Grand Teton

A 4,199-metre peak in the Teton Range of Wyoming, the highest of the major Tetons and one of the most distinctive granite mountains in North America. The Tetons are a young range — geologically uplifted within the past nine million years, much more recently than the Rockies to the east or the Sierra Nevada to the west — and the resulting profile is characterized by sheer granite faces, narrow ridges, and minimal foothills. The Grand Teton rises 2,100 metres directly from Jackson Hole in approximately seven kilometres of horizontal distance. The compressed relief gives the mountain its visual intensity.

The first ascent is contested. A 1872 claim by James Stevenson and Nathaniel Langford has been doubted for decades — the route they described does not match the upper mountain as later climbed. The first uncontested ascent came in 1898 by William Owen, Frank Spalding, Frank Petersen, and John Shive, climbing the Owen-Spalding route on the southwestern flank. The Owen-Spalding remains the easiest established route on the mountain, and it is the line typically followed by guided commercial expeditions. The route involves several pitches of low-fifth-class rock climbing, an exposed final summit pitch, and a long descent that has produced its share of accidents.

What Grand Teton offers, beyond an accessible climbing objective, is the introduction to American granite alpinism. The peak has been used as a training ground for generations of climbers progressing toward larger objectives in Alaska and the Cascades. The Exum Ridge, climbed first in 1931, is among the classic alpine rock routes in North America — a 600-metre granite buttress that holds sustained moderate climbing with magnificent exposure. The North Face, climbed first in 1936, is a more serious technical objective that has been the testing ground for several major American alpinists.

The mountain is climbed by approximately 4,000 summit attempts per year. The fatality rate is moderate, with most accidents occurring on the descent of the Owen-Spalding in deteriorating weather. The Tetons are a serious climbing range despite the modest altitude. Grand Teton, the centerpiece, has earned its reputation through what the climbing actually requires.