Run Khumba Run

Mary, Kate and I slept in the Teton National Park at the American Alpine Climbers Ranch.  For the past 3 nights this has been our home base.  The "freedom" of being homeless has been fun the past few days.  Aside from our two bunks at the climbers ranch we've really been living out of the van.  The park is breathtaking with the wildlife and towering mountains.

I hiked with our guide, Josh, and Emily and Adam (a couple from Buffalo, NY celebrating their 1 yr anniversary by climbing the Grand).  Along the hike I saw a brown bear eating huckle berries and countless marmots eager to eat my food.  The hike begins at the Lupine Meadow Parking lot and ends at the saddle.  The elevation gain is aprox 4500'.  

Thanks to Josh, we took lots of water and food breaks.  I never felt tired or hungery...I actually had to force myself to eat because I wasn't ever hungery.  I slept in Exum's climbers hut along with 15 other people.  What a great day!

I woke up at 2:45am and got dressed for the climb and then forced my self to eat some oatmeal.  By 4:05am our group of 4 was climbing with headlamps toward the peak.  

We reached the peak at 8:05, hung out for about 45 mins, unexpectadly ran into climbing legend Jimmy Chin on the summit, and then got back to the saddle by noon.  I really wanted to get to the parking lot to meet up with Mary so I encouraged out group to move quickly to the parking lot.  We got back to the parking lot at 3:15pm.  The hardest part of the hike with cruising to the bottom from the saddle...it really pounded my legs and I developed large blisters on my toes.  It was a great hike though and I'd love to do it again!