HACE Historical Timeline:

1995: HACE Club conceptualized, organizational tasks addressed
1996: Grand Teton - unsuccessful summit attempt (Ken, Dan Todd, Craig Herd, and an friend)
1997: Grand Teton - successful summit!! (Ken, Dan, Todd, Craig)
1998: Grand Teton - successful summit!! (Dan, Todd, Betty Jo, Craig)
1999: Gannett Peak - unsuccessful attempt (Todd, Craig)
2000: Gannett Peak - unsuccessful attemtp (Ken, Dan, Todd, Craig)
2001: Middle Teton - successful summit (Ken, Todd, Cory, Jessi)
2002: NO ADVENTURE - weather sissy's
2003: NO ADVENTURE - Dan with ankle injury, Ken takes Williams family to The Meadows (Garnet Canyon)
2004: South Teton - successful summit! "Touching the Cotton" tour (Ken, Dan, Todd)
2005: NO ADVENTURE - Todd's MC Trip
2006: South Teton - successful summit! 10-Year Anniversary of HACE Club (Ken, Dan, Todd)
2007: NO ADVENTURE
2008: Mt. Whitney - successful summit!! (Ken, Dan, Todd) Also, Badwater Basin
2009: South Teton - successful summit!! (Ken, Dan, Todd)
2010: 1st Annual HACE Club Motorcycle Rally - Mirror Lake Highway
2011: Thompson Peak, Sawtooth Range - successful summit!! (Ken, Todd)

1996 HACE Club Adventure: Grand Teton Summit Attempt

After the heady experience of organizing the soon-to-be-famous HACE Club, we began planning for our first big adventure... our maiden voyage as it were. After much deliberation we settled on a suitable target: The Grand Teton! At 13,770' above sea level, and 6,500' above the valley floor, "The American Matterhorn" seemed the perfect choice.

As we worked through the initial planning phase, one glaring fact stood out: we had no skills! Sure we could all deftly work a remote, Todd was able to wiggle his ears and eyebrows separately, Dan was pretty good at Scrabble, and I held the grade school record for longest sustained "snot-bubble" (unintentional category). And yes, we all knew that carabiners look cool and you can hang gear off of them, but true climbing skills... nope, nary a one!

The solution? Bring someone along who has real mountaineering skills. Lure them in with the promise of fame and a "free" apprentice membership in the HACE club (priceless)! Our brother-in-law, Craig Herd fit the bill.

That settled, we made final preparations and met in the Lupine Meadows Parking Lot at the designated date and time. Craig brought a young friend, who we still believe was carrying a pygmy in the largest pack most of us had ever seen. Due to our stellar conditioning and indominable spirit (and the fact that the trail to the Meadows was relatively easy), we made short work of that part of the approach. From the Meadows up to the Morraine was strenuous. Camp was made, meals eaten and then off to sleep for an early summit attempt.

Summit day! Up early, quick breakfast, ropes and summit packs prepared, shakey nerves and weak knees bolstered with oatmeal and hot chocolate, and off we go. First we negotiate the Hanging Rope (though I don't think anyone was ever hung there... much easier to just shoot them), then to our first stop, the Lower Saddle, where we take turns and pictures in the nearly two-mile high, open-air outhouse (pictures of the expansive view to the West, not of anything going on in the outhouse), then onward and upward. The further we go, the higher up the mountain we get. In the thin air at 11,000 feet-plus, obvious things become very obvious.

After the Upper Saddle, things change. We realize that there are many places here where a misstep could be fatal. As we move through the Belly Roll and prepare for The Crawl, clouds come in quickly and obscure the 2,000' exposure down into Valhalla Canyon. Thunder crackles below us and lightening ushers in rain, snow and hail as every climber on the mountain either hunkers down to wait out the storm, or hastily gathers ropes and gear and scoots on down to safety.

The Grand was not yet ready to give up its prize. Maybe we were too arrogant... too sure of ourselves... too confident in our marshmellow-like coating of invicibility. Maybe this first attempt was a test... a test to see if common sense would prevail and we would descend before we met disaster... a test to see if we would discard our new-found persona of HACE Club members as quickly as our sullied underwear after the first crash of lightening.

Whatever.

We would spend the next year lamenting our failure, collecting our wits, rethinking our route, and coercing our "apprentice" to again lead us to the alter of the Grand.

"This ain't over....."

Be sure to check the HACE Archival Post "The Begining (Retrospectively)" for the backstory on the founding events and a historical view of past adventures.

HACE Adventure 2011

Okay, after a hiatus last year due to a total disregard for the "7-P's", we have selected Thompson Peak as our adventure spot for the year. Though not one of the highest peaks in the region, it certainly is an impressive looking summit. Our target date is Aug 10 - 14th.

The Beginning (retrospectively)

The seedling idea for the H.A.C.E. Club first originated in 1995 on a afternoon drive with a few of the HACE Club founding members and their father. As they contemplated the need for adventure and weighed it against their startling lack of skills, their gaze steeled and a firm conviction settled down upon them like a wet pair of undies.

After the "epiphany in the pickup truck" (sounds like a country song, huh) the three brothers decided that 1) adventure was their destiny, and 2)the world was their bathroom, and began the planning and organizational phase of what would be come the HACE Club.

High Altitude Cerebral Edema, or HACE, was chosen as the name for this newly formed club of adventurers.

High Altitude Cerebral Edema, a significant, often fatal medical condition that has symptoms of "loss of coordination (ataxia), and decreasing levels of consciousness including disorientation, loss of memory, hallucinations, irrational behavior, and coma". This seemed to be the perfect acronym and name for the club due to the fact that our general emotional and physical baseline functioning seemed to be described perfectly by the symptoms of HACE (with the possible exception of the coma-part... though there remain some concerns with the current Wyoming chapter president).

With critical details like our name, and a club dues structure settled, the plans for the first big adventure (FBA) began in earnest! The target: Le Grande' Teton. (I won't tell you what it means in French)
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In our next historical installment we will discuss the ill-fated and treacherous attempt at summiting the Grand Teton in 1996. And though our heros ended up scampering off of the mountain with their collective tails between their legs in defeat, there were no major "boo-boos" and they learned many valuable lessons that would serve them well in the coming years of adventure!

Don't forget to tune in and tell your friends!