The day turned out to be astoundingly beautiful, and the hike itself was one of the coolest things I have done in a long time. Its crazy to think that a year ago I was hiking around in Scotland and Norway - but I would take the Tetons instead anytime!
We left the house at 5:00 and were on the trail at 6:00 - and were completely covered in fog. It began to clear an hour later - we were treated to a very unique sunrise looking towards Buffalo Valley and the Gros Ventre range. The fog didn't completely clear the valley until after nine.
The hike was pretty simple until we reached Amphitheater Lake. From there on we were hiking on snow most of the rest of the way, with a few rock scrambles in between. The Grand is showing its head at the top of the photo.
This is at the top of the first snowfield looking over the southeast ridge.
Erik and I took turns taking pictures of each other on the summit - these are with the Middle & South as our backgrounds.
On the west side of the summit is a very steep cliff - it was a little scary looking over the edge but worth it!
We ate lunch in a little cave right beneath the summit - here the background is Nez Perce.
Part of our descent involved sliding down a huge snowfield at the bottom of the couloir - such a blast! I had fun learning how to use the ice ax.
This is Erik, with our descent from the peak behind us. We climbed down the cliffs to the left. We still had five miles of hiking before reaching the parking lot, but this was the end of everything difficult. What an amazing day!
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