Carly had a girl’s trip to Tensleep for a long weekend, so I headed north to the Tetons with Case to plug some gear and explore. Instead of tackling the big peaks, we opted for some cragging—at least as much as one can in the Tetons.
Both days, we ventured up Death Canyon in search of moderate multi-pitch routes. On Saturday, we aimed for Alien Wall (5.10-), but the approach turned into a misadventure. Poor route-finding led us up slippery, slabby holds, through trees, and even into the stream forming Prospector’s Falls. After four hours, we found ourselves at a wet, dirty mini headwall. It became clear we were either off-route or just completely incompetent—probably a bit of both. So, we bailed with no pitches under our belt.
Sunday, we shifted our sights to Annals of Time (5.9) and Dihedral of Horror (5.10, my rating) on the opposite side of the canyon. Thankfully, we made better progress, though I did mistakenly leave the summit pack on a ledge, thinking we’d return quickly—turns out, it was a pitch lower than expected. Not a big deal, but it added to our long day.
Annals was a pleasant surprise, with a moderate crack through small roofs. The double rope rap required a couple of leaver biners, but nothing major. From there, I fixed the rope, rapped down to the pack, and Case brought me back up. The pitch was decent, but nothing extraordinary.
Case then led the epic Dihedral of Horror. Despite the same grade as Annals, I found it more challenging due to its length and multiple cruxes. The climb offered a cool mix of crack sizes—fingers, hands, fists—culminating in an exhilarating hand traverse to the lip of the massive roof. The belay perch at the lip was a nice touch. We topped out around 4:30 p.m., and after a few rappels and some steep walking, we made it back to the big packs and eventually to the vehicles by a little after 7 p.m. I didn’t get home until 12:30 a.m 😢.