Guide's Wall (5.8)

Published on 2026-09-16 by Michael Stanton

Sam and I drove to the Tetons to get a day climb of the Guide's Wall (5.8). The hike in was easy from the String Lake trailhead.

A nice view up valley

A view of the buttress from below. We climb the lower half

Another view of our route

Sam took the first pitch. Funny, we thought the first 20 meters would just be scrambling, but about 10 meters up was a tricky, kind of greasy crack with marbled, sloping foot placements. It was our introduction to the character of Teton granite! In all the pitches to come, we’d see this, and in addition, the cracks were often kind of wavy and had an odd habit of declining to provide good jams or holds as the angle lessened, complicating our exit onto any ledge above a tricky crack.

I got through these moves and came up to Sam’s belay. He would have gone further, but was understandably flummoxed by rather vague terrain above, which was steep but seemed to offer little protection.

After a brief look left, I committed to the right, finding a cam placement in the one opening in sealed, compact rock. Improbable toe platforms let me tiptoe up the great tilted faces until I reached a ledge. I went up another crack then saw the anchor for the end of the pitch on the right. I traversed over there and brought Sam up.

Michael on the excellent Pitch 4 (5.8)

Sean on the magnificient Pitch 6 (5.7)

We agreed that was a kind of sobering start! At least now we knew what we were in for. Sam swarmed up an easy pitch (I'll call this Pitch 3) to a big ledge. Here, we established ourselves in a pod with a finger crack and open sky above. I climbed the crack, at one point having to come back down a bit and think over my options, resting on a cam. This time I made use of some marbled dime-sized ledges for feet to the left of the crack. Our guidebook called this 5.8, and that was a bit sandbagged, I thought. Another wider crack above got me to a tree anchor belay.

Michael on Pitch 7, very good protection

Michael on Pitch 7

A similar scene on Pitch 7

Yet another Pitch 7 scene

Sam came up all this, then made some tough moves in the crack above. I was really impressed by his lead above the next ledge, where he entered a crack with good hand jams which petered out into marbled geode-like bulbs with no protection. Tough!

Sam got the next pitch too (Pitch 6), since I was keen to lead the final pitch. He climbed an incredible 5.7 crack initially constructed of big, leaning blocks. This was pretty much vertical above a certain point, and merged with another crack on the right. Above that he constructed a gear and piton belay to bring me up.

Sam and Michael on the route

On the descent

Another scene on the descent

This was an excellent pitch to follow. I came up past the roof to Sam's belay, then headed up for Pitch 7. Steep and well-protected! I had a hard time clipping a piton, so I climbed back down. I ended up standing on a piton to make that clip, so I should rate the climb as aid. I came down again after the clip, and climbed above that spot without the humiliation of standing on the piton again, uff!

From this final belay, it is possible to climb another 5.5 pitch, but we were happy to rappel from here.

We made four double-rope rappels (50 meter ropes). Everything went well. We packed up and hiked out, missing an important turn, but this allowed us to see some cliffs above the lake and then to walk through the long line of people waiting for a boat. The whole day we had fun talks about kind of metaphysical topics. I did my best impression of Alan Watts, and I think I have his vocal pattern down pretty good!

There was a big traffic jam getting onto the main road going over the pass, that took some time!

Michael on the 3rd rappel

Sam on the descent

Sam rappelling over a pretty neat wall