A near-fall in the Tetons
Now that
Rod Newcomb is retired, he looks back on 48 years as a Teton guide. The highs, for the guide, are the satisfaction of leading your client up a route and making an uneventful return to the valley. The lows are when something goes wrong on the climb: a client is injured, bad weather arrives and you have to retreat, or, in rare cases, something bad happens to the guide.
This is what happened in the early 1980s on the fourth pitch of the Owen Spaulding route at 13,500 feet. In late August or early September there was a dusting of snow on the route. The fourth pitch begins on a downsloping ledge at the bottom of the Owen Chimney and leads to the top of the difficult climbing. From here, several easy pitches take you to the summit.