Speaking French, Summit Memorials, and Whiskey Shots

Forgot to mention a few noteworthy things from yesterday's trip:

As many of us probably know, trail conversations with buddies can produce some rather entertaining and memorable moments. Some appropriate. Some maybe not. But the improvised conversation I had with MikeE during our descent from the summit of the Middle Teton was almost entirely in French (some actual words were even used! Like Teton!), included the commonly used crazy French waiter accent 100% of the time, and will likely remain as one of my more memorable trail conversations (even though I don't even really know if what we were saying really made much sense or if somewhere along the way things got a little off color, so to speak. Or alot.).

This was not only the first time either of us had summited the South Teton, but it was also the first time either one of us had stood atop a peak that had claimed the life of a personal acquaintence. I didn't think too much about it early on as we were tackling the Middle, but as soon as we began to reach the summit of the South, it wouldn't leave my mind and became pretty eerie to think about. One of those wildly mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, fear, and peace.

It also marked the first time I've had whiskey shots at 12,500ft. We met a couple of climbers from Jackson who arrived at the top just after we did and wouldn't you know it, out comes the flask for a quick high altitude celebration. It sure helped make the summit experience much more party-esque!

Trip details:

Left the Lupine Meadows TH (6,700ft) at 5:50am.
Garnet Canyon Meadows in 2:15.
Top of Middle (12,804ft) in 2:15. 4:30 total. 30 min on top.
Top of South (12,500ft) in 2:00. 7:00 total. 30 min on top.
Lupine Meadows TH in 2:45. 10:15 total. Finished at 4:05pm.
Total distance: 16 miles?