Gary: Head, we are going to climb the Grand Tetons.
Kevin: Cool, I'm in.
Gary: I have a buddy who is going to take us up as a guide. We should be fine to do it in one day.
Kevin: What do I need to bring?
Gary: Just get some good hiking boots.
This was one of the many adventurous things on Gary's personal life goals list. Now, more than ever, I am grateful that I was part of it.(Christmas is making me miss him more than normal - I'm sure you can all relate)
Of course many people don't know that Gary was afraid of heights and that is why he learned to fly airplanes and wanted to climb one of the tallest mountains in the world. This was one of our greatest adventures together. . . and who knew that on this trip I would see him cry like a little girl. I was in tip top shape before my freshman season at Ricks and I was living in Jackson Hole at the time Gary called. Was Gary in good shape? . . . . not so much. He wasn't necessarily out of shape but climbing the Grand Teton is a beast. We met at the base camp on the night before our big climb. The plan was to get up early . . . did I say early? . . . .to do the climb it in one day you need to start hiking at about 3:00 AM and hope you have some moonlight to compliment the lamp on your head. Not the smartest thing we have ever done but who wants to spend two days if you can do it in one. . . . .typical Gary. It was late when we got into camp. We show up at the check in desk and I wanted nothing more than to get a few good hours of sleep. My only anxiety was in thinking about the climb the next day. Gary had called in earlier to get our permits which are extremely hard to get and the waiting list is long. Strangely enough our name wasn't on the list. This must be a mistake. Gary asked them to hand him the list so that he could double check it. "Oh . . .there we are. You must have misunderstood. We are the Smith party of 6" Wink wink nudge nudge. My butterflies were now too much to overcome as I was not only worried about the hike but I pictured us getting woken up by the real Smiths and getting escorted out of our nice warm beds. Gary never got a permit after all.
The only way I can describe the climb is by saying that it is a roller coaster . . .of emotions, of temperatures, of extremes. We were freezing cold one moment and stripping off layers the next. The part that scared Gary the most was a hellish stretch of switchbacks . . . the steepest that I have ever been on. I was impatient and was having a hard time waiting for the fatties in my group. On one particular stretch I decided to go ahead and the timing couldn't have been worse. The reason, when you jar a rock loose on the switchbacks it gains a lot of momentum very quickly the people below you are left to play dodge ball. If the rock is big enough and you lose the game of dodge ball you don't go on timeout you most likely get injured very badly if not die. After getting scolded by Gary and realizing that he was serious I decided to simmer down. We stopped to eat lunch and enjoy the scenery. All I can say is thank goodness our sense of hearing wasn't dull that day. We thought we heard something like a big rock crashing down the mountain. . . . . oh @%#@ it is(can you just see him cursing now:)) . . . . in a split second we look up and hope and pray that we dive the right direction to avoid contact. A rock the size of a volleyball misses Gary by about 12 inches. Although I enjoyed giving him crap about crying like a girl that day it was definitely justifiable.
We continue to make our way to the summit and made pretty good timing that day. Unfortunately the weather got bad enough that we had to turn back that day. I remember being on a big open hill just after the upper saddle and being totally exposed to some of the biggest hale stones I have ever seen. I literally curled up in the fetal position and put my pack over as much of my body as I could. After what seemed like forever and only a handful of welts it finally stopped. This is when we decided to turn back.
Enjoy the pics below. Of course Gary climbed up and took the one of me on the pot. There was never a dull moment with my brother and best friend.
