Mount Moran's Skillet Glacier Route: 6000 Vertical Feet of, Hiking, Bushwhacking, and Snow Climbing

I am drawn to lines. Climbers and skiers (of which I am the former but wouldn’t consider myself the later) talk a lot about lines. They mean the path of ascent or the path of descent. When Sally (a climbing partner from my Denali ascent) asked me about doing a climb in Grand Teton National Park, what stood out to me as a worthy ascent (for my particular sensibilities) was Mount Moran. Mount Moran is not the tallest mountain in the park; in fact, it’s the fourth tallest. It isn’t even one of “the Tetons” (Grand, Middle, and South - South is shorter than Moran). What it does have, though, is an almost straight line of snow that runs from its base on the shores of Jackson Lake. It’s 6000 feet of climbing in, what is in essence, the same gully. Depending upon time of year, that gully could be snow the whole way. This is the Skillet Glacier route.

Now, when Sally and I climbed it, in early summer after an unusually low-snow winter, the snow started half way up. It was basically at its lowest point. We hit snow line at the Skillet Glacier, itself.

That leaves a somewhat hellacious bushwhack from the lake shore until we break through tree line. Now, tree line is low within the gully, itself. Why? Well, the gully is an avalanche shute. Perennial damaging snow slides keep anything other other bushes and willows and moss from growing within the gully, itself. On the surrounding ridges, the trees extend much higher. Regardless, that means that only the first thousand feet is a bushwhack, not the full climb up to the glacier.

Well, summertime leads to snow consolidation, and that mitigates the avalanche danger. So, we had a chance to do our favorite type of climbing - snow climbing - up a very direct line and for 3000 feet of crampons on snow. The line almost lands you on the summit, and that’s the kind of line that draws me towards it for a climb.

I was willing to put in the long approach, nearly 6 miles before we even turned uphill. I was willing to do the 1000 feet of bushwhacking. I was willing to climb 2000 feet of scrambling on newly uncovered (from snow) ground. This was all so I could climb this line of snow.

I prefer the less climbed routes. I prefer to be out alone and self-reliant. The tallest peaks? Those are the most populated. Sally and I were the only ones we saw from the moment we left Jackson Lake to the moment we returned. It was our decisions, our skill, and our reading of the landscape that had to keep us safe and which would make us successful.

Give me self-reliance and a great line. ;)