Congratulations to Stephen Koch (and others) for his realization of Squeeze Box (IV, M7, A0, 1000′) on the North Face of the Grand Teton. In addition to being an accomplished alpinist and snowboard mountaineer, Stephen is currently pursuing a career in real estate with Art Hazen Realty. Please visit Stephen’s website, as he mentioned that more photo’s from this climb will be posted there in the future.
Today I’m powder skiing in the park and scoping out lines. Hopefully for some more exciting skiing tomorrow, if the weather allows. AT stands for ‘all-terrain’ today, so here is Stephen’s account of the climb…Thanks for the stoke Stephen!!!
On February 6, 2007, Hans Johnstone and I completed a new route on the north face of the Grand Teton, Squeeze Box, (IV, M7, A0, 1,000′). The line lies between Shea’s Chute and the Alex Lowe Memorial Route, and ascends a weakness up a beautiful granite buttress. I spotted the line during a flurry of activity with various partners in October 2004, which gave us the best ice conditions in the Tetons in years and resulted in the Alex Lowe Memorial Route…which I climbed with Mark Newcomb. While skiing the Koven Couloir on Mount Owen on January 26, 2007, the unclimbed line looked in good enough condition for an attempt, which happened on January 28 with Brian Harder.
Much snow removal was needed to reveal the cracks, used for both ice ax hook placements and rock protection. We climbed about half the route, but retreated due to approaching darkness. With the clear weather and high pressure continuing, I was excited to make another attempt before the next storm cycle…which have been few and very far between this dry and cold winter.
Hans and I began skiing across the flats, heading north from Taggart/Bradley trailhead at 4 a.m. and began the more technical climbing up and onto the north face about 5 hours later. The climbing was both challenging and interesting, with technical difficulties up to M7 (5.10 rock equivalent). A challenging squeeze chimney, too narrow to climb facing in, was encountered that offered little in the way of climbable ice for much of it and had me grunting and thrashing up on the lightly featured granite. Above this was a beautiful ice gully, which brought us to the black chimney. For the next two rope lengths we climbed steep rock with our ice axes and crampons. The 2nd to last pitch involved a tension traverse across smooth slabs to reach another set of bottomed out seams that offered slightly more opportunity for the metal to catch on the minuscule and insecure features.
In spots protection was not easy to obtain, but the route unfolded nicely as we were treated to a beautiful Alpenglow on Teewinot. With great desire to complete the route, I darted up the last pitch in the dark, aided by the light of my headlamp. With the insecure nature of the climbing, success was never guaranteed. We rappelled the route and down-climbed across the Teton Glacier, arriving back to our skis. After switching boots and packing up, we made sweet turns on good snow down the Teton Glacier.
The descent, with 30 plus lb. packs, became a bit of a nightmare lower down when we broke through crusty snow, sinking deep into the soft and unconsolidated snowpack below. Several times this happened with speed, and resulted in spectacular face-plants. To add insult to injury, many face-plants ended with the pack smacking the back of my head, driving my face deeper into the snow. As I was excavating myself from one of these episodes I was excited to discover a set of large wolf tracks at the bottom of Glacier Gulch. Fortune was on our side and good snow conditions on the flats made for fast poling back to the car.
With mixed climbing techniques and skills increasing, there are countless opportunities for other new routes on the north face of the Grand Teton and throughout the Range. It is a matter of conditions and desire!
Stephen Koch
- Turquoise– East Ridge
- Yellow-East Ridge, var King-Fitch
- Orange-Route Canal
- Red-North Molar Tooth Couloir
- Green-Northeast Couloir, AKA Hossack/MacGowan
- Blue-Grand North Couloir, AKA Shea’s Chute
- Black Dots-Squeeze Box
- Pink-Northeast Couloir, var Sinclar-Ortenburger
- Purple-North Face, var Direct Finish
I like the guest shot. Has anyone skied the East ridge of the Grand?
Greg Collins and Hans Johnstone completed the first ski descent of the East Ridge last season. I heard it was very technical.
RS
Actually, it was Hans and Rick Hunt who skied the east ridge last year. At the time, Greg C. was staying at the JHMG camp, and by yelling up at them, helped them find their way down the last cliffband in the dark, but it was Hans and Rick who skied it, after one or two previous attempts.
Since you’re publishing Stephen’s description of his and Hans’s recent climb, I thought I’d publish Hans’s. It’s currently on the microblog of thesnaz.com.
Sounds like a fun route.
Thanks for the correction Dave. I get a little confused sometimes. Maybe we can get a real TR from this descent some day.
Hans has a great way of putting things into perspective…aye? It is so cool to live in a place where there are so many talented athletes…and where new route on the North Face of the GT, in winter, is referred to as ‘cragging’. I can only imagine. 🙂