Wyoming 13ers Quest

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greenonion
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by greenonion »

Teresa Gergen wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:10 pm I hope you appreciate the fact that your parents rock : -)

You're really close! Stay safe and get it done!
Right? (Rockin parents)
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Eli Boardman
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

greenonion wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 4:59 pm
Teresa Gergen wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:10 pm I hope you appreciate the fact that your parents rock : -)

You're really close! Stay safe and get it done!
Right? (Rockin parents)
Absolutely! They're the greatest support team in every way, and it's been so wonderful to share family adventures too.
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Eli Boardman
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

This morning I made a quick solo ascent of the Grand Teton, climbing the Owen Spalding from Lupine Meadows (standard). I led this route in 2017 as my first technical alpine peak, and it was fun to revisit.

I started hiking around 3:30 a.m., made it past the Lower Saddle by 6:30 (5,400 vert in 3 hours), then scrambled the complicated approach through the Eye of the Needle to the Upper Saddle. I switched into rock shoes and soloed the 5.4 Owen Spalding. I thought the "exposure crux" was the slab move getting into the 2nd entrance of the Double Chimney, and the "technical crux" was probably either the V-notch in the same, or the Owen Chimney.

I reached the summit in under 5 hours from the car, and spent most of an hour on top, enjoying the views, eating chocolate chip cookies, and vying with the guided teams for a chance to stand on the highest rock. I used a 60m rope I had hauled all the way up there to rappel Sargent's Chimney, then a fixed line for the main rappel. Afterwards, I made a quick side-trip to The Enclosure for good views of the route.

A quick and hot descent later, and I was enjoying sweet bottled coffee in the air-conditioned car. My round-trip time came out to 9 hours 41 minutes, not bad considering my long time on top and carrying a rope the whole way. It was sure fun looking back up at the Grand soaring 7,000 feet above the valley on my way home!
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Eli Boardman
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

Gratuitous shot of the Teton Range at sunrise, taken on my first drive to Elkhart Park to begin the quest on June 22
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The summit block of the Grand, with a rough topo of the Owen Spalding route, as seen from The Enclosure
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Grand Teton summit view, looking north over Cascade Canyon, Mount Moran, Jackson Lake, Jenny Lake, and Teewinot (left to right)
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Fletch Lives
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Fletch Lives »

Eli Boardman wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 10:22 am ... and I spent the afternoon and evening hiking back out to the cars in just under 9 hours (over 22 miles from camp above treeline to the road).
Eli, it was a pleasure running into you and your parents outside of Floyd Wilson Meadows. You and your family are quite impressive. We ended up summiting Gannet in ugly conditions a day later. Congrats on your success and best wishes to your father.
Uh. Well, I've sinned. I didn't take any Polaroids or anything. But, yeah, I've sinned.
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Matt Lemke
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Matt Lemke »

Eli,

It was awesome running into you and your dad up on Gannett, you both are very inspiring. I have no doubt you'll move forward to accomplish some amazing feats having completed the WY 13ers at such a young age!

Our long trip just finished, and I managed to finish the last of the 35 13ers early in the morning yesterday, although I didn't quite get them all in one season like you are 💪

Thanks for letting us know about west twin, we ended up getting it on Sunday after we circled back around to the mammoth glacier enroute to split and whitecap. I did a pretty thorough analysis regarding the elevation of the two peaks and it does seem they are very likely less than 10 feet difference. Might have to go back with some of my GPS equipment from work to settle it once and for all.

Excellent summit register signin on Koven BTW...loved it!

All the best to you and your family.
Matt
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Eli Boardman
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

Fletch Lives wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:20 pmEli, it was a pleasure running into you and your parents outside of Floyd Wilson Meadows. You and your family are quite impressive. We ended up summiting Gannet in ugly conditions a day later. Congrats on your success and best wishes to your father.
It was fun to meet your group, I couldn't believe anyone in the "real world" had heard of this project haha. Congrats on Gannett, that must have been intense on Tuesday! I felt bad enough for my parents who just had to backpack over Arrow Pass in heavy weather that day, so I can't imagine being in the alpine. Climb on!
Matt Lemke wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:50 am Eli,

It was awesome running into you and your dad up on Gannett, you both are very inspiring. I have no doubt you'll move forward to accomplish some amazing feats having completed the WY 13ers at such a young age!

Our long trip just finished, and I managed to finish the last of the 35 13ers early in the morning yesterday, although I didn't quite get them all in one season like you are 💪

Thanks for letting us know about west twin, we ended up getting it on Sunday after we circled back around to the mammoth glacier enroute to split and whitecap. I did a pretty thorough analysis regarding the elevation of the two peaks and it does seem they are very likely less than 10 feet difference. Might have to go back with some of my GPS equipment from work to settle it once and for all.

Excellent summit register signin on Koven BTW...loved it!

All the best to you and your family.
Matt
Major congrats on finishing! Perhaps one of the best elevation-based lists with under 100 peaks in the lower 48, what do you think? Props for getting West Twin, that's some sweet dedication to doing it in "no-asterisks" style. I'm impressed the Koven register was actually legible. Best to your team as well!
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

New page (don't want pictures at the very bottom)
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

The Wyoming 13ers are generally very well named. Cloud Peak seems to be no exception--its fickle weather kept throwing wrenches in my logistics. Eventually, I decided to skip an evening of rainy backpacking by trading it for a few extra hours of night-hiking, so I stayed with my family in the RV at the Tensleep Lake campground, and woke to the sound of rain at my 2 a.m. alarm.

Thankfully, the weather cleared out by the time I made it to upper Paint Rock Creek around sunrise, and I made it to the summit of Cloud Peak shortly thereafter. This steep-walled massif is the highpoint of the Bighorn Range, with over 7k feet of prominence.

I descended an improbable 3rd-class route in the broken rock of Cloud's north face, a plan I wasn't sure would work, but it did. From there, I climbed Sarah/Teresa's descent route on Blacktooth, linking easy but tedious scree gullies on the west and southeast aspects to reach this imposing summit by surprisingly easy means.

I descended by hiking out through the beautiful but painstakingly complicated terrain of Wilderness Basin, eventually bushwhacking back to the trail and hiking out to the cars for a roughly 14.5-hour, 29-mile day with 9,000 vertical feet of elevation gain, all solo of course. Another day, another range of 13ers completed, yay!
Last edited by Eli Boardman on Wed Aug 05, 2020 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by Eli Boardman »

The famous glacier below the summit of Cloud Peak
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Blacktooth (center) and some very difficult 12ers as seen while descending Cloud's north face into upper Wilderness Basin
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The massive bulk of Cloud Peak looming over Wilderness Basin, viewed from the summit of Blacktooth
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dpage
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Re: Wyoming 13ers Quest

Post by dpage »

And then there was one.

Nice work but what are we going to look at when you finish posting these beautiful pictures from the north country?
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