Langford-Stevenson Route, Grand Teton, WY

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WyoRockMan

climber

Grizzlyville, WY

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 25, 2016 - 10:26pm PT

I’m of the opinion that the Owen-Spalding Route on the Grand Teton should be renamed the Langford-Stevenson Route, in respect to the actual first ascensionists.

Nathaniel Langford and James Stevenson, summited the Grand Teton on July 29, 1872. The first ascent of the mountain.

(Langford went on the become the first Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park.)

Key evidence:

-While on the summit, they took barometric readings indicating an elevation of 13,762’. No way to BS those numbers.

-The Hayden Survey Report of 1872 outlined the climb in detail. Not a lot of reason to doubt the details within.
-After corresponding with Langford, Rev. Franklin Spalding conceded the FA and agreed it was likely be the same route.

All this evidence and more is outlined in detail in the Grand Controversy by Orrin and Lorraine Bonney.

Billy Owen doesn’t deserve the credit, he wasn’t first. He didn’t even lead the crux.

The renaming of Black Elk Peak in South Dakota along with many other places in recent times has become a reasonably accepted measure of redress. Why not climbs? They are after all just geographic names.

clinker

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, California

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:47am PT

Should't this be in the proper beard length thread?

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 26, 2016 - 08:57am PT

I'm with you 100%.

It is surprising that this wasn't done long ago once Spalding acknowledged the report.

Anguish

Mountain climber

Jackson Hole Wyo.

Aug 29, 2016 - 08:35am PT

Bonney: Mountaineering by legislation; both Teton County Commissioners and Wyoming Legislature passed resolutions supporting Owen.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 29, 2016 - 09:44am PT

Always a shame when politicians become the undertakers of historical veracity.

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Aug 29, 2016 - 12:36pm PT

//I'm with you 100%.
It is surprising that this wasn't done long ago once Spalding acknowledged the report.//

Its been analyzed and machinated over a bunch in the last 100 years.

Possible v most probable?

His (Langford's) description doesn't really nail the O-S as the route they took to the summit. Has been speculated that they just summitted the Enclosure.

Aneroid barameters could be accurate. Wonder how the survey measurements from 1871 and 1872 compare (not just "Mount Hayden")?

That Billy Owen buried Capt. Keifer's report in his archives and never made it public was interesting...!

Ortenburger summed it up nicely. Langford and party (as well as Keifer and party) "may have summitted". We know for sure that the Owen party did.

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Aug 29, 2016 - 01:29pm PT

A little bit more food for thought on Langford's climb...from his diary:

"On one of the adjoining buttresses, which was but a little lower than the very summit, we found a curiosity in the shape of granite slabs piled up on end, in circular form, 6 feet diameter, the space filled in with disintegrated granite, eroded from these vertical slabs, and completely filling the interstices between the rocks at the bottom. This was probably done hundreds of years ago, for hundreds of years must have been required to fill this space with granite fragments small as these."

The Enclosure is a fair distance from the summit. Like, over 500 vertical feet shorter. If you're climbing the Grand, its take some effort to get over to the Enclosure and back to the terrain on the route up the Grand.

Another snippet from the Langford diary:

"While resting here, we heard from far above us the loud shouts of Capt. Stevenson, which we answered, and soon the leader joined us, with the information that he had reached a point some 200 feet above where we then were, but that all further progress had been stopped by a vertical wall of rock, just too big for him to scale, above which was a wide sheet of ice with a thin covering of snow."

Langford goes on to describe surmounting the rock difficulties then having to deal with this "wide sheet of ice". Only place that "wide sheet of ice" would be on the Owen-Spaulding route would be at the Catwalk (or above that at the base of Sargents Chimney). But, no way Stevenson could see that from below.

I think they may have climbed the Enclosure, then, wandered over to the to the area of the Upper Saddle.

One thing he did describe reasonably well in his dairy:

"The top of the Teton is made up of several points not distinguishable from the highest point or summit, by a person standing at the base or from the valley, being in reality but a little lower than the extreme summit from which they are separated by depressions or gorges in the granite rocks.12 (The main summit or peak is but about 30 x 40 feet on the top.)"

He'd apparently crossed out "50" and wrote in 40 which indicates to me that he stood somewhere at least. Although I think the summit is a fairly distinct high point (narrow ridge with a crested high point). Summit block still has some names pecked into it (Spaulding, Shive, etc).

The Hayden expedition folks were noted for leaving rather large cairns on the summits of the peaks they climbed. Why not on the Grand? Plenty of rock up there for cairns.

Dunno. Possible. Probable? Not sure.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 30, 2016 - 10:10am PT

How did Mount Owen get its name?

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Aug 30, 2016 - 01:26pm PT

According to the interwebs, Mount Owen was named after Billy.

Approved by board decision of the USGS in 1927.

Interersting history:

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/grte2/hrs16.htm

That Renny and Leigh aren't convinced of the Langford climb (along with Fred Beckey and Paul Petzoldt)...carries a bit more weight for me.

I'd also wonder about, at least back in the late 1800's, what was the summit of a peak? Near the top, base of the summit block, close enough? Dunno.

I'd think Langford's detailed description might more closely match the actual O-S route description had he climbed it. Having climbed both the Enclosure and the O-S a few times, his description works for the Enclosure.

But, its hard to say. Fuzzy at best. I still think they'd have built a large cairn easily seen by the next party.

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Aug 30, 2016 - 01:30pm PT

Makes me wonder how my dorm at school was named after Langford...ha ha.

Think ol' Nathaniel P. knew what 3-7-77 meant?

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 30, 2016 - 06:35pm PT

That is a pretty solid list of skeptics. It would be interesting to read the correspondence between Spalding and Langford.

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Aug 30, 2016 - 11:10pm PT

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