Mount Conness

DATE: Sunday, October 10. 2021
DISTANCE: 15.14km / 9.41 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 948m / 3111'
TIME TAKEN: 9:45
INYO NATIONAL FOREST
HOOVER WILDERNESS
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
MONO COUNTY, CA
TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CA
NORTHERN PAIUTE, WESTERN MONO AND CENTRAL SIERRA MIWOK STOLEN LAND
SOUNDTRACK: Uzala: Ice Castle

SUMMITS:
• Mount Conness: 3837m / 12,590'
• Puppy Dome: 2670m / 8760'

PHOTO ALBUM
MAP




...continued.

Mount Conness is a striking mountain on Yosemite’s eastern border, the highest peak in the Sierra Nevada north of Tioga Pass. Though the mountain has massive cliffs on two sides, there are also class 2 and class 3 options for reaching the top. Conness had been in my crosshairs for some time now, as I quixotically pursued my quest to climb my first 12er only after I had climbed my first 11er, and so on. Conness was to be the first 12er, due to its relatively short approach, not too difficult climb, and epic scenic beauty. Due to my retreat from my intended overnight trip to Black Hawk Mountain and Granite Dome the previous day, it opened the gate for me to do a day hike today, and Mount Conness it was to be.

I awoke in my van at the parking lot for the seasonally closed Sawmill Campground, which was to be my trailhead for today's raid on Mount Conness. The peaks of the Conness Crest gleamed in the dawn light, heavenly granite frosted with October snow. It was 8:30AM, and I started off, through the ghostly silent campsites in the snow, there was a decent path to follow at first. It was cold, but Lee Vining Creek was flowing, and I used a casual log bridge to cross it. Just past 9AM, I came up to a curious dilapidated structure that looked like it had been saved from falling over only by the tree next to it. The trail kind of drifted off after this point, and it was cross country through (usually) light and (sometimes) deeper snow. I angled myself uphill to gain elevation to Alpine Lake, per the GPS track I was following, but I didn't angle up fast enough, and I ended up below some big cliffs with impressive boulder rockfall and even some icicles too. Light scrambling now, cross country uphill to Alpine Lake. I was there at 10:30AM. The going past that was slow. A thin covering of snow on the talus field, so I had to be careful not to step through an invisible hole in the rocks and snap my ankle. It wasn't enough snow to just walk over the top of everything, each step had to be considered.

I blame the elevation, somewhat (Alpine Lake is already over 11,000 feet), but more so my general out of shapeness, and possibly the residual effects of yesterday's illness, for my slow going that day. I was now frequently out of breath, and having dizzy spells. So, it took me like, two hours to make it from Alpine Lake, up the east ridge of Conness, and over the lip of the plateau. The snowy rocks added to my difficulty, because I had to find a route up, clearing snow, route finding, climbing, etc. so it was after 1pm, I finally got on the plateau and had some easy going, walking across the comparatively flat expanse in mostly shallow snow. Straight shot to the summit column now, it was right in front of me, like a twisted granite barrel, over 12,500' in elevation. It had been 1300' of elevation gain from Alpine Lake to the summit plateau, BTW. In merely 15 minutes, I had walked across the plateau, to Conness' shoulder, where there was some kind of stone monument / structure, or possibly the remains of a bench?

Now connecting onto the S-curve "staircase in the sky"  southeast approach to the Conness summit, I was privy to dizzying views of the big wall cliffs on the SW and north sides of the mountain, they fell away to either side of the narrow ridge I was upon. I'm sure the "staricase" is a class 2 walkup in normal weather, with maybe some low class 3, but covered in snow, the steps weren't obvious, and I had to pick my way slowly and carefully up, due to the exposure on both sides. I must have taken a long break somewhere in there, don't recall exactly, because I did not reach the summit until 2:30PM. Baby's first 12er! I savored the views all around, I was higher than anything else close by, dilligently dug the summit register ammo box out of the snow and signed it. I wasn't gonna let this one go.

I came down the staircase, just as I had come up, following my footprints in search of solid rock. I followed close to my same route getting down the east ridge, not that it mattered, one path was as good as another, as long as I avoided cliffs. I did not descend elegantly or efficiently, it was a combo of kicking steps, nasty postholing, sliding on my ass, and scrambling down the rocks that were exposed. I changed course when I saw another human being down there, so I decided to say "hullo." It was a man with a dog that would not stop barking at me. I guess the guy was heading up Conness, also, but on a pretty late schedule, seemed like he would be returning in the dark. He said something about drinking a lot of tequila last night in Sonora, and that the dog didn't like my orange hat. So I bid him "bon chance," and continued down, sticking higher (farther north) on the ridgeline than on the ascent, and ultimately meeting my old path down at Alpine Lake.

I don't know what took me so long to get back, analyzing the timeline of my photographs now, months later, it doesn't make sense. I guess I was pretty beat from my useless 17 miles hike the day before, and now my climb of Conness in the snow. Maybe I'm too hard on myself. Back to the van. Down to Tuolumne Meadows to see if anything was still open (fuck no). I decided to climb up Puppy Dome in the twilight for an easy bonus peak. Then, parked by the shores of inky black Tenaya Lake, I cooked myself an excellent dinner of ramen, salami and cheese sandwiches, and dark chocolate for desert. Then I went to sleep at a reasonable hour in the van, parked in a dark trailhead parking lot on Tioga Road.

To be continued...

FURTHER READING
• Mount Conness on SUMMITPOST and PEAKBAGGER
• Puppy Dome on SUMMITPOST and PEAKBAGGER
• Iron Hiker also does the east side approach