If you're familiar with my website, you will know that I am a fan of traverse routes involving multiple summits. Some of my favorite traverses I've done to date are: in Washington: the
Complete North to South Pickets Traverse, the
Ptarmigan Traverse, the
Torment-Forbidden Traverse, and the
Olympics Range traverse; in British Columbia: the
Sir Donald Traverse and the
Viennese-Clarke Traverse; in California: the
Cathedral Traverse, the
Palisade Traverse (somewhat incomplete, I need to go back to this one), and the
Evolution Traverse; in Wyoming, the
Cirque Traverse; in Colorado: the
"Walk in the Park / Great Wheel" Traverse and the
"Estes Skyline High Route" Traverse. One traverse I'd wanted to do for years was the Grand Traverse, one of America's premier alpine rock traverses, traversing across the main summits of the Grand Tetons. A Grade V adventure with over 12,000 feet of elevation gain/loss on rugged terrain and climbing up to 5.7 or 5.8.
In July of 2023, I made a couple of long-weekend trips to the Tetons. The first trip I climbed for four days with my sister Jenny. Two weeks later I returned and climbed for four more days with a newfound climbing partner named Erin. These trips rejuvenated my desire to do the Grand Traverse. Sister Jenny (an ultraruner) and her boyfriend Michael (an Exum guide) did the Grand Traverse (sans Nez Perce though!) in a single push on the last weekend of July; it took them a respectable 18 hours. Now I really had to do it. I kept my eye on the weather. In mid-August, cooling temperatures and storms resulted in a fair bit of snow on the Grand, and I figured the Grand Traverse would not happen this summer. Then I got a text from Erin, who had planned to be in the Bugaboos, but she and her partner Cara were rerouting due to heavy smoke from forest fires. They were headed to the Tetons with plans to do the Grand Traverse, and she was wondering if I was interested in joining. The weather did indeed look ideal: sunny and stable, with no overnight freezing in the preceding week. If I timed the driving to be before and after work, I would only need to take 1.5 days off work. Hmmmm....yeah, let's go for it!
Erin, Cara, and I debated whether to do the traverse in a single push or as an overnight. We figured that if Jenny and Michael had completed the traverse (i.e. done Nez Perce), this would have added perhaps 2 hours to their time. Plus, there was now fewer hours of daylight, meaning a bit more travel in the dark, which is inevitably a bit slower (+1 hour, say). Plus, we had three people, which would add some time to the rappels and roped climbing (+2 hours, say). So we figured that if we moved as fast as Jenny and Michael, that totaled to perhaps 23 hours (18+2+1+2). But all of aren't ultrarunners or Exum guides, so add a few more hours to the time. This long of a time was sounding like it may be more enjoyable to break up into two days, and experience more of the terrain the daylight. So, we decided to do an overnight, and bring just a tent and two sleeping bags and a bit extra food, adding a mere 3 pounds to each of our packs. In the end we were very pleased with our decision to do the trip as an overnight, since it eliminated any stress over time, allowed us to travel through all but the initial slog up Teewinot in the daylight, and maximized our enjoyment of all parts of the traverse. The entire traverse took us about 38 hours car-to-car, of which just under 30 hours were travel time.
Unless you are a rare breed, the Grand Traverse is not a route you can wing without issue. The route-finding is not trivial and there are several sections where it pays off to have researched the route ahead of time. I had made several trips to the Tetons over the years, had created a map of the Grand Traverse, and read up on various guidebook and online beta sources. An indispensable source of route beta was Mark Smiley's
gpx route line and beta photos (click link, where you can purchase for $25). We all had these downloaded on our phones, and gpx route line with beta waypoints was a constant companion throughout the trip. Apart from an entertaining experience of walking right by the obvious elevator shaft on Mt. Owen (I think we were distracted by the views) and searching for it for 23 minutes, we had no major route-finding blunders on the traverse. Even though I provide numerous route overlays on my trip report, I would still suggest purchasing the gpx track if this is your first time on the Grand Traverse.
This was an awesome trip and we all had a blast. Minimal suffering and maximal fun. I injured my knee a bit the first day and Cara had an altitude headache at one point, but we pushed through it. Thanks Erin and Cara for thinking to invite me along! I feel that for the most part you guys did all of the hard work (unpacking, coiling, repacking the rope; constantly keeping us on the gpx track; carrying some extra weight when my knee was protesting) while I just enjoyed the ride collecting photos and stats and gobbling chocolate morsels stashed in my pockets.
The following page gives a map, google earth overlay, time stats, and numerous overlays and photos from our adventure on the Grand Traverse. We all took lots of photos throughout the traverse, and I had fun adding Erin and Cara's photos to my trip collection. About 20% of the photos on this page were taken by Erin or Cara (credit given). Enjoy!
