Climber killed on Grand Teton

[erik]

[ryland_moore]

For one, did you see the size of the party that they were all climbing in? Fast and light did not seem like the motto of the day. Secondly, there is no real easy way to get off the Upper Exum Ridge once on it except for a contrived descent that is difficult to decipher at best in the best conditions above the Friction Pitch, which they were not at yet. Either way, the storms are coming in from the East and you cannot see them until above the Friction Pitch anyways. Better to be sure to be at least heading down to the rappel anchors to the West of the Owen Spalding route prior to mid afternoon.

Sad loss, but an occurance that happens quite often in the Tetons each year, I am affraid. Even two rangers were struck almost in that same spot two years ago.

[Rodchester]

Ryland:

 

My recollection is that storms tends to come in from the West in the Tetons and the Winds?

 

There are two ways to bail on the Upper Exum. Right on top of the golden staircase (go left) you can rap back down to Wall street and then at the same level as the Owens rap, you can just walk around/scramble at worst to the rap stations. In between there aren't any good escapes.

 

[DougGeller]

This is very sad news - but I must ask what were these folks doing that high on the route at 3:45 PM when it is well known that thunderstorms build up rapidly in the afternoon on the Grand. Normally climbers return to the upper saddle by around noon on the day of an ascent of the Exum or complete Exum. I've been hit indirectly (ground current) by lightning (on N. Ridge of Stuart halfway up) and almost got killed; the thunderstorm came over from the south without warning at 11:30 AM~ very scary. Summited eventually (at 8:00 pm) and bivvied there on top. Lotsa fun.

[mattp]

Doug-returning by noon might be a good idea but I think if you sat at the upper saddle with a watch, you'd find that many more climbers on any given day reach that point in their descent after noon than before noon, even if they planned or hoped to do so. 8:00 is a late start, for sure, and I don't condone such slovenly habits, but I'm wondering if some people around here may be looking for a way to tell themselves it won't happen to them.

[decrepit]

DougGeller said:

This is very sad news - but I must ask what were these folks doing that high on the route at 3:45 PM when it is well known that thunderstorms build up rapidly in the afternoon on the Grand. Normally climbers return to the upper saddle by around noon on the day of an ascent of the Exum or complete Exum. I've been hit indirectly (ground current) by lightning (on N. Ridge of Stuart halfway up) and almost got killed; the thunderstorm came over from the south without warning at 11:30 AM~ very scary. Summited eventually (at 8:00 pm) and bivvied there on top. Lotsa fun.

 

Well, I suppose on the upper Exum they probably could/should have gotten off sooner, but in Colorado and Wyoming if everyone insisted on being off by noon, there are a lot of climbs that would never be done.

 

When I lived there, I found that you could see a cycle that the storms would go through. They'd come earlier every day, and finally there would be a bad day when there was no climbing to be had, then a good day, and the cycle would start again. Sometimes when we worked that cycle we'd get surprised. Once we climbed Spearhead in RMNP, and summited at noon. It wasn't early enough. There was so much static in the air that the rocks were buzzing. There were two parties behind us on the route that day - I think they bailed.

 

The guy I was with that day was later hit by lightning - survived!

[ryland_moore]

Ryland:

 

My recollection is that storms tends to come in from the West in the Tetons and the Winds?

 

Yup, my typo error. The Exum is on the SE side for god's sake! The info. is still correct though. You can't see the storms coming in usually until it is too late. Thanks for catching my error.