Spam from Symmetry Spire

Particulars
Southwest Ridge Route, Symmetry Spire, Grand Teton national Park, Wyoming

Pinnacle Peak is 10,560 feet above sea level.

Difficulty: This climb can be done from your car in a day provided all goes well and you are in good physical condition. The approach is about four miles and there are five to eight pitches of 5.6 to 5.7 granite from the base to the summit. There is only 3,777 feet of gain for this entire day.

Appeal: This is a damn fine climb to another Teton summit with views that hurt your eyes they are so beautiful. Heck, just doing the approach was a lot of fun.
Spam
Drew and I set out to do this. We parked the car at String Lake and hiked around the north side of Jenny Lake on the Valley trail then hiked up the Horse trail. A little beyond the Baxter Pinnacle climber’s trail is one that goes up Symmetry Couloir. If you encounter the Cascade Canyon trail, you have gone too far. There are a few little spots with a bit of climbing on the approach trail. I enjoyed it. It is really pretty up here. We caught up to some old guy taking a break who told us he was on his way to climb Cube Point. This is a 4th class climb and I have always wanted to go back and do it. But Drew and I were intent on our objective so we parted ways with this guy.

I led the first pitch. As I was belaying Drew another climber came up to my position and casually set a single chock for an anchor and began hauling up his second. He was an older fellow and seemed so at home on the rock that I thought maybe he was guiding someone. I asked him if he was of the Exum Guides. He said that he used to work with them but didn’t any more. He didn’t seem like he wanted conversation so I left him to his belaying and did likewise. As Drew crested and saw the fellow he said, “Are you Ivon Chounard?” Well, I haven’t been keeping up with climbing celebrities but I did know that Ivon Chounard was the founder of Black Diamond Equipment Co., a maker of climbing gear, and of Patagonia, Inc., a high tech outdoor clothing manufacturer. I had read about Ivon in books like Camp Four and an article in Outdoor Magazine.

Next Ivon’s second showed up and she turned out to be a beautiful young lady of about 20 from New York. As we climbed, we entered into various conversations with Ivon and his pretty second who kept distracting us from the sensational Teton scenery. At one point she had difficulty cleaning one of Ivon’s placements. I was in a good position to come over and try my hand at it but even whacking at it with my cleaning tool and a rock proved ineffectual. I was sorely disappointed because I thought the piece was too damaged at that point for anyone to want to continue to climb on it so possibly Ivon might have given it to me as a souvenir. But alas, I could not remove it.

The four of us shared a lunch spot. As we were polishing off the last of our sandwiches, Ivon was gazing at the route above and his second was applying a generous coating of white chalk to her hands. We had just been discussing some point of climbing ethics and she said to Ivon, “What do think about chalk?” “I hate the shit,” was Ivon’s reply and I couldn’t help but emitting a chuckle. Ivon turned to look then seeing her hands he grinned too.

Once we were back down at the base of the climb I asked Ivon if he would pose in a picture with Drew and I. This is it:

{picture of Ivon, Drew, and Greg}

Too bad his second had to take the picture so she is not in it. Come to think of it, I should have asked Drew to take the shot. She is a lot better looking than Drew.

At this point Ivon explained to us that he had parked at the Jenny Lake ranger station and taken the southern trail around Jenny Lake. He thought that the trail to where we had parked was shorter and asked us for a ride. I was pleased to oblige. In the article I read about Ivon in Outside Magazine he was described as being a sort of climbing bum in his early life and had rose to become the millionaire owner of Patagonia. During one phase of his life he lived in an abandoned boiler at the foot of the Tetons. I guess old habits die hard.
Logistics
Take a look at the logistics section of Spam from The Grand Teton.