Upper Exum Ridge Route

Last updated
Upper Exum Ridge Route
Exum Ridge Route
Location Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, United States
Coordinates 43°44′28″N110°48′07″W / 43.74110°N 110.802°W / 43.74110; -110.802
Climbing Area Grand Teton
Route Type Trad
Vertical Gain 4,000 feet
Pitches 12
Rating 5.5
Grade II
First ascent Glen Exum solo, 1931.

The Upper Exum Ridge Route is the upper section of a technical rock climbing up the Grand Teton's Exum Ridge in Wyoming. [1]

Rock climbing sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls

Rock climbing is an activity in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Professional rock climbing competitions have the objectives of either completing the route in the quickest possible time or attaining the farthest point on an increasingly difficult route.

Grand Teton mountain in United States of America

Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Grand Teton National Park, in Northwest Wyoming, and a classic destination in American mountaineering.

The Exum Ridge is the name of a prominent rock buttress on the Grand Teton, the high point of the Teton Range in Wyoming. Grand Teton towers 13,770 feet above Jackson Hole, with an ascent of 6,700 feet which by any route requires a combination of hiking, rock climbing and rappelling.

The route and ridge is named after Glenn Exum who pioneered the climb, via a solo ascent, on a day when his mentor Paul Petzoldt was guiding a couple up the original Owen-Spaulding Route. Today the route is split into the Upper and Lower Exum Ridge Routes. It is common for parties to bypass the more technically challenging lower section and climb exclusively the upper section. The Direct Exum Ridge Route which included both sections is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America . [2]

Glenn Exum numbers among the premier mountaineers in American climbing history. Exum is best remembered for ascents in the Teton Range. In 1931, while only in his teens, Exum was the first to climb the exposed ridge to the summit of Grand Teton which now bears his name. The Exum Ridge remains one of the most popular routes to the summit of Grand Teton. After traveling Europe and seeing mountain guides there essentially pull their clients up the mountain, Exum, along with his friend Paul Petzoldt, founded a climbing school to teach clients climbing skills to allow them to fully participate in ascending the mountain. The school they founded, now known as Exum Mountain Guides, still operates today within Grand Teton National Park.

Paul Kiesow Petzoldt was one of America's most accomplished mountaineers. He is perhaps best known for establishing the National Outdoor Leadership School in 1965. Paul made his first ascent of the Grand Teton in 1924 at the age of 16, becoming the youngest person at the time to have done so. In 1938 Paul Petzoldt was a member of the first American team to attempt a climb on K2. For the climb he did not use assisted oxygen, he learned to use rhythmic breathing. He and Dan Bryant, from New Zealand, were the first climbers ever to traverse the Matterhorn twice in one day.

The Lower Exum Ridge Route is the lower section of a technical rock climbing route up the Grand Teton's Exum Ridge in Wyoming. This section is often bypassed on hiking terrain by climbers who wish to do only the technically easier Upper Exum Ridge Route. The complete route is listed as the Direct Exum Ridge Route in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.

In 1931 Exum and Petzoldt started Exum Mountain Guides, which has grown to be a prestigious climbing school and mountain guide service. In 1982 Exum, accompanied by many distinguished mountaineers, made one last climb of the Exum Ridge route on the fiftieth anniversary of his first ascent.

The Exum Mountain Guides is a mountain guide service based in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The guide service was founded in the 1926 by Paul Petzoldt and Glenn Exum, for whom the Exum Ridge climbing route on the Grand Teton in Grand Teton National Park is named. From their base in Grand Teton National Park near Jenny Lake, Exum Mountain Guides provide guided climbing trips throughout the Teton Range and in other nearby mountain ranges. Numerous climbers have worked for the guide service, some of which pioneered new climbing routes on other mountains all over the world.

Related Research Articles

Longs Peak mountain

Longs Peak is a high and prominent mountain summit in the northern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14,259-foot (4346 m) fourteener is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, 9.6 miles (15.5 km) southwest by south of the Town of Estes Park, Colorado, United States. Longs Peak is the northmost "fourteener" in the Rocky Mountains and the highest point in Boulder County and Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountain was named in honor of explorer Stephen Harriman Long and is featured on the Colorado state quarter.

John Randall Durrance was a pioneering American rock climber and mountaineer.

Mount Moran mountain

Mount Moran is a mountain in Grand Teton National Park of western Wyoming, USA. The mountain is named for Thomas Moran, an American western frontier landscape artist. Mount Moran dominates the northern section of the Teton Range rising 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above Jackson Lake. Several active glaciers exist on the mountain with Skillet Glacier plainly visible on the monolithic east face. Like the Middle Teton in the same range, Mount Moran's face is marked by a distinctive basalt intrusion known as the Black Dike.

Slesse Mountain mountain in Canada

Slesse Mountain, usually referred to as Mount Slesse, is a mountain just north of the US-Canada border, in the Cascade Mountains of British Columbia, near the town of Chilliwack. It is notable for its large, steep local relief. For example, its west face drops over 1,950 m (6,398 ft) to Slesse Creek in less than 3 km (2 mi). It is also famous for its huge Northeast Buttress; see the climbing notes below. The name means "fang" in the Halkomelem language. Notable nearby mountains include Mount Rexford and Canadian Border Peak in British Columbia, and American Border Peak, Mount Shuksan, and Mount Baker, all in the US state of Washington.

Middle Teton mountain in United States of America

Middle Teton is the third highest peak in the Teton Range, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. The peak is immediately southwest of Grand Teton and the two are separated from one another by the lower saddle, a broad high ridge at 11,600 feet (3,540 m). The Middle Teton Glacier is located on the eastern slopes of the peak. Middle Teton is a classic pyramidal shaped alpine peak and is sometimes included as part of the Cathedral Group of high Teton peaks. The 40-mile (64 km) long Teton Range is the youngest mountain chain in the Rocky Mountains, and began their uplift 9 million years ago, during the Miocene. Several periods of glaciation have carved Middle Teton and the other peaks of the range into their current shapes. From the lower saddle, a distinctive feature known as the black dike appears as a straight line running from near the top of the mountain down 800 feet (240 m). The black dike is a basaltic intrusion that occurred long after the surrounding rock was formed.

<i>Fifty Classic Climbs of North America</i> book by Steve Roper

Fifty Classic Climbs Of North America is a climbing guidebook and history written by Steve Roper and Allen Steck. It is considered a classic piece of climbing literature, known to many climbers as simply "The Book", and has served as an inspiration for more recent climbing books, such as Mark Kroese's Fifty Favorite Climbs. Though much of the book's contents are now out of date, it is still recognized as a definitive text which goes beyond the traditional guidebook.

East Face (Mount Whitney)

The East Face of Mount Whitney is a technical alpine rock climbing route and is featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. Mount Whitney is the highest peak in the contiguous United States.

Ellingwood Ledges

The Ellingwood Arete is a popular technical climbing route on Crestone Needle in Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Range. The Ellingwood Ledges Route is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. An "arete" is "a sharp narrow ridge found in rugged mountains".

The North Ridge of the Grand Teton is a technical rock climbing location up the Grand Teton in Wyoming. The route is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.

The north face of the Grand Teton is a technical rock climbing in Wyoming. Today the route is usually climbed by a variation that avoids the chimneys which are often wet or icy. The route is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.

Jules Eichorn American mountain climber

Jules Marquard Eichorn was an American mountaineer, environmentalist, and music teacher.

Allen Steck is an American mountaineer and rock climber. He is a native of Oakland, California.

Robert L. M. Underhill American mountain climber

Robert Lindley Murray Underhill was an American mountaineer best known for introducing modern Alpine style rope and belaying techniques to the U.S. climbing community in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Chuck Pratt American rock climber

Charles Marshall Pratt was an American rock climber known for big wall climbing first ascents in Yosemite Valley. He was also a long-time climbing instructor and mountain guide with Exum Mountain Guides in the Grand Tetons.

References

  1. Ortenburger, Leigh N. & Jackson, Reynold G. (1996) A Climbers Guide to the Teton Range Third edition, Seattle: The Mountaineers. ISBN   0-89886-480-1
  2. Roper, Steve; Steck, Allen (1979). Fifty Classic Climbs of North America . San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN   0-87156-292-8.