The Mountain Won

All you need to know on this post is that I tried to climb a mountain.  I failed.  I'll try again.  My life is like that.  I try again, a lot.  If you want to know more, read on.

My friend, Roxane, and I planned to summit the Middle Teton this summer.  We were both available Tuesday and the forecast looked fine so we headed up to Jackson Monday afternoon.  When we checked the forecast again Monday night things had changed and it was iffy but we were there so we decided to hope for good weather and hike.

 We began at the trailhead at 4:30 am.  It was dark and we were worried about bear but we needed an early start for this big hike.  We had bear spray.  As we were hiking at one point I smelled a very strong scent of animal.  I didn't say anything at the time because I didn't want to worry Roxane but later, when I told her about what I'd smelled, she said she smelled the same thing but didn't say anything because she didn't want to worry me.  She was pretty sure it was bear musk.  YIKES!

Here we are after a couple of hours of hiking near the meadow in Garnet Canyon.  You should be able to see some Tetons behind us but they were socked in with clouds.  It was about here that it started lightly snowing.

 I was excited to find this little flower, Grass-of-Parnassus, that I'd just seen in Sink Hollow last week with the Likin' Hikin' Ladies.

We hiked for quite a ways through this boulder field but it started to blow and snow hard.  We were slipping on the wet rocks and the visibility was low.  We knew we needed to abandon our summit attempt.

 I wasn't happy that we had to turn around but I value my life more than conquering the summit.

 On the way down the snow stopped and we enjoyed the views below but the Tetons above were still socked in.  They were buried in clouds all day so we knew we'd made the right decision to turn around.

The Tetons aren't going anywhere.  We'll try again.  I'm looking forward to spending another day with Roxane (and anyone else who wants to join us.)