Tuesday, July 22

Peter: Next morning we get camp sites at Jenny Lake, right under a glorious view of Teewinot. We took many pictures while going to get the new camp site. We then spent the rest of the day getting ready for our climb of Teewinot. This included a trip into town looking for gear, where I snapped pictures of old gear on the wall of the outdoor gear store.

The others return, having successfully secured campsites. We break camp and load up and drive down there.

Approaching the city of Jackson, WY from the north, you go through a large flat valley called Jackson Hole. Most of it is in the national park and thus pristine (the rest is occupied by the town, which is a trendy, fancy ski town, and the two ski resorts of Jackson Hole and Snow King).

Tourist stagecoach ride in Jackson

The Snake River meanders through it. Everywhere you go - pulled over anywhere by the side of the highway or whatever - the spectacular Grand Tetons tower on the horizon. They rise abruptly and steeply from the flat surface, and being relatively young mountains they are jagged and sharp. You simply can't imagine a better illustration of the term "mountain range" than this. As you drive along, the perspective changes only slowly because they are so huge and far away. A photographer could spend months here taking different pictures with rivers, ranch fences,

Campsite with Teewinot in the background

woods in the foreground and these mountains in the background with different light and different amounts of snow on them. Of course it's all been done, and you can just buy a poster of your selected view.

We go to eat a late breakfast and pop into a few stores in Jackson. Then we go to the campground and spend a really lazy day packing up our packs for tomorrow, discussing the ascent (the entire route is clearly visible from where we sit at the picnic table), looking at Andrew's digital camera pictures, eating sweets and (Luc and I) going for a swim in the lake. It is very beautiful; directly from the opposite shore, Teewinot Mountain rises about 6000ft into the air, obscuring the higher Grand Teton and Owen mountains. It is hot. A coyote wanders through the campground. Even if you've never seen one in the flesh before, and don't know dogs very well, you can tell right away this is a wild animal. Wolf? Nah, too small. Other campers confirm it's a coyote.

According to the car's odometer, we've traveled 3,978km.

All pictures for this day