Several years ago i gave the Grand Traverse a handful of goes and failed each time. It is an ambitious objective to be sure, technical climbing to 5.7, miles of 5th class scrambling spent above 11k ft in high consequence terrain. I managed to always get up and over the Grand Teton, but never managed to make it to South Teton. I have been back to the Grand Teton a handful of times since, climbing the peak and enclosure peak depending on partners and weather (last year i went up with some friends in september and we encountered near 0 F temps and several feet of snow... despite several parties reporting that they made it to the upper saddle i can confirm, i was the first on that day to make it because i set the post hole bootpack). Some day i hope to at least complete the remainder of the traverse from South Teton through Nez Perce, however when i started trail running more seriously another traverse entered my radar. After years of hemming and hawing about it and not feeling fit enough, ben finally convinced me to commit to running the Teton Crest trail, some 40 miles from Teton Pass to the south through much of the park past the Grand and out Paintbrush canyon in the north, covering about 10k feet of climbing en-route.
Even so, i didnt feel properly trained going in. Previous failures on the grand traverse showed me that fitness prep was everything for bit days in the tetons, but ben had already booked the campground spot so we were "committed" and at 5 am, after one of the shittiest nights of sleep i have had in a long while (due to car alarms constantly going off all night at the campsite) we woke up to go for a run.
We parked at an unexpected empty Phillips bench trailhead and got started as dawn broke at 6:30. Right out the gate we came upon another party also going for the crest, which I knew was popular but was not expecting to see the number of people we did on it (easily hundreds, with maybe 20 running it that day).
The initial climb out of Phillips canyon is a bit out of character for the rest of the run, as it goes gradually upwards through deep vegetation in lush meadows of wildflowers. Cresting over our first pass was an unexpectedly long slog though thick brush, you think you're there then you turn a corner and realize it still goes up, but once on top and less than two hours in we started to cruise. The miles through the upper Jedediah Smith wilderness cruised by quickly, mostly running through broad open meadows on excellent single track without too many people out on the trail quite yet. Shortly after entering the park around the death canyon shelf people seemed to come out of no where, and what was an empty trail quickly was full of people, surprising for how far one has to walk to get there.
The death canyon shelf is what dream runs are made of, long and gradual amazing single track with amazing views, but before too long we were dropping into the upper Alaska basin and starting to climb again. As to be expected for this long of a run, there was bound to be some difficulties and our first came when Ben kicked a rock on accident, nothing seemed broken but it looked painful and slowed us a bit. Coming out of the Alaska basin was a beautiful Saphire blue lake and large fields of wildflowers, but the climb to the schoolhouse divide was a grind. At this point we were just over halfway in but the fatigue was definitely setting in. Luckily, after cresting the schoolhouse divide we were greeted with amazing views of the central Tetons, upper Cascade canyon, and an ever shrinking schoolhouse glacier. Ben definitely picked it up, like a light switch and went from a slow plod to a full hearted run down the north side of the divide. A few miles past the divide we finally committed to the first full break of the day for lunch and to refill water, and most importantly, ice down the feet and legs to recover a bit, we still had 18 miles and 3.5k gain, 6 of loss ahead of us.
The decent of Cascade was definitely a metaphorical high point, however I the fatigue was chasing me at this point, I could feel the aches and sore was building. At the cascade trail branch we had a decision to make, do we cut the run short or are we feeling good enough for another 3k climb up and over the paintbrush divide? After a quick team check we continued on, aiming to run intervals up the divide. Of course that ended real quick and we admitted a running defeat, I was just going to walk it at least. At this point we were entering the most sun exposed portion of the trail, at mid afternoon, and it was as warm as it was going to get. Ben was pushing for a short break at lake solitude, an halfway in to the climb, but I knew that I needed to keep momentum and continue on, lest the fatigue set in and the legs start to freeze up. I left him laying in the grass by the lake and started the long gradual and hot climb up to the top of the paintbrush divide. The climb starts as gradual, but it is consistent and longer than it seemed. After switching back it seemed we just needed to switch back again, and the saddle I originally thought was the top turned out to be a few hundred feet shy of the actual deicide, but just before 4 pm I created the divide with Ben just a few minutes behind and we began the long final descent down to the valley. At this point I was running quite low on water and Ben was itching for a break and swim, we settled on a 10 minute break at lake Holly to recharge. Of course I was the cattle driver with the whip in this case, and when 10 minutes came I nearly had to drag Ben out of the lake, but on we went. The decent was long and steep but gradually flattened, the poles were a lifesaver for my knees to keep me moving. We had originally planned to try for an extended version, pushing on to Jenny lake, but two miles of flats were suddenly quite unappealing and, after notifying Lindsay, we committed to the standard string lake trailhead finish. Just before 6:30, nearly 12 hours after starting and after 11 hours of movement I crossed the final bridge into the parking lot and it was done!
After looking around for Lindsay for a while (eventually she found me...) we all went for a quick dip to clean off and freshen up before finishing the day off with tacos! In the end we were a bit slower than desired, but all in all it was another excellent day out in the Tetons!
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