So, our alarms went off at 5:00am this morning and our packs were already packed and in the car. Grabbing a pre-made peanut butter and hazelnut spread sandwich, Mandy and I hopped into my car and we drove to the Death Canyon Trailhead on Moose Wilson Road. Let's just note it was still dark! Little Blue managed to be a trooper and go over numerous bumps, holes, and cobbles as we neared the closest parking lot we could get to in the car. Got to the trailhead at 5:30am and were on the trail by 5:45-5:50am. It was super nice that as we started the hike, the sun was starting to come up giving us some decent light to see the trail and be on the look out for big mammals.
Having told our Emergency Contact about our route and expecting a 12-hour day from parking lot to parking lot, Mandy and I were beyond ready and excited for our trek today. The main goal was to hit Static Peak with an elevation increase of 5,000+ feet and hit 11,303-ft at the summit. If our timing, weather, and knees were in decent shape, we would also try to hit Albright Peak which is right next to Static. This second summit was only if weather allowed and the approach did not look too sketchy to attempt without climbing gear. But that was all under consideration when we got to the saddle of the two mountains! But we had to get up there first!
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| Top of the Scenic View of Phelps Lake |
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| Getting Some Great Light So Early in the Morning! |
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| Fantastic Sunrise Through the Trees |
With enough light over the lake, we proceeded down from the Phelps Lake Overlook (about a 1.7 mi from the parking lot/trailhead) and proceeded down the moraine. The view was beautiful as the sun was slowly hitting the west walls of the Death Canyon and as it illuminated the entire valley and Phelps Lake.
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| Slowly Warming Up the Canyon |
When you get down the moraine, you will need to choose between going Left towards the lake or continue going Right (or straight). Go straight past the fork to the lake - this will allow you to proceed about 2.2-miles into the canyon. The bottom of the moraine is covered in huckleberries, wildflowers, tobacco brush, and lots of other shrubs and grasses. As you hit the beginning of the canyon, it turns into various talus fields and conifers. As you get deeper into the canyon, you'll stumble upon an old Ranger Station.
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| Brings Back Memories of Em-J Talking About Mountain Men During Our September 2013 Backcountry Trip! |
At the Ranger Station, instead of continuing forward into the depths of the canyon (towards many of the backcountry campsites), proceed left toward the Alaska Basin Trail. This trail will then move you upward in elevation above the conifer tree line and start heading up the backside that both Albright and Static Peaks share for their mountainous foundations.
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| 4.0 More Miles Until You Get to Static Divide...Not To Mention about 5,000+ feet of Elevation Ascent! |
As you hike higher and higher up the back of mostly Albright, the view gets prettier and prettier! You can totally see into the canyon and see the shelf. This hike was beyond a beautiful one, but also brought back lots of memories for Mandy and I. Both of our Teton Science School Grad Program Backcountry Teams hiked the canyon trail and the shelf. So it brought back many memories from the beginning of our grad program together, which also made a full-circle realization that we were also officially done with it as well.....wow!
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| Looking Over Death Canyon |
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| Wildflowers Were Still in Bloom Up Here! |
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| Stopping at a Half-Way Point and Our First View of the Valley! |
After the first-leg of switchbacks, we stopped about half-way before getting to the highpoint of the Static Peak Divide. This was one for a knee rest, water and pee break, time to check the map, and see our first view of the valley.
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| Trying to Hold the Death Canyon Shelf! |
I think it took us about 5-hours to make it to the Static Peak Divide. The grade of ascent along the trail up the backface of the mountains and to this saddle-like divide was pretty even and easy to hike up. The next challenge was to find the climber's trail to Static Peak's summit and slowly-but-surely keep hiking upward! But first a snack break at the divide!
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| We Going Up There! |
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| A Little Glimpse Of Our Divide Snack Break View! |
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| And The Elevation is Going to Keep Going Up! about 500+ft to Go! |
Keeping an eye on the weather and on our time, we had plenty of time left to use and the clouds looked pretty good to keep pushing forward. Static Peak has the most magnetite composed within it's rock that it is one of the most common peaks of the Teton Range to be struck by lightning during storms. So, it was incredibly crucial that we keep close eyes on rolling incoming weather from Idaho in case we need to evacuate to lower and safer elevations.
With about 0.5 miles left to go and about 500+feet left of elevation to gain, we slowly trekked up the faint climber's trail with sporadic cairns and a faint 'herd path' of a trail. It was a much steeper grade than the approach to the divide, but within about 45-minutes, we made it to the summit! (I think I was able to text my Emergency Contact to tell him we summited by 11:55am)! Enjoy some of the photos that were taken during our summit time and lunch time on top of Static Peak!
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| A USGS Marker!!!! Boom! |
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Mandy and I
From Gros-Venturing to Teton-Venturing! |
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Timberline Lake at the Base of Buck Mountain!
Let's Please Note the Blue Water and Ice STILL In It! |
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Look How Beautiful Buck Mountain Is?!?!
That is Definitely On My Hit List! |
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| Buck!!!! |
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| Of Course I Summit Posed! Duh! |
After indulging in our trek up to Static, it was time to make our way back down to the Albright-Static 'saddle' and see if the ascent to Albright was even possible. Made our way back down and took a gander at the route we could possibly take...boy, was Albright's facing soooo steep and sketchy. But as Mandy and I talked about the ascent and the incoming clouds, we thought we would take this approach a lot slower since there were a few clouds that had us a little worried for possible storms.
Taking it step by step, we carefully found our way with a fainter climber's or herd path trail among the scree (maybe a Class 3 Scramble) up to the top of Albright where a cairn awaited our summit! When we got to the summit, we decided we could not stay up there much longer than a few photos and a slight-breather with gray clouds coming in over us.
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| Quick Albright Summit Pose! |
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| We Found a Geo-Cache! |
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| We Were Just Over at Static! |
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| Hiking Back Towards the Albright-Static Saddle! |
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| Beautiful Views! |
We made it up and back down to the Static-Albright Saddle in 45-minutes! Boom! But as were hiking back down the back face of the two mountains, we started to see some really dark gray clouds pushing towards us from in back of the Death Canyon Shelf...so we started to hike down quicker to get to lower elevation and among some better uniform trees.
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| A Storm is A-Brewing Back There! |
Once we got to about 8,000-7,000-ft, that's when we started to hear thunder. Finally making our way back to the Ranger Station at about 3:00pm and then continued to push toward the beginning of the canyon. I think it was until a mile before the Phelps Lake fork, is when we decided that were among and under some pretty good trees to seek for shelter when we saw some big lightning above us. We were under these trees for about an hour before we decided to continue to push towards the parking lot (with about 2-miles left to go). At about 5:45pm we got back to Little Blue and high-fived for a wonderful and successful day of summiting not only one Teton Peak, but two!
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| Thanks for a Great Hike Mandy! |
Boom!
TheChristyBel
