Rock climbing is a necessary endeavor for mountaineering, at least that is what I believe, and that was why I started to rock climb a couple years ago. During the occasions I have spent on rocks, I have gradually discovered the charm of the sport itself; however, to me, there had been something missing. I did not know what the missing component was, but I knew I needed it to extract the buried determination to become a better climber. The Grand climb terminated the long search and provided the last piece of the puzzle. I arrived at Jackson Wyoming around noon on August 25, 2007, less than a week apart from my last field trip: a ten-day AMC major excursion in Yosemite. The weather was touchingly pleasant, especially when I compared it to the torturing hot and dry Sierra climate. If not because of the skyrocketing real estate market and flooding tourists wandering on the streets, Jackson is almost a paradise. I walked in the Jackson Hole Mountain Guides (JHMG) office for a gear check. All I had in my backpack was my personal clothes, toiletries, snack food, water, and a headlamp; and this backpack was all I had to carry during the climb. The sleeping gear and climbing gear were waiting for us at 11,000 feet, where the Corbet High Camp lies below the Eastern face of the Grand and the Teepe Glacier. A light backpack!? Breakfasts and dinners would be prepared by the guides!? I felt like I were a nobleperson. “This climb is gonna be easy,” I thought, which was soon proved to not exactly be the case. Read More…