Mystery On The Grand

 

It was about a year ago that some climbers from Iowa and Minnesota were caught in a storm on the Grand and one of them was lost. This is an article about that trip from the Des Moines Register newspaper. . .

“He had spent hours in his garage tying ropes through carabiners and harnesses, replaying it again and again, but never finding an answer to why it happened…..Then lightning hit again, a more direct jolt this time that zapped through Greg’s body and knocked him down. ‘Is this going to kill me?’ he thought…Lower on the mountain , they found crampons fused together by the lightning and an axe with a hole in it.”

 

 

Here’s what Sports Illustrated writes about that trip. I like this quote:

“The appeal of the Tetons is obvious, even if you get no closer than a turnout on U.S. 89, 12 miles away. With no foothills, the 40-mile range rises from the earth's crust in one precipitous sweep, like an ax through a door. Upon seeing the mountains, Teddy Roosevelt is said to have remarked that they were ideal—the way a child draws them—and it's easy to see his point. The pinnacles are etched like a fever chart into the Western sky.”