Category Archives: Grand Tetons

A Hair-Raising Ascent – Free Soloing the Grand Teton

Today’s mountain climbers would call it free soloing, but in August 1923 it was simply three college students who were short on equipment. Brashly, they believed they could summit the Grand Teton. David DeLap had taken up mountain climbing on … Continue reading

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No Mountain Too High: The Climbs of Betsy Cowles Partridge

Three years before Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Nargay made their famous ascent of Mount Everest in 1953[1], Elizabeth “Betsy” Cowles Partridge, an intrepid woman from Colorado Springs, Colorado, was part of an American Expedition exploring a route to conquer … Continue reading

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Who Climbed the Grand Teton First?

One hundred and twenty years ago, on August 11, 1898, William O. Owen (federal surveyor and outdoorsman), Reverend Franklin Spencer Spalding, and Jackson Hole ranchers Frank L. Petersen and John S. “Jack” Shive made an ascent of the Grand Teton by way … Continue reading

Posted in found in the archive, Grand Tetons, Mountaineering, Uncategorized, Western history, Wyoming history | Tagged | 2 Comments