Tablerock in September

Aubrey and I started school this past week and before things got too crazy with homework and other things that take up time my Dad and I decided to hike Tablerock in the Teton's.  Although we'd planned on having a bigger group come it ended up just being my Dad and I plus my buddy Kenne and his wife Dani.  

The forecast for the trailhead was 65 degrees and sunny for the day and so we figured that we'd have some pretty good weather.  While we did have very nice weather for the whole of the hike we did not anticipate the conditions up on the mountain or of the trail.  Tablerock sits at over 11,000 feet and while the valley where Driggs and Rexburg sit was nice and dry the mountains had received over a foot of snow over the week from some heavy storms that had come through the area.  We noticed that the snow line on the mountains was very low and became concerned that we wouldn't be able to make it to the top.  We decided to give it a try anyway and see how far we'd be able to go.  We pulled up to the trailhead and found the first quarter of a mile or so to be normal trail conditions for this time of year.  However at about the mile mark as we began to gain elevation we began to run into snow.

Tablerock is not considered a hike for novices as the hike is about 14 miles long round trip and in that 14 miles you ascend and descend a little over 4,000 feet.  We ran into a father and son from Seattle on the trail and while the son had been living in these parts for quite some time made it to the top of Tablerock his father had to stop and wait as he became light headed and dizzy from the altitude change.  While the first couple of miles weren't bad trail wise the higher and higher we got so did the depth of the snow that we had to make our way through.  eventually the trail could no longer be seen but rather just footprints in the snow.  Several different groups had gone ahead of us luckily and we had a trail to follow even if it wasn't the real trail; I'm sure we'd lost it in the snow.  We took the trail that was less traveled for the day and ended up following just one set of tracks for quite some time; we almost turned back because of the depth of the snow and the question of whether or not we were on the right path to get to the top.

 Because we had not suspected snow to be on the trail my dad and I ended up wearing shorts.  Lucky for us the weather was actually quite warm and we didn't get cold until we reached the top of the mountain and stopped to enjoy the view.  Wearing shorts ended up being a blessing in disguise as we didn't have to worry about our pants becoming soaking wet and keeping us cold; however our shoes did become soaked and I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one that brought an extra pair of socks.

One of my favorite past times growing up has been to go hiking with my Dad and other friends who decided to join us.  While we've hiked many different trails in the Teton's over the years I'd never had the opportunity to tackle Tablerock and I'm glad to finally say the I have.  My Dad has hiked it several times before but never in snow and he was quick to point out how much harder it was in the snow.  The hike on it's own in dry weather is one of the more difficult hikes in the Teton's because of how high you climb.  The snow made climbing harder because it provided less traction in the warm weather and in many places really slowed our pace because we had to step in others footprints.  On the way down was especially difficult because it was later in the day and the snow had turned to slush making it very slippery.

Tablerock has two different trails that you can take to reach the top, huckleberry and the face.  While the face trail cuts off about a half hour off of your time each way it isn't as pretty as huckleberry and it's much steeper.  The face trail also isn't maintained and can be pretty treacherous, especially when it's covered in snow.  As we are more of the sight seeing type we took Huckleberry up and found much more snow but it was very pretty.  Not wanting to encounter as much snow on the way back he took the face and still found plenty of snow and very slippery conditions!  Most of the people that hiked Tablerock that day however took the face and so while we felt alone hiking up we ran into quite a number of hikers once we reached the top.  One of which ended up being Melissa, Aubrey's cousin!

The hardest part about tablerock whether you are hiking in snow or not is the last mile or so that you climb up a shale face to Tablerock itself and then you have to scramble up to the top.  The shale field is above the tree line and when it's covered in snow it's difficult to get traction.  But once you've pushed to the top you'll witness some of the most beautiful vistas that you could ever ask for!  Enjoy the rest of our pictures from the last push to the top and our way down the face!

A macro pic my dad took of some frozen flowers

Melissa's group built this fire and we were grateful!