Sometimes, things just don’t turn out how you want them to. We lose games with our biggest rivals, we fail tests that we studied hours for, and on rare occasions, that meal that we looked forward to for a week can’t even be eaten (that’s a story for another time).

We call this “disappointment.” I’d like to flip this notion on its head with a story about three friends’ summit bid on the Middle Teton. In our summer trip, yes, you read correctly, summer trip of 2003, Tad, Verena, and I planned to summit the Middle Teton as we passed through Grand Teton National Park.

The weather was not cooperating with our schedule, but we all agreed if any of us felt uncomfortable with the conditions at any time, we all would turn around and head back down. We took what is called the Standard Route up the Southwest Couloir. Most of the time, in July, this is simply a strenuous hike with large sections of boulder hopping and a small section of snow/ice near the summit.

As you can see from the picture, we experienced a whiteout on the day of our summit bid. We left the Lupine Meadows trailhead well before daylight. An hour or so into our hike, snowflakes started to fall and reflect the light from our headlamps. We chuckled and made comments about our early July snow shower.

The snow continued to fall as we made our way up the trail. Heavier and heavier it fell with the flakes getting larger by the hour. We laughed and made good time as we slogged up the trail. When we made it to the couloir, we had to put on crampons and grab our ice axes. There were a few places where you didn’t want to fall. The ice was so hard that if we fell, we weren’t sure if we could self-arrest, but we pressed on.

We moved upward until there was no more. It was a funny feeling to top out on a summit and not have a view. The couloir could have gone on for another mile, and we wouldn’t have known the difference. There was no peak in sight as we climbed. We were just climbing.

I remember being slightly disappointed that we couldn’t even make out the Grand Teton’s silhouette through the clouds and snow. I sat and ate my lunch with no water because the tube to my hydration bladder had frozen. After 15-20 minutes on the summit, we headed down.

Still laughing and having a great time as we made our way back down the couloir and began the long slog back to the trailhead. We stopped to filter water, and I was able to thaw my hydration tube in the stream.

After a few hours, it felt like the trail was getting longer and longer. Surely we were almost there…? Another hour would pass and the thought would return. We walked through the snow and into the rain as we lost elevation.

Finally, after 11+ hours, we made it back to the cars. Dog-tired and ready for food, we dumped our packs and loaded our bellies. We did it! We were the only people to summit the Middle Teton that day. Probably a better way of saying it is: “We were the only people dumb enough to summit that day.”

Why do I share this long post with you today?

Most of the time, the reward for topping out on any peak is the view that one gets as they gaze across the skyline. The three of us had no grand view.

The reward for us was a day in the mountains that we love. If you focus on the center of the picture above, you can faintly make out the Grand Teton. Even without that glimpse of “The Grand,” we knew it was there. We didn’t need the grand view, we were satisfied with the experience.

2 Corinthians 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.

I encourage you to hold on to the truth that our Savior will never leave or forsake us…even if things don’t seem to be going our way.

Because He Calls, Old Climbing Dad