North America, United States, Wyoming, Tetons, Traverse between Bivouac and Raynold's Peaks

Publication Year: 1956.

Edited by H. Adams Carter

UNITED STATES

Tetons, Wyoming. In the past summer several new routes were made in the Tetons. A few of the more important climbs follow.

Traverse between Bivouac and Raynold’s Peaks. Lying between Moran and Snowshoe Canyons is one of the most spectacularly pinnacled ridges of the Teton Range, which Leigh Ortenburger has labeled as “terrific.” After Bill Buckingham and I had reached the summit of Bivouac Peak by the ordinary route by midmorning on September 4, we started for Raynold’s Peak far to the west. Lying between us and our goal was a twisting, crumbling, knife-ridge, which lived up to Ortenburger’s evaluation. The actual climbing of the ridge proved not too difficult, it being clearly a problem of endurance and extreme care on the decomposed rock. Bill and I climbed all the major pinnacles, at times even rocking back and forth the summits of the smaller spires. Our greatest problem was water, and toward the end of the ridge a nearby lake was so tempting that we happily descended for refreshment. After this brief respite we took once again to the ridge and soon found ourselves on top of Raynold’s Peak. In all we took 11 hours for the traverse and all night for the return to Jackson Lake via Moran Canyon.

John Fonda