Cathedral Buttress
Date: July 8, 2023 (Sat)Trip Report #: 626Partner: Jenny Abegg
Route: The Snaz (5.9-5.10+, 9p)
A fun non-alpine route in the Tetons with my sister!
Intro
My sister Jenny was in the Tetons for a month working remotely and exploring the area in her free time as her boyfriend Michael guided people up the Grand. It had been four years since I had last climbed in the Tetons (when I climbed the South Buttress of Mt. Moran in July 2019), and three years since I had last seen Jenny (when she briefly came to visit me in Boulder when I had my knee injury). So Jenny and I planned a four day trip together. I drove up after work on a Friday, and we climbed The Snaz (5.9-5.10+, 9p) on Cathedral Buttress (Saturday), Do It For Doug (5.10c, 4p) and Exum Arete (5.10a, 3-6p) on Rock Springs Buttress (Sunday), worked/rested Monday morning and hiked to the Lower Saddle Monday afternoon, and climbed The Complete Exum w/ Gold Face (5.10a) on The Grand Teton (Tuesday). I drove back to Estes Park on Wednesday, after putting in a full day working remotely from the library and Whole Foods in Jackson Hole. What a stellar 4 days of climbing and hanging out with my sister!
This page gives a trip report for our first route of the trip: The Snaz on Cathedral Buttress. This was a great choice for our first route. Cathedral Buttress in Death Canyon has the highest concentration of pure non-summit rock climbs in Grand Teton National Park. The steep walls have several high-quality multipitch routes, including The Snaz (5.9-5.10+, 9p), Caveat Emptor (5.10c, 8p), and Aerial Boundaries (5.10b, 5p). The lower elevation, south-facing nature, and relatively easy approach and descent combine to make this a popular area.
The Snaz, which Jenny and I climbed, has lots of crack climbing and lots of variety. We chose a couple of popular variations: For Pitch 4, we moved left for a 5.10 finger crack (the Snazette) and for the final pitch of the route we climbed the 5.10+ undercling past roofs of Cousin Leroy's Uncle. We had started early (we left the trailhead shortly after 6am) so we were the first party on the route (behind us were four other parties on the wall that day, two others climbing The Snaz, one climbing Caveat Emptor, and one climbing Aerial Boundaries). Jenny and I had a great time climbing this route. We swung leads and enjoyed the fun climbing.
(Update: Two weeks later, I climbed the first five pitches of Caveat Emptor. Click link for trip report.)
The following page gives a route overlay, time stats, and photos from our climb.
Route Overlay
Also shows an overlay for Caveat Emptor (5.10, 8p), which I climbed two weekends after climbing The Snaz (5.9-5.10+, 9p).
Time Stats
Trailhead to base of route: 1 hour 20 minutes
Climb route: 4 hours 30 minutes
Descend: 1 hour 1 minute
Hike back to trailhead: 1 hours 15 minutes
Total car-to-car (includes breaks): 9 hours
Pitch-by-Pitch Photos
Approach
2nd-4th
Hike the Death Canyon Trail to the last of eight switchbacks beneath the southwest corner of Cathedral Wall. Take a steep path that cuts back to the right. Climb a short cliff (4th) and follow the path east to its end beneath the middle of the wall. The route begins below an immense open-book dihedral that runs up the center of the wall.
Pitch 1
5.5
Climb up and right into the corner and work up to a broad grassy ledge (5.5). Run the rope out and belay beneath or just above a blocky overhang.
Pitch 2
5.7
Work up a steep, not too clean, left-facing corner, then move right and up to a belay at the bottom of another left-facing dihedral (5.7).
Pitch 3
5.7
Follow the dihedral up through a wide slot and continue up to a good stance beneath an off-width crack with a wedged block (5.7). Or, if you decide to climb the Snazette variation for Pitch 4, belay below the finger/hand crack splitting the face left of the corner.
Pitch 4
5.9 or 5.10
Standard Pitch 4: Jam up around the right side of the block (5.9) and continue up the long, wide crack (5.8 or 5.9) to a roof that is turned on the left (5.8). I toproped this pitch a couple of weeks later while rappelling after climbing Caveat Emptor.
Snazette variation for Pitch 4: This is a 5.10 variation to Pitch 4, climbing a steep and sustained crack that splits the face left of the standard Pitch 4. The pitch starts off as a finger crack and widens to hands as you get higher. If you prefer finger and hand cracks to old school 5.9 wide burly corner cracks and want to clib with a lighter rack, Snazette is probably the more enjoyable/easier way to climb Pitch 4. This is the way Jenny and I went.
Pitch 5
5.7 or 5.10-
Standard Pitch 5: From the stance above the roof, climb an easy crack and corner to a ledge beneath a large detatched flake (5.7). I climbed this pitch a couple of weeks later while accessing the rappels on The Snaz after climbing Caveat Emptor.
Pitch 5 if you climbed Snazette: We ended up climbing to the left of the standard Pitch 5 and regaining the standard route at the top of Pitch 5. It may be possible to travese right to the standard route sooner and keep this pitch at 5.8, but I was distracted by some nice looking 5.10- cracks.
Pitch 6
5.9 or 5.10a
Work up past a loose block and aroud the left side of the flake, continue up the fist crack (5.8), then jam and stem out a magnificent overhanging crack (5.10a) or work out right (5.9) to yet another good ledge.
Pitch 7
5.7
Work straight up a steep dihedral (5.7) for about 60 feet, traverse left (clipping a piton) to the far side of a hanging block (5.7), then work up through the roof, up short double cracks to a ledge (5.7), and up a crack on the right to a sloping ledge in an alcove.
Pitch 8
5.8
Make tricky moves up into a bombay chimney (5.8) and follow it until it is possible to step left around an arete to a big ledge.
Pitch 9
5.7 or 5.10b
Standard Pitch 9: Climb the double crack and chimney on the left to another ledge (5.7).
Cousin Leroy's Uncle variation for Pitch 4: For a more climactic but well-protected finish, undercling and lieback out the huge stepped roof on the right and arrive at the same belay ledge (5.10b). This is the way Jenny and I went.
Descent
Rappel the route with a single 70 or walk off
There are two ways to get down: Either rappel the route or walk off. We had decided to rappel the route. We brought a tag line up the route since we were unsure if it could be rappeled with a single rope, but we managed to easily rappel the route with a single 70, using bolted and sling anchors at the top of each pitch. A 60 meter rope would not be long enough for a couple of the rappels. See guidebook for walk-off detail.
