Erik Wellborn descending Irene's

All Locations > Wyoming > Grand Teton NP > Disappointment… > Irene's Arete (5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c)

Erik Wellborn descending Irene's

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Pat Mac leading the "hanging tooth" pitch.

Top of P4. Photo by Adam Jensen.

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phil wortmann

Aug 1, 2008

“Erik Wellborn descending Irene's”

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Nearby Photos

Route Overlay for Irene's Arete.

Jim on the upper, easy (but exposed) part of the climb. Photo taken by the late, great Doug Coombs

A rainy view of the Arete from Petzoldt Caves

Cam following

Route Overlay for Irene's Arete.

Approach to Irene's Arete

A sunset photo at the summit

Pat Mac leading the "hanging tooth" pitch.

Erik Wellborn descending Irene's

Top of P4. Photo by Adam Jensen.

Irene's Arete in evening light

The exposure is fantastic...the view's not bad either.

AB getting some. On p3, I reckon. This route kicks major ass!

Some dude soloing Irene's Arete! This is the 5.9 stemming variation (5th pitch)...awesome yet nervewracking to watch!

Nate with JHMG heading out the 5.10 variation pitch 6.

The standard way to do Pitch 6 is to descend 150 feet into this gully and then take a weakness back upward.

The tree at the base of the route. If coming from Caves, it is common to hit the arete too low or high and have to do some extra scrambling to reach this tree.

5.7 face on pitch 5

Sarah leading Pitch 4. She took the direct start which is one of the 5.8 variations to the start (I think the original route goes left around the arete a bit according to the route description). This is a really fun pitch on steep juggy solid rock.

Leading out on P3 of Irene's Arete

Frosty nearing the top of the arete.

Pitch 1. Sarah is at the first belay in the photo.

Pitch 3. We took the original route which starts just left of the arete and climbs a face (runnout but easy) back to the right side of the arete. Really fun climbing.

Frosty Weller leading the .10a direct finish.

Looking up at the direct 5.9 corner of Pitch 5. This is quite steep at the top. This is the way we went, although going around left would have been easier.

Entrance into the 4th class weakness for Irene's approach from the East for the car to car climb. Near the Platforms area.

Pitch 2 - solid, sustained 5.8. Follow the line that is straight up & a little climber's left - I can't believe they did this in '57.

Looking up at the start of Pitch 2. This is the crux of the pitch but the feet are good and there is a piton just above the bulge that you can clip before making a committing move if you know to look for the piton. But the piton is old, so I backed it up with a 0.75 cam.

Pitch 3 variant. You'll find moderate quartzy-type cracks all along this route.

Descending the SE Ridge / Lake Ledges route down to Amphitheater Lake. There are some cliffs to navigate on the way down to Amphitheater Lake, but mostly 3rd and just a bit of 4th and one rappel (probably avoidable). We could not find the chockstone chimney of the SE Ridge route (although we did not try too hard to look for it); it is possible we descended the Lake Ledges route instead.

Looking at the 5.9+ option for Pitch 6. This opton stays on the left side of the arete. We did not go this way, but it looked tempting (though harder) opposed to the downclimb.

The descent gully view from the trail to the lower saddle. We hiked up and over to amphitheatre lake avoiding this gully with apparently one rap

View of Irene's from The Petzoldt Caves

Start of the climb, located near a big tree on a ledge.<br>
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If traversing in from the Caves, you will be about 40' higher. I would offer to make an intermediate belay to keep the rope free from a flake constriction before getting to the start of P2.

Irene's upper pitches - when that wind hits you, it's wild!

Irene's Arete from the Meadows Campground

A shot of the Southeast ridge walkoff from the summit of Irene's Arete. Aim for this boulder, and follow the trail to the 4th class down climb or rappel.

If you want to nail the Cave's approach, this is what you're looking for. Scramble down the slab this picture was taken from, follow the wall down to the ledge you can see. A couple exposed moves required to the ledge, then traverse into the route.

Looking down from the top of the excellent 5.8 p3 (based on description here) variation which stays on left of the arete the whole way. Fun cracks and juggy roof topout. You can see a rope on the left side of the photo on the 5.7 standard pitch

Start of p3 (based on this pages description) 5.8 variation that stays on left side of the arete all the way up. Really fantastic crack pitch with good pro! Just walk grassy ledge 25ft down from the top of the sloping ledge above the tooth

Looking up at east approach gully right after the boulder field, going up this and down amphitheater lake trail made for casual straight forward car to car outing in late july with no snow

Pulling onto the upper arete.

Top of P5 (Kniferidge). Photo by Adam Jensen.

Top of P1. Photo by Adam Jensen.

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