Teton Climbers’ Coalition Board Member Garrick Hart has released a new guidebook called Teton Ice. Available online and at Teton Mountaineering, the guidebook details approximately 300 pitches of waterfall and alpine ice climbing in Grand Teton National Park and surrounding areas, including Teton Canyon, Granite Hot Springs, Fremont Lake, Warm Spring Canyon andLake Louise near Dubois Wyoming.
Hart, a physics teacher at the Jackson Hole High School who runs the Jackson Hole High School Mountaineering Club, is an Exum Mountain Guide. The book project came out of a project he’d embarked upon with his son and daughters: to climb, and document, as many of the ice routes in the greater Teton area as possible. As one new route led to another, Hart’s journal continued to expand–until, nearly a decade after he’d begun the project, Teton Ice was born.
The book is decidedly a labor of love. As Hart notes in the forward, “In the Tetons, you’ll have to ski two miles per pitch, usually more. Most of the climbs and/or approaches involve significant avalanche hazard. No one ever climbs them, so you will be breaking trail. Most of the climbs are short and spaced out, so you’ll be lucky to get two pitches out out of a huge day.”
With the return on investment for such adventures low, Hart struggled to find partners for his adventures. Fortunately for him, fellow TCC board member Charlie Thomas enjoys suffering as much as Hart does, and joined him for many of the outings.
The book is available for $47.95, and makes a perfect stocking stuffer for irrational alpinists throughout the Valley.