The linked story is about a man tho attempted to climb Grand Teton alone with little (or no) technical climbing experience.
How hard is that hike/climb? One site suggessted that at least two 60 meter ropes would be necessary.
When we stopped by the ranger station at Jenny Lake, I remember them being very, very serious about climbing, rightly so. I am not a climber, and when I have been hiking in Oregon or Wyoming I have been struck by how easy it would be to die…
Has anyone made that climb? Is it something that an amateur could do with some effort, or should it only be done by experienced climbers? Did this climber make some great error (besides attempting it in the first place), or are there places where a simple slip could send you tumbling 2,500 feet to the bottom of a canyon?
There’s a reason why Exum Mountain Guides, and others, have been in business for a long time. You stand a better chance coming down on your own two feet, rather than in a body bag.
Towards the end it is very advisable to have climbing gear as there are few spots where they will come in handy. I’ve seen it done without gear but I would not advise it for a novice.
And yes, I’ve know people that have died on the Grand Teton. A friend fell over a 1000 feet to his death. It would be stupid to do it alone without any real experience.
It does look like it was pretty stupid. Why he thought he could pull it off…with his wife and kids waiting for him to return…wonder if he even did any homework on it?
I did this climb with a friend quite some time ago - we were amateur climbers with adequate experience for this. We did the Exum Ridge route - not the easiest, but a very scenic route of only moderate technical difficulty.
As with most mountains, there are many routes of varying difficulty. With favorable weather and no routefinding errors, the easy ones could be manageable for an inexperienced amateur. But you’d have to be in seriously good shape and make very few errors to complete a climb from the valley to the summit and back in 19 hours (which the linked story indicates was his plan).
There are certainly such places - it’s a notably steep mountain.
His overly ambitious plan may well have contributed to the accident: for any hope of returning at his announced time, he’d have needed to hurry and perhaps take unacceptable chances.