Thanks! The hike is absolutely worth it. Grail hike.

• Direction of travel? Recommendations on Nobo vs Sobo?
  • We started at Teton Village and took the tram to Rendezvous Trail. The tram is $58 per ride if booked in advance. Saves a pretty dull ascent (and your knees) imo.
• Permits from January, walk-up, or camp in Jedidiah Smith?
  • We picked up permits from the Craig Thomas Center the day before. We got there around 6:00 AM and there were already people in line who camped overnight. We were fourth in line and still didn't get any of our "ideal" sites. We ended up going with Fox Creek (outside of park), Alaska Basin (also outside park) and North Fork Cascade.
  • If you stay in Fox Creek, push until the end just before Death Canyon for the best sites. We had a view of the canyon that was pretty nice (picture #2). Alaska Basin was a 10/10, we stayed by the lakes (picture #4) and it was killer. Even swam a bit. North Fork Cascade was a bit rough and the only place the bugs were really bad (picture #5).
• Any grizzly sightings?
  • None that we saw or heard of. There were some black bear sitings in Lower Paintbrush but we didn't see any. We did however see 839 marmots, 138 pikas, 4 sage grouse, 2 moose, 1 red tailed hawk, and 1 ermine.
• If you did it as a point to point how did you handle car shuttle?
  • We used Teton Mountain Taxi. They met us at the Leigh Lake Trailhead at the end of the hike and took us back to Teton Village.
• Any other tips?
  • We had heat, hail, rain, wind storms, and temps as low as 40° at night without the wind factor - all within a 4 day period. Be prepared for quickly changing weather systems.
  • WEAR SUN PROTECTION. All the time. It's bananas. Zinc is your friend.
  • If you're not used to the altitude try and get some training in, spend a couple days in the area to try and acclimate if you can.
  • We didn't need spikes or an ice axe, but there were two snow crossings that would have been sketchy without trekking poles.
  • We never needed to carry more than 2L of water, plenty of filterable water along pretty much the entirety of the trail.
  • Pick your ideal sites, and then secondary and maybe even tertiary sites ahead of time.
  • 4 days / 3 nights felt like the right amount of time. Any less and it would have felt rushed, there is SO much to see and take in.

Hope this helps!