Mt. Conness

I climbed the North Ridge of Mt. Conness in Tuolumne on 9/23/16 with friends Michelle and Rob. What a blast! We spent a frosty 22F night at 10,000 ft the night before, with light snowfall, but the weather and temp were perfect on the day of the climb. We started the hike from the trailhead at Saddlebag Lake at about 7:40 a.m.

We gained the start of the ridge at 9:40 a.m. Here, Michelle and Rob are on the sandy scree slope to the start of the ridge.

Ridgeline to the summit, with first and second towers along the way. We roped up and simul climbed efficiently on a single rope as a party of three starting at the first tower.

The east face, glacier, and north ridge of Conness from the first tower. The route basically follows closely on or just behind the ridgeline. There are two short rappels from the top of the second tower down onto the west face, and the climb proceeds back up to just behind the ridgeline to the summit.

Below the summit, having passed the two towers, looking down on them. Michelle and Rob are below with the orange packs. Route finding through patches of snow and ice made the easy 5th class climbing just a bit spicier than it normally would have been, so we belayed to the summit.

Michelle and I at a belay ledge high up on the route.

We climbed easy 5th class through patches of snow and ice to the 12,500-ft summit at 3:30 p.m. Looking up just below the summit.

On the summit. We saw only one party of three behind us all day.

Looking down on the descent plateau. Still a long way to go back to the trailhead. We returned to the car at 6:45 p.m. for a total of 11 hours on the move. This was a long, fun, mellow climb with good camping and such a moderate approach and great dramatic views that I could see doing this every season. I think it might even be fun to get up here early and do it in the snow with crampons and axes. I finally have my altitude regimen dialed in to the point that I had no significant ill-effects all day and felt great, though exhausted toward the end of the day. Super fun! Thanks Michelle and Rob!