Mt. Moran - Direct South Buttress to Summit in-a-day

The Tetons are known for their many pinnacles and less than savory rock. Fare fewer people look to the range for long rock climbs, climbs that involve thousands of feet of technical rock climbing. This is probably because to climb many of the 1,000+ rock faces in the Tetons requires hide-and-go-seek route finding, poor protection/rock quality, and an attraction to climbs off the beaten path. If you can look past some of the less fun complexities of rock climbing in the Tetons, you will discover a range rich with long rock climbs that rival the vert of places like the Sierra and Cascades. The gem of long Teton rock climbs is the South Buttress Direct.

In 2017, I was working as a climbing ranger intern in Grand Teton National Park. I spent two days of each week handing out backcountry permits at the Jenny Lake Ranger Station. This was a great place to get a pulse on what people were climbing. People either needed a permit or wanted beta on rock climbs. Most people who wanted to find technical climbs were heading to Guides Wall, fewer to the Grand Traverse, and only once in a while to climbs forgotten and relegated to the pages of Renny Jackson’s guidebook. In the less busy moments of the day at the station, I would find myself flipping through these forgot climbs. I became obsessed with uncovering the longest, wildest routes to be recorded. I would check my research with the other climbing rangers. One day, George Montopoly was left to answer my 20 questions about obscure routes. George was in his 60s, in his younger years he had established many rock climbs in the Tetons with legends such as Mugs Stumps. George after hear my debates settled my what climb deserved longest, continues rock route in the Tetons. He point to a route on Mt Moran which involved 5,000 ft of 5.6-5.12 climbing, South Buttress Direct (SBD).

        I never made it to attempt the SBD that summer and the next summer I moved to Yosemite to work for YOSAR. The SBD stayed on my short list of climbs to do and even as my eyes looked to finding the longest-continues rock climbs for other ranges few had the specs of SBD. It is remarkable that a chossy, peak baggers paradise, could be hiding one of the longest rock climbs in North America.

        In 2021, I recruited Christian Black and drove 18 hours from California to finally have the wild ride I had dreamed of on the Tetons biggest bronco. Our goal was simple, car-to-car as fast as possible. To meet these ends we employed a new system Christain doubted the "free snake." 

*The "free snake" is a small modification to a class simul climbing system. The leader is tied in, the second goes on around half way through the rope (such as 30 meters of a 60 meter rope) on a grigri. The follower can back it up with a knot if their pace is well match with the leader. However the system works best when the follower uses the grigri alone. The grigri auto-feeds because of the rope weight below the follower, allowing for less slack between the follower and leader. I was initially skeptical of employing this new tactic, which seemed to be making a high-speed, high-risk tactic(simul climbing) less safe, however the risks can be well addressed when used with the appropriate partner on the proper climb. The top risk is the possibility of the follower mismanaging their pace and ending up too close to the end of the rope or the leader. A secondary risk is the grigri not catching the case of a fall, however widespread use of grigri's for rope soloing leading, top rope soloing, and general belaying have provided evidence that this is very low probability. The advantages to this system are: hands free progress capture for the follower, hands free slack (grigri slips under low force pulling on the rope), and the follower does not have to climb with the majority of the excess rope weight. Climbers are cautioned to not employ this technique if either team member is not an expert trad/wall climber, on terrain that is likely to produce a fall from the follower or leader, or are using a rope below 9mm. 

We were able to climb the route in 7.5 hours and make a car-to-car journey in 17.5 hours. Below are more of the technical details and a bit of beta for what made this epic climb a reasonable, but long day.

Our day began at the String Lake Trail Head at 3 am. We hiked one mile to Leigh Lake and began fumbling around in the dark with the canoe. (Mt. Moran is unique in that the most efficient way to access the mountain is by canoeing Leigh Lake. If bring a bought in from the parking area, paddle string lake then portage to Leigh.) Once sorted in our life jackets we cast off on the lake. Hilariously, we used Gaia on the lake to guide our way because it was too dark to see. With lite wind and minor moments of canoeing the wrong direction we were across the lake in an hour. From the west end of the lake there is a small trail cutting up near Leigh Creek. I had take this trail before to climb on No Escape Buttress however I had never followed it as far as the South Buttress. Just past the cut off to No Escape we lost any resemblance on a trail, traversing talus under a series of beautiful waterfalls.

Talus on the approach

After traversing the talus, the South Buttress began to become distinct from the rest of the rocky flank of Moran. The lower 1,500 ft or so is steep and intimidating. Like much of the rock in the Tetons, the buttress looks like a gray broad wall of infinite possibilities. We cut up near the base of the wall and followed a ledge with many small Doctor Seuss trees are the corner. Despite being at the base of where the climbing should begin, the wall still looked like a fortress, daunting and inobvious where its weakness lie. 

We began by simul climbing several hundred feet up a very loose (5.7?) gulley till we hit a second ledge system. From here, it became obvious where to follow the route around to the west. We found good climbing after the initial traverse, simul climbing to the base of the crux pitch (C1 or 5.12). 

At the base of the traversing crux pitch is an awkward belay, the hard moves are right off the belay and the gear for the anchor is mediocre. We chose to build a slightly lower anchor to put more space between Christain and I. After a few short, bouldery moves traversing the a crack around the corner then climbing lets off quickly. The crack took good gear that is hard to place on lead but if aiding would be easy to C1. This pitch was followed by one more and we were at the top of the South Buttress. Topping out the lower buttress felt like an endeavor in its self, as we looked above it was hard to image 3,500 ft of 5.4-5.10 climbing remained.