New Variants on the East Ridge of the Grand Teton and on Teepe’s Pillar. Yves Erikson and William Briggs made a new variant on the long east ridge of the Grand Teton in early August. After a 4:15 A.M. start from Amphitheater Lake, they climbed unroped to the base of the Molar Tooth, the first tower on the ridge. There in the left (southeast) side was a tempting 300-foot chimney leading to a balcony of broken rock below the summit block. The chimney was not particularly difficult, although two odd overhangs made it interesting. Once on the balcony they traversed around the left corner to a south shoulder separated from the tower by a fine, 80-foot jam crack. However, they shunned this obvious route and attacked the east face of this shoulder, only to have the route give out 15 feet from the ridge top. After considerable time they drove a piton behind a poor flake and managed a delicate traverse to the left where better holds enabled them to reach the summit. After some scrambling and a short rappel into the notch behind the tower, one lead brought them onto easy going, and they gained the summit of the Grand Teton at 1:15 P.M.

The next morning John Morrison and Briggs climbed the north ridge of the Middle Teton by 9:30 A.M. From there they traversed to Teepe’s Pillar via the black dike. They disliked the looks of Hans Kraus’s chimney on the northwest ridge and decided to vary the route by climbing to the right. Here, about 20 feet down from the col, Briggs traversed farther to the right and continued up a rope length to the base of a chimney, the key to overcoming two overhangs. After jamming up five feet of the chimney, he moved left with footholds on the lower and handholds on the higher. A five-foot traverse in this fashion led to cracks bypassing the upper overhang and leading to the ridge. There they joined Dr. Kraus’s route and followed it to the summit.

William Briggs