Grand Teton [Wyoming] National Park

by United States. Department of the Interior

Although the conquest of the Tetons has largely been accomplished within the decade just closed, the beginnings of mountaineering go back nearly a century. Naturally the Grand Teton was first to be challenged and the Wyoming historian, Coutant, records that in 1843 a French explorer, Michaud, with a well-organized party, attempted its ascent but was stopped short of the summit by unscalable cliffs. It is possible that even earlier white men—trappers and explorers—matched their strength and strategy against this peak or others in the Tetons, but if so their efforts have gone unrecorded. From the period of the Hayden surveys in the seventies, accounts of several attempts have come down to us, and one party, consisting of N. P. Langford and James Stevenson, purported to have reached the summit on July 29, 1872. This claim to first ascent has been generally discredited because of the serious discrepancies between Langford's published account and the actual conditions on the peak as now known. In 1891 and again in 1897 William O. Owen, pioneer Wyoming surveyor, headed attempts to reach the summit which likewise failed. Finally in 1898 a party sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Club, of Colorado, and comprising Owen, Bishop Franklin S. Spalding, John Shive, and Frank Petersen, on August 11 discovered the traverse which, 700 feet beneath the summit, leads around the northwest face and so opens up a clear route to the top.

THE ICY WATERS OF CASCADE CANYON
Copyright, Crandall.

The conquest of the Grand Teton achieved, public interest waned and a quarter century elapsed before the peak was again scaled. In 1923 two parties retraced the route of 1898, and each year thereafter numerous ascents have been made. In recent years as many as 30 to 40 parties have climbed the peak each summer.

Repeated efforts were made to achieve the summit of the Grand Teton by routes other than the traditional one, and in 1929 one of these resulted in a successful ascent of the east ridge by Kenneth A. Henderson and Robert L. M. Underhill. In 1931 no less than three additional routes were discovered: the southwest ridge was climbed by Glenn Exum; the southeast ridge by Underhill, Phil Smith, and Frank Truslow; and the north face by Underhill and Fritiof Fryxell. In 1936 a second route up the extremely hazardous north face was established by Paul and Eldon Petzoldt and Jack Durrance. Thus, six wholly distinct routes have been employed on this mountain, though only the traditional route and possibly the southwest ridge can be recommended to any except most expert alpinists.

Within the last decade other peaks in the range have come in for more and more attention. This they richly deserve, since from both a scenic and mountaineering standpoint many of them are worthy peers of the Grand Teton itself. Mount Moran, Mount Owen, Teewinot, Nez Perce, and the Middle Teton comprise a mountain assemblage which, for nobility of form and grandeur, would be difficult to equal anywhere.

So far as known, Buck Mountain, most southerly of the "Matterhorn peaks", was the first major peak in the range to be scaled, the ascent being made early in 1898 by the topographical party of T. M. Bannon. Thereafter no important ascents were made until 1919, when LeRoy Jeffers scaled the lower summit of Mount Moran. The main summit of this peak was first climbed in 1922 by L. H. Hardy, Ben C. Rich, and Bennet McNulty. In 1923 A. R. Ellingwood climbed both the Middle and South Tetons on the same day, on the South Teton being accompanied by Eleanor Davis. In 1928 Mount Wister was climbed by Phil Smith and Oliver Zierlein; in 1929 Teewinot and Mount St. John by Fryxell and Smith; in 1930 Nez Perce by Fryxell and Smith; and Mount Owen by Underhill, Henderson, Fryxell, and Smith. With the ascent of Mount Owen the conquest of the major peaks, begun so many years before, was at length completed.

In the meantime the minor peaks were by no means neglected, the first ascents being made principally since 1929 by the climbers whose names have already been mentioned. As in the case of the Grand Teton, a variety of routes have been worked out on almost all of the major and minor peaks. Between 1929 and 1931 the important summits of the range were equipped with standard Government register tubes and register books, in which climbers may enter records of their ascents. The story of the conquest of the Tetons is told in a book entitled "The Teton Peaks and Their Ascents." (See Bibliography.)