Mount Owen is the second highest peak in the Teton Range

Teton Range

The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. A north-south range, it is on the Wyoming side of the state's border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park. Most of the range is in Grand Teton National Park....

, Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park located in northwestern Wyoming, U.S. The Park consists of approximately and includes the major peaks of the long Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Only south of Yellowstone...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

. The peak is named after William O. Owen, who organized the first documented ascent of the Grand Teton

Grand Teton

Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, and a classic destination in American mountaineering.- Geography :...

 in 1898. Mount Owen is part of the Cathedral Group

Cathedral Group

The Cathedral Group is a term applied to a collection of most of the tallest mountains of the Teton Range, all of which are located in Grand Teton National Park, in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The collection of mountains known as the Cathedral Group are classic alpine peaks, with pyramidal shapes...

 of high Teton peaks, a collection of peaks in the central section of the range that are particularly rugged. The 40 miles (64.4 km) long Teton Range is the youngest mountain chain in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

, and began their uplift 9 million years ago, during the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

. Several periods of glaciation have carved Mount Owen and the other peaks of the range into their current shapes. Valhalla Canyon

Valhalla Canyon

Valhalla Canyon is located in Grand Teton National Park, in the U. S. state of Wyoming. The canyon was formed by glaciers which retreated at the end of the last glacial maximum approximately 15,000 years ago, leaving behind a U-shaped valley. Valhalla Canyon extends from the northwest flanks of...

 is situated on the west slopes of the Mount Owen.

Climbing

After two failed attempts in 1927 and one in 1928, Mount Owen was first climbed in 1930, and was one of the last of the major Teton peaks to be climbed. Numerous routes have been explored ranging in difficulty from Class 5.1 to 5.10

Yosemite Decimal System

The Yosemite Decimal System is a three-part system used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs. It is primarily used by mountaineers in the United States and Canada. The Class 5 portion of the Class scale is primarily a rock climbing classification system. Originally the system was...