5.10-

Standard Pitch 5: From the stance above the roof, climb an easy crack and corner to a ledge beneath a large detatched flake (5.7). I climbed this pitch a couple of weeks later while accessing the rappels on The Snaz after climbing Caveat Emptor.

Pitch 5 if you climbed Snazette: We ended up climbing to the left of the standard Pitch 5 and regaining the standard route at the top of Pitch 5. It may be possible to travese right to the standard route sooner and keep this pitch at 5.8, but I was distracted by some nice looking 5.10- cracks.

Pitch 6

5.9 or 5.10a

Work up past a loose block and aroud the left side of the flake, continue up the fist crack (5.8), then jam and stem out a magnificent overhanging crack (5.10a) or work out right (5.9) to yet another good ledge.

Pitch 7

5.7

Work straight up a steep dihedral (5.7) for about 60 feet, traverse left (clipping a piton) to the far side of a hanging block (5.7), then work up through the roof, up short double cracks to a ledge (5.7), and up a crack on the right to a sloping ledge in an alcove.

Pitch 8

5.8

Make tricky moves up into a bombay chimney (5.8) and follow it until it is possible to step left around an arete to a big ledge.

Pitch 9

5.7 or 5.10b

Standard Pitch 9: Climb the double crack and chimney on the left to another ledge (5.7).

Cousin Leroy's Uncle variation for Pitch 4: For a more climactic but well-protected finish, undercling and lieback out the huge stepped roof on the right and arrive at the same belay ledge (5.10b). This is the way Jenny and I went.

Descent

Rappel the route with a single 70 or walk off

There are two ways to get down: Either rappel the route or walk off. We had decided to rappel the route. We brought a tag line up the route since we were unsure if it could be rappeled with a single rope, but we managed to easily rappel the route with a single 70, using bolted and sling anchors at the top of each pitch. A 60 meter rope would not be long enough for a couple of the rappels. See guidebook for walk-off detail.

Intro

This was my second trip to the Tetons this summer. In early July I had climbed for four days in the Tetons with my sister Jenny (one of our climbs had been The Snaz, trip report given above on this page). It was a great time with my sister and I was reminded of how much I love the Tetons. Plus, Jackson Hole is an easy place to find places to work remotely (so I can work a bit around the edges) and there is plenty of easy free camping in the area if you know where to look. I returned two weeks later, not batting an eye at the eight-hour drive from Estes Park to Jackson Hole. This time I climbed with Erin, a newfound and equally-psyched climbing partner from Boulder. Erin and I climbed for four days. I drove up after work on Tuesday, worked remotely out of the Jackson Hole library and explored town on Wednesday while Erin drove up, and climbed with Erin on Thursday to Sunday. We climbed Guide's Wall (5.8+to 5.10, 6p) on Storm Point (Thursday), Armed Robbery (5.9, 8p) on Cloudveil Dome (Friday), Dihedral of Horrors (5.9, 4-6p) on Omega Buttress (Saturday), and Caveat Emptor (5.10, 6p) on Cathedral Buttress (Sunday). It was great to have a partner on the same page— i.e. a rest day just means a sligtly shorter route with a slightly shorter approach. I drove back to Estes Park on Monday, after putting in a full day working remotely from the library and Whole Foods in Jackson Hole. What a stellar four days of climbing!

This page gives a trip report for Caveat Emptor (5.10c, 8p) on Cathedral Buttress. Earlier in July Jenny and I had an enjoyable day climbing The Snaz (5.9-5.10+, 9p). I made a note that next time I visited the Tetons I would climb Caveat Emptor (5.10c, 8p), a harder and more sustained and supposedly better route running parallel to and just left of The Snaz and featuring several sections of overhanging cracks and lots of variety and five pitches in the 5.10 grade. Often just the first six pitches are climbed, since Pitch 6 is the crux pitch and the last two pitches after this are moderate and unremarkable climbing, and the route can be rappelled from the top of Pitch 6.

Indeed, Erin and I thought that Caveat Emptor is an outstanding rock climb, and I would agree with it being both a higher-quality and more challenging route than The Snaz. Erin and I knew that this route would be pushing our lead comfort, especially the "5.10 face" and "5.8R with little protection" on the crux Pitch 6. But the route sounded so good, so we went for it. We swung leads (I had odds, Erin evens). Erin did a great job on the spicy 5.10 Pitch 2 lead, and I enjoyed the sustained overhanging 5.10 cracks on my pitches. A healthy set of wider gear (we had three #2, two #3, and one #4, which were sufficient with some bumping and back-cleaning) was nice to have. When we reached the top of Pitch 5, we had a decision to make. We could not see the 5.8R section above. There was a rappel anchor here and we knew we could get down from here with a single 70 by intersecting the rappel stations on The Snaz (we also had brough a Beal Escaper so we could get down from anywhere on the route with the help of the Escaper). The route description noted an intermediate belay ledge below the 5.8R section, but we suspected that if we decided to bail at the intermediate belay ledge, we would have to leave some gear. The sun was also beating down, it was a particulary hot day, and we were nearly out of water. So we decided to play it safe and rappel. With a single 70, we rapplled back to the base of Pitch 5 of Caveat Emptor, and then climbed a pichlette to the anchor at the top of Pitch 5 of The Snaz. From here, we rappelled to the ground with a single 70, stopping along the way to toprope the long and sustained wide Pitch 4 of The Snaz, which I had not climbed yet since Jenny and I had climbed the 5.10 "Snazette" variation for this pitch when we had climbed The Snaz a couple of weeks previous. Once down, Erin and I beelined for the creek to take a refreshing dip before hiking back to the trailhead. We wished we had been able to finish the route, but still felt that it was a great day of climbing, involving 6.5 pitches and some excellent stretches of climbing.

The following page gives a route overlay, time stats, and photos from our climb of Caveat Emptor.

Time Stats

Trailhead to base of route: 1 hour 30 minutes
Climb route (to top of Pitch 5): 3 hours 40 minutes
Descend (rappel to The Snaz, climb up to top of Pitch 5, toprope Pitch 4, rappel to ground): 1 hours 27 minutes
Hike back to trailhead (including refreshing dip in river): 1 hours 30 minutes
Total car-to-car (includes breaks, extra pitches, refreshing dip in river, ...): 9 hours 34 minutes

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd-4th

Pitch 1

5.5, 200+'

Climb up and right into the corner and work up to a broad grassy ledge (5.5) (this is the first part of The Snaz), then angle up and left on ramps and ledges (5.4) to the base of a left-leaning chimney system. Belay a few feet up into the chimney, just below a fixed pin in pegmatite.

Pitch 2

5.10-, 130'

This is a spicy and engaging pitch of climbing. Start up the chimney, clip a fixed pin, awkwardly hand traverse right (5.10-) to a crack, and climb straight up the face (5.7 at first, then 5.9) to a right-leaning, right-facing corner. Follow the corner, aiming for a lege by a pillar with a rappel anchor.

Pitch 3

5.10-, 165'

This is an awesome pitch of climbing, perhaps the best on the route. To the left of the pillar, climb a beautiful finger and hand crack to a roof (5.10-). Turn the roof on the right (5.10-) and reach a ledge after about 30 feet (possible belay). Continue up a perfect crack (5.7) and belay on a ledge beneath a dark band of rock.

Pitch 4

5.10- or 5.7, 90'

There are two options for this pitch, both of which end at the same location. For either start off by moving right. For the hard version, make difficult moves up through a roof (5.10-), and belay across from the detatched flake on the sixth pitch of The Snaz. For the easier version, continue moving right and climb around the end of the arete and then up easier (5.7) rock on the other side.

Pitch 5

5.10, 150'

Power up through an overhanging and leaning hand crack (5.10) up through a left-facing corner and roof (5.10), and then go up on steep juggy terrain to a good ledge with a rappel anchor (bolt and a couple of stoppers).

Pitch 6

5.10, 120'

Move up and left about 10 feet to a fixed pin. Face climb up and right past a bashie (5.10) to a vertical crack. Then head straight up on easier ground about 20' to a bulge with minimal pro. Climb to a corner crack system, get good gear to left of corner, then climb up with no pro (5.8 R). There is an intermediate belay ledge somewhere before the 5.8 R section. Continue up corner crack until ledge with rap anchor.

If your only concern is quality climbing and not "finishing the route", you should be able to rap from here with double ropes. You can rappel from the top of Pitch 5 with a single 70, with a small pitch to get over to the rappel anchors on The Snaz.

Erin and I did not climb this pitch.

Pitch 7

5.6, 150'

Climb up the cornerto a big ledge with a tree. The climbing is mostly easy with one harder move.

No photos. Erin and I did not climb this pitch.

Pitch 8

5.easy

From here, keep angling left and up for a few hundred feet of progressively easier climbing. At some point you may wish to unrope.

No photos. Erin and I did not climb this pitch.

Descent

Rappel

From the top of Pitch 8, the best descent is probably to walk off (see guidebook for walk-off detail). It may also be possible to find the rappel anchor at the top of The Snaz and rap The Snaz with a single 70 as Jenny and I did from the top of the route.

From the top of Pitch 6, you can rappel the route with double ropes. Erin and I confirmed you can rappel from the top of Pitch 5 with a single 70, by doing a small pitch after the first rappel to access the rappel anchor at the top of Pitch 5 of The Snaz.