Backpacking adventures in Wyoming; Summiting Mount Geikie

Senior Grace Tabeling took a 30-day backpacking trip in the Wind River Range, in Wyoming. On her trip the group changed the route, ended up summiting Mount Geikie, and faced some difficulties on their way back down.

     Tabeling took the backpacking trip to Wyoming with the National Outdoor Leadership School, with an 11 person crew. The trip took 30 days to complete the course, the trip took place from July first to July 31, 2021. 

     While climbing they found out that  Mount Geikie was near the route, so the group decided that they were going to summit it  for fun.

     The group had to wake up at 5 a.m. and had to leave at 5:30 a.m. to begin the climb. Tabeling and the rest of the group packed light and took just the things that they needed. 

     According to Peak Badger the elevation of Mount Geikie is 12,378 feet. The climb is “very steep and rocky,” says Tabeling. 

     It took the group about two hours to complete the climb and it was a 2,500 foot climb all the way to the top of the mountain. Grace comments “When we got to the top it was pretty indescribable, the view was unreal”. 

     By the time that Tabeling and the rest of the group made it to the top of Mount Geikie it had taken them 12 days. “We had come so far the past 12 days and summit[ed] our first mountain” Grace comments.

     While Tabeling and the other 11 people she climbed with were at the top of the mountain it began to snow and become windy. When these conditions began they had to start making their trip back down the mountain. 

     Making their way down the mountain was “honestly harder than going up”, says Tabeling. The conditions continued on and the mountain became “slippery and steep”, said Grace. Grace says that going back down the mountain was the “biggest challenge” of the whole climb. 

      While Tabeling and the rest of the group were on their backpacking trip they also submitted an unnamed peak on the Continental Divide, “We did climb a lot of mountain passes[,] though which were honestly as tough as summiting sometimes” states Grace.

     On the trip Tabeling “learned a lesson of facing hardship and pushing through even when things were hard” comments Tabeling. The group passed by famous peaks such as Gannett Peak and Wind River Peak. 

     Tabeling did not just summit Mount Geikie on her trip, but it was a highlight of her whole backpacking trip that she took.