Climbing the Petit Grepon
June 15th - 17th, 2001
 
The Petit Grepon in Rocky Mountain National Park was my first alpine climb and I was quite excited. Mike, Colin, Dan and I were going to climb it in two groups of two. We were climbing it on my birthday in the middle of a two-week climbing trip to Colorado. While the climb itself went well we had a rough time getting started. To start with I was really sick and had been lying around the car and not climbing for the last few days. Then on the afternoon we were supposed to meet, Mike and Dan had some problems on J-crack at Lumpy Ridge and were a few hours late to the rendezvous spot. We started hiking in a few hours before dark and had to end the approach by headlamp. We were moving pretty fast and stopped only a couple times. At one point Mike announced to us that he was “a couple thousand calories behind” and we had to stop to let me replenish his energy by chugging some olive oil. Apparently it was quickest way for the body to absorb calories. We arrived at the bivy spot and set up our bivy sacks, as no tents were allowed in the cirque. We all slept really well.

The next morning we misidentified the Petit Grepon and wasted a few hours on the approach. Once we got on the climb though, we moved really quickly. Despite what we were told, we were alone on the route and the solitude added to the adventure. The scenery was spectacular and the climbing was good. The line did wander some and we got off route once. Instead of 5.6 moves I had to pull a couple 5.10 moves with the pack on. It was pretty hard. The summit was nice but it was late in the day and we still needed to get down so we didn’t spend much time there. We all made it down without any problems and ate one of the best tasting dinners I have ever eaten. To top it all off we ended up finding quite a bit of booty on the climb and split it up accordingly.

 

North American Classics
North American Classics has features on this climb.

Climbing Boulder
Climbing Boulder has some pictures and details of the Route.

Summit Post
Summit Post has all the necessary details for doing this climb.