American Alpine Club

You can read on below or watch my video explaining why exactly I chose the goal of climbing the Grand Traverse in under 36 hours... But first off, you should know about the cause that I am trying to raise money for: The Climbing Grief Fund is trying to give the climbing community more tools & resources to deal with loss. They also are trying to make talking to certified counselors more accessible in the form of grants.

I am passionate about destigmatizing grief and breaking down toxic masculinity in the climbing community, and I think that a donation in to the CGF in Michelle's honor would be incredibly fitting.

Please consider donating! Thank you.

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I am a fairly average climber.

My goal is to Traverse the primary peaks of the Teton Range in 36 hours or less. This is known as the Grand Traverse, and it consists of Teewinot, Mt. Owen, the Grand Teton, the Middle Teton, the South Teton, Cloudveil Dome, and Nez Perce. Coming in at around 14 miles and a cumulative elevation gain of 12,700 feet, this technical climb typically takes parties 2 - 3 days to complete. So why in the heck would an average climber like myself choose 36 hours as a target time?

On July 11th, 2019, my friend, climbing partner, and mentor, Michelle Xue and I set out with an ambitious objective. To climb the Grand Teton via the Full Exum route, a roughly 16 pitch route of full-on technical climbing and ridge scrambling. Michelle was on a cross country road trip and had been drawn to the Tetons for this route specifically.

Michelle and I had met two years earlier, at our mutual climbing gym. She was a student at Georgetown, and I was an attendee at American University. She quickly became one of my biggest mentors, as she showed me that gym climbing was a gateway to the mountains. At the time, my priorities were hanging out with friends and exercising in a city environment. For Michelle, her priorities matched mine, but in addition, she climbed in the gym in order to travel the world and train for big mountains.

Needless to say, between unfamiliarity with the terrain, a series of unfortunate events, foolish decisions, and an ambitious plan, the whole effort to climb The Grand Teton took 36 hours. Somewhere between the lightning and the hallucinating, Michelle and I reveled in how our perception of time had skewed. Close to 30 hours had passed, but to us, it felt like months. One of us remarked “wouldn’t it be funny if we did the entire Grand Traverse in the time it took us to do the Grand Teton?”

The agreement was made. The following summer Michelle and I would make a bid at the Grand Traverse. I promised her I’d familiarize myself with the route while she worked in California, so that when she returned I’d be able to do the route in my sleep.

Today is June 26th, 2021 . Today marks 609 days since my friend, climbing partner and mentor, Michelle Xue, was killed by rockfall. Today, I uphold our agreement. Michelle encouraged me to push myself as a climber and as a person, and I know she’d have encouraged me to continue with this project. So, 36 hours.

My climbing partner Thomas and I hope to attempt the Grand Traverse on sometime during August 6th, 7th, or 8th, depending on the weather. Please send us some good vibes, and please consider donating.