Today we headed up Symmetry Spire - supposed to be one of the starter peaks in the Teton Range. I don't think that means much though because it was a full 11 hour day. Our day started off at 0800, we got to the boat dock for the first boat at 0900 only to find out that now the first boat is at 1000. So we decided to hike around and stay moving even though we only beat the boat by about 5 minutes by the time we got around Jenny Lake. From there it was up the Horse Trail to a gully and faint trail that goes up and up and up... That turned out to be a decent trail most of the way, a few little scrambles and some very loose sections, but we made the base of the wall by 1230. I was surprised to see another party already on the route. I took the first lead and used all 70m of rope to get to a nice ledge about 20' below the other group. Erica came up and we decided that I would keep the lead. I caught the second climber of the other group a few minutes later and followed him through a fun section of thin face climbing to another ledge. After Erica climbed up we all decided that I would take a varation to the right and keep climbing rather than continue following behind. On that pitch we pulled through a couple fun overhangs and ended up on a ledge system about 20' right of our new friends Rob and Jeffery. It had been a beautiful day up until the last bit of my last lead when we began to hear thunder and not far enough away to be comfortable. I quickly took the rack and started up the next pitch of our variation. Maybe because I was in a hurry I found myself getting into a tricky unprotectable spot and had to make a little traverse farther right into a blocky corner. The corner was still tricky climbing, not completely solid and requiring delicate moves, but at least there were some cracks that would provide some measure of protection from a fall. After the corner came easier climbing for another 50' to a big ledge just below the end of our route. One more quick scramble to the top, a few quick photos, and we were off to rappel into the gully that would take us back to the base of the climb, then on down to the truck, hot pizza, and cold beer.
