Climbing the Grand Teton this weekend was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and it was a dream come true. I have waited over 7 years to come back to the Grand and make another attempt at summiting it. It was one of the most dangerous things I have done in my life but it was worth the risk.

We woke on Saturday and began the hike to the Moraine camping area which is at an altitude of 10,800 ft. Our starting elevation was 6,732 ft. We hiked at a steady pace without taken any breaks until we reached the meadows at 9,400 ft. It was a very beautiful hike to the meadows and from the meadows we had to hike up very steep switch backs that led us to the Moraine’s. We got to camp and relaxed the rest of the day knowing that the next day was going to be long and strenuous. We all went to sleep early because we were waking up at 3:30 am to begin the summit attempt.

We all woke up quickly when the alarm went off at 3:30 AM  and got ready for our summit attempt. After hiking for several hours through the early morning we got to the technical part of the climb where we roped up. We were very exposed for much of the technical climb with 1000 ft drops less than a foot from where we were climbing. It was scary but I kept thinking about the summit and how much I wanted to make it to the top. We got to the summit (13,770 ft) at 12 PM and the weather could not of been better. It was blue skies all around us and there was barely any wind at the top. After we sat on top for about 20 minutes we began the dangerous part of hiking down the mountain which is when most accidents occur. It was gruelling walking back down with  after summiting because at that point we had be hiking for over 9 hours and we had to descend over 7,000 feet of elevation. We got back to the car safely at 8:30 PM and we all were exhausted. In all we were up for over 21 hours and all we wanted to do was sleep. It was one of the best experiences of my life and having my brother there to experience it with me meant so much to me.