Mount Conness - The West Ridge IV 5.6

Unlike most Sierra peaks, which gently rise on the western slopes and drop-off to the east, Mt. Conness's (12,590') southwest face dominates the Tuolumne skyline. A tourist's first view of Tuolumne and Yosemite back county as seen from Olmsted Point one can see the impressive SW face of Mount Conness in the distant.

The route that ascends the SW face is the Harding Route 5.10C which a mega classic alpine wall route. NOT TODAY. However, the West Ridge is another classic route and well within my climbing.

"The West Ridge of Mt. Conness is perhaps the best moderate alpine climb in Tuolumne." - SuperTopo

"Highly enjoyable route" - R.J. Secor

Peter Croft gives it an "Awesome" rating in this book. Enough said!

Conness in a day is a massive undertaking! The approach begins from Saddlebag Lake on eastern side of Tioga Pass. From there its a 4.5 mile cross country hike up and OVER the summit of Conness only to lose all elevation gained to the bottom of the west ridge. Parties then climb the 1,500' of rock back to the top and retrace their steps back down to Saddlebag Lake. I'll pass on that. What's the second option? A more "mellow" backpacking trip to Young Lakes for an overnight trip. This approach though longer in mileage has the advantages of approaching the route from the west thus not having to take the eastern "up and over" approach.

I found a partner via Mountain Project named Matt and we began to discuss the plan. Matt's previous experience was mountaineering (Rainier, Shasta, etc) however some time had past. In fact, close to 20 years had pass since he had been out in the alpine. But we chatted and he seems knowledgeable and more importantly - PSYCHED! We agreed on the Young Lakes approach to the route and decided to make this a two day trip.

The Plan:

• Day #1 rally up at trail head and hike in the 6.3 miles to Young Lakes.
• Day #2 Cross country the 2 miles over the base of the West Ridge, climb it, descend back the lake, pack up and hike out.

I believe most parties take 3 days using the 3rd day to hike out from the lakes, however since I only had 2 days off from work we were just going to have to make it work. I knew that day #2 was going to be a HUGE day four us. We were looking at 2 miles of cross country, 1,500' (half the size of El Captain) of rock climbing, 2.5 miles of cross country back to the lake followed by over 6 mile hike out with heavy packs, then a 3 hour drive home. Hrmm.... 

Tuesday July 8th:

Matt and I rallied at Lambert Dome trail head, did a gear check and we're off hiking by 1:00pm. Hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms nearby but otherwise it was a pleasant hike.

As the trail climbed higher and higher out of Tuolumne meadows great views south towards Cathedral Peak were had.

A little after 5:00pm we arrived at the lowest and largest of the Young Lakes. Impressive but as usual the July mosquitoes were in full force.

Camp was made, dinner was eaten, and we sat back watching the evening alpine glow on the surrounding cliffs. We had previously discussed what time to get started the following day. I had suggested that we "leave camp @ 5am". However that evening a party of two hobbled back in to their camp next to us after just completing the West Ridge. They told us they began their voyage at 3am. Matt and I looked at each other and settled on 4am.

The west ridge and southwest face of Mt. Conness stared at us across the valley. Interestingly enough, the ridge did not seem any closer even after the 6 mile hike. Something told me, we had an epic in store for us tomorrow...

Wednesday July 9th:
After a short and restless night our alarm goes off at 3:30am. Coffee, oatmeal, crap. We were off bushwhacking via headlamp a little after 4:00am, our voyage had began. Even in the dark sky the striking line of the West Ridge could be seen so we just kept aiming in that direction.

 By 7:00am we were roped up and ready to launch up the ridge. Where to start? All guidebooks indicate that are many options to choice from. Without out a "definitive start", I just picked the cleanest looking path and went for it.

(Our pitch 1 - Looking up & down ...pretty sure we were on the Supertopo route)

The climbing was low 5th and I cruised up until I was out of rope. I lead all pitches since Matt had not been on rock in over 20 years. Though I heard a lot of huffing, puffing, grunting, snorting, spitting, and farting from Matt, he motored up to each belay. A few pitches went by on mid 5th class terrain up flakes and corner systems.

After 4 pitches, the terrain began to ease back and I noticed that we were topping out on the ridge "proper". Following this edge for another 1,000' takes one to the summit of Conness. I suggested that we solo this 4th class with the occasional move of 5th. However, Matt seems a little shaken by the exposure. We agreed then to simul climb with me on lead. With 30 meters of rope out I would sling blocks and flanks here and there to give him protection while he followed. With such blockly terrain the rope drag was pretty bad from my end but none the less we were both having a great time.

Higher and higher we climbed the ridge. The view across all of the Tuolumne drainage was amazing. In the picture below is Young Lakes (where we camped) and the Cathedral range. In fact you can spot the North Tower of Matthes Crest which I climbed the previous week.

 A splendid day with amazing rock and great views!

 The ridge went on...

 and on...

We would take breaks from time to time and defiantly were not making a speed record attempt. The weather seems to be clear and nice which kept the pace fun and relaxed.

I watch to my left the North Ridge get closer and closer which meant we were getting close to the top. In the picture above you can see two climbers on top of the tower. The last few hounded feet of our ridge mellowed back to 3rd class and we un roped to solo from there. I arrived at the summit first shortly before 2:30pm. 7 and a half hour after our start... no speed record today.

In the pano picture below one can see a lot of Yosemite National Park. From Half Dome, Tuolumne Meadows, to the back country.

We stayed up top just long enough to snap a few pics and sign the summit register. We still had about 300 feet of 3rd to 4th class descent to get off the summit proper and down to a sandy plateau where the decent back to Young Lakes would start. The Conness Glacier has seen better days...sad.

About 15 minutes of down climbing we arrived on the sandy plateau.

Just a few snow drifts remained and the decent route was long and tedious talus and scree slopes but great views of the the route we HAD JUST CLIMBED were too be had. SO MUCH GLORY!!!

Bushwhacking, talus, scree, mosquitoes, sun, tired, sore. Ugh... just another 2 miles of cross country.

At 6:30pm (14 and half hours after we left camp) we arrived back at our tent. Exhausted, we took a break. I brewed up some ramen noodles and ate my favorite back country snack, Oreos. A little after 7pm we departed Young Lakes back to Tuolumne Meadows via the 6.3 mile trail. I'd been in these situations before many times before. At the end of a very long day when there is nothing left but to do a long slog out, I just mentally check out. The headlamp came on somewhere around 9pm.

I would wait periodically for Matt to make sure he was OK. As we got within the last mile I decided I'd had enough of being on my feet and took off to my car to wait. I arrived back a little after 10pm making for an 18 hour day on my feet. My record stood when Russ and I had 17 hours on Mt. Williamson many years back. I waited for Matt to arrive, but as time went on I never saw his headlamp come down the trail. Over an HOUR passed with no Matt. There was no way his pace came to a crawl within the last mile?! Something had to be wrong. After 11pm I figured that 1 of 3 things had happened. Either he had fallen and hurt himself, his headlamp crapped out, or perhaps...just perhaps had taken the wrong trail intersection (there were a couple with in the last mile) and was walking towards another trail head. The first two options would require me to put my shoes back on and hike UPHILL to go find him. Hell no, I'd leave him to the bears before I'd do that. The last option meant driving a few miles on the road to the next trail head up the way. Within 5 minutes of driving I could see a lone headlamp on the road. Yup, it was Matt. Apparently, in his exhaustion he had taken the wrong trail even though they are extremely well marked. I drove him back to his car and around 11:30pm we said our goodbyes and drove off.
Now normally I just grunt through the 3 hour drive to get home. There is NOTHING like a hot shower and sleeping in your bed after a mountain trip. This time I was hallucinating deer crossing the road while driving 50MPH at night. Perhaps they were real, but to error on the side of caution I pulled over and crashed out in my car. When I awoke it was 7am and I was at a tourist pullout with a lot of people looking at the views and me.
I got home, showered, and crushed it at The Waffle Shop. Another amazing trip to the Sierras!

Stats:

• 33 Hours car to car
• 17 miles roundtrip
• 1,500' Rock climbing
• 60M 9.8 rope
• #.5 - #3 cam, set of stoppers
• Lots of slings