Hiking Saddlebag Lake to Conness Lakes, East of Yosemite - Duration: 3:20. Mount Conness is a 12,590 foot (3,840 m) mountain in the Sierra Nevada range, to the west of the Hall Natural Area.Conness is on the boundary between the Inyo National Forest and Yosemite National Park.The Conness Glacier lies north of the summit. Fortunately, I didn't feel sick (but I was definitely experiencing a reduction in aerobic capacity - hence the 30 minutes to climb 400 feet!). Conness 7. To do the entire stretch of Mt Conness' east ridge, one starts at Saddleback Lake - a roughly 10,000-foot high body of water not far from Tioga Pass, and accessible via a short intermittently gravelled road off of highway 120 near Yosmite National Park's east entrance. Mt Conness (Glacier Route) 30 Jun 2002 - by Richard Steele. Alpenglow on the approach. Conness to kick off the alpine rock climbing season in the High Sierra! The West Ridge of Mt. The climbing is enjoyable, clean and generally quite easy even for a 5.6. Is it very dangerous? Photo by Yao-Min Chen. Armed with a favorable snow report from the guys at telemarktips.com, I made plans to head back to the backcountry skiing mecca of Tioga Pass -- specifically, to climb Mount Conness and ski the chutes and bowls on its east ridge. This is mostly a cross-country hike from Tioga Lake to Mt Conness via a number of lakes. Alpine rock climbing at its finest! Conness, from near Cockscomb. A couple of reasonably apparent herdpaths wound up these gravelly ledges, eliminating the need for any real routefinding here. The scrub was the only thing that caused a bit of obstruction, but a bit of searching usually revealed an easy way through. Peaks: Mt Conness (sorted/filed as Conness) Place: California. Summited in a couple more hours, quickly signed the register and made my way down the East Ridge. Basically just gradually make your way up the west ridge for a little ways until itâs obvious that you need to leave it and proceed more directly up. The first bit was moderately steep, but wide and composed of solid, minimally-fractured granite. The summit block itself was very prominent, rising up another few hundred feet into the sky a short way to the west. The most direct start for the West Ridge Mt Conness starts at the Sawmill Campground, about halfway up the hill to Saddlebag. Our objective summit came into view as we scrambled along the blocky ridge crest. Conness. Soon I was approaching the shallow saddle separating the buttress with the "real" start of the Mt Conness east ridgeline. Mt. The West Ridge of Mt. Overlooking Conness Glacier from a notch on east ridge. It would certainly be easy to access, as you could definitely land a helicopter here. The objective was not the top of the buttress, but rather the start of the east ridge beyond it. This was "Alpine Lake" - an important waypoint along the easier south-eastern route. West Ridge of Mt. Some people say they prefer the North Ridge of Conness, but I can't speak to that yet, since I haven't done it. I happened to find myself in the Bay area of California for a work-related course in mid-August. Hiking Las Vegas.com 1 Hike: Mt. Conness. I made for the most reasonable line up the broad face before me - it looked quite steep, but as I began up it, I found that it was an easy series of gravelly ledges. Credit: rhyang. In fact, Peter Croft called it the best route he had done in the Sierra backcountry (albeit before embarking on some of his recent mega-traverse-linkups). After about thirty minutes and four hundred or so feet of climbing, I popped out onto the so-called summit plateau - a broad southward-slanting plain of barren gravel and rock (or snowfields early in the season) that connected the east ridge route with the summit block. If you look down you can practice your thousand⦠5. 23 Aug 1998 - by Harlan Suits. Scrambling up through the 5th class sections ju⦠2. Above, another few hundred feet of crags and talus would bring one to its crest - but instead I chose to start traversing along at a constant elevation, hoping to avoid unnecessary elevation gain and loss. Conness, North Peak, Twenty Lakes Basin, Greenstone Lake, Saddlebag Lake, Mt. Sure enough, the ground soon dropped away sharply on both sides, and what had previously simply seemd like a little bump at the end of the plateau turned out to be an airy perch. Since it was now fully dark, I decided to simply continue a little ways up and off into subalpine terrain until I found a flat bit of unvegetated ground. (. We rolled out the east entrance of the park and headed up the road to Saddle Bag lake. Please see my memorial to Stephen Cook for more information. At the western end of the plateau, a narrow neck of rock winds up onto the prominent summit block. Credit: rhyang. I was able to more or less regain the crest as I neared its western end. With the competition including Cathedral Peak and Matthes Crest, this says a lot. Photo licensing info. Mount Conness is right behind. We had just enough room to walk the ridge. From the ridgeline's little mini-plateau, I could also now see - off to the south - a little body of water perched on the southeastern slopes of Mt Conness. The North Ridge of Mt. What appeared to be a weather station was installed in the middle of this stretch of flat gravel. One trailhead is on the northern side of Tioga Lake, which is located a few minutes east of Tioga Pass (the toll entrance station) at an altitude of about 3,000m. Tutlumne County: West tojust east of Eureka Valley and eastward nearly to Sonora Pass, at 9,000 feet; on WhiteMountain, Mount Conness, ridge between Dlngley and ⦠Local Californians from the Santa Barbara area, they had climbed up via yet another route from the west. In addition to offering relatively easy side-scrambling, this route also had the advantage of not having to deal with the clefts along the ridgeline, since it ran at roughly the level of the base of the clefts. (. This climb is found in Peter Croft's the Good, the Great the Awesome book and if I'm not mistaken it gets an Awesome rating by Sir Peter. Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board), Web Page & Design Copyright 2001-2020 by Andrew Lavigne. But I had promised myself nothing more than class 3 while alone, so I began looking for alternatives. On the opposite side of this mini plateau I could see a small knob of highly-fractured granite. Well fed we headed off to Tioga pass. Note for future climbers: The parking at Sawmill is for campers and will probably be full; the road has copious pullouts. Conness as a day hike on Aug.17, 2008. West Ridge Mt. The rock began to transition to classic white Sierra Granite as I approached the saddle. Nasty traffic resulted in a seven-hour drive from the Bay area to the start of my chosen route, in the Saddlebag Lake area on the eastern border of Yosemite National Park. ;-) After drying my eyes, I quickly made haste to Mt Conness by following the North Ridge proper. The day begins with a pleasant, easy hike in spectacular alpine terrain above Saddlebag Lake. September 4, 2010. Peaks: Mt Conness (sorted/filed as Conness) ; Place: California Difficulty: glaciers, skis . CMC members Paul Morash and Ron Norton climbed the west ridge of Mt. On summit plateau looking toward the summit of Mt. Next section between the ridge and Conness plateau is a steeper class 2 section of dirt/rock mix. We found this route to offer various terrain, with some class 1 through class 4 stuff. The elevation here was now well over 12,000 feet - pretty high for someone who had come from sea level only 14 hours ago. The summit dropped away fairly steeply on the southwest side; on the east side, it dropped much more precipitously, down to the snows and ice of the Conness Glacier. Eventually I was forced to take off my camera bag and pack and squeeze myself and each of them through the narrow bits one by one. West Ridge of Mt. 3:20. Conness, Rock Climbing, Sierra Nevada, SMI News. The Conness Glacier was a fairly small sliver of its former self, hiding from the sun under the northeast-facing walls. Conness. Conness and the thin ridge leading to it. Later we would traverse the ridge from the summit to Virginia Peak, on the lower right of the photo (2020-10-18). Pleasant, super-scenic ridgecrest walking brought me to a high bump along the ridgeline, roughly at about 11,700 feet. There's even evidence of some trailwork along this ridge, where rock staircases have been formed out of slabby boulders. Trip Date: 9.7.19. Easy walking, therefore, up grippy bedrock. Roosevelt Lake is a trudge from Tuolomne Meadows, but there's great scenery along the way. Yongsung Kim 1,955 views. Its standard class III climbing with a mercifully minimal amount of scree and boulder fields. Trip: Mt Conness - East Ridge from Saddlebag Lake Date: 7/26/2008 Trip Report: On Saturday we climbed the complete east ridge of Mt Conness (myself and friends Randy and Ken). By most accounts, the East Ridge/Buttress is the shortest route up Mt Conness. The route begins on Class 2, but sharp, distinct backbone ridge. Home » Blog » North Ridge of Mt. What's the scramble REALLY like above Alpine Lake? Panorama from low on the East Ridge (l to r): The East Ridge, Mt. At this point the ridge was only about two feet wide, and carefully peering into the gap, I didn't see any class 3-ish way to get down. Conness? Next was the long descent down the east ridge back to Saddlebag Lake. Left of Conness one can find Mount Ritter and Banner Peak. Posted on July 10, 2020 by smiweb - Alpine Rock Climbing, Mt. Mount Conness is located on the north east border of Yosemite National Park at an elevation of 12,590â². I took a little break when I had finally fully descended the chimney. Spectacular spires along southeast ridge of Mt. Nearly a thousand feet of rather tiring talus ascent (sometimes a little steeper, sometimes a little gentler) brought me to a reasonably flat shoulder of the buttress. Under crystal clear skies and still air, I started up the ridgeline. A few minutes later, three more hikers arrived at the summit. Conness has been on tick list for a long time, but I was thwarted twice before, despite the route being very easy. The lower east ridge terminates in a broad saddle with a small weather station. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I was a little nervous as the mini-plateau narrowed and I approached the shattered bump of rock that marked the start of the knife-edged arete section. Dayhike to Mt Conness. The east side approach is shorter but a bit more difficult. Mt. "East ridge looked pretty prominent during our climb of the north ridge", they said. A five-minute drive brought me back up to Saddlebag Lake, where I stopped at the large trailhead parking area. Mt Conness East Ridge/Buttress Route Overview. The traverse idea worked out fairly well - the terrain at the roughly 11,000 foot level on the southern slopes of the buttress was fairly good - compacted gravel, or nice little stretches of subalpine grass or low scrub. Conness. It's rated 5.6 which seems petty accurate. It was exhilarating, and - for the first few minutes - not all that bad. Based on the remaining ridgeline, I could only assume that this little bump was the beginning of the knife-edged portion (and therefore most challenging) part of the ridge. Easy walking mostly on the level allowed me to enjoy the scenery and make good progress. Nearby North Peak has two steep couloirs popular for ice-climbing. Pretty cushy for an off-trail route! I reverted to the nearby Sawmill walk-in campground, but I discovered (as I was walking in with my gear) that it too was full. We experienced a picture perfect day on the North Ridge of Mt. Conness August 2008 . I wasn't sure what the knife-edge would bring, but for a few more minutes the going was easy as I walked across the firm gravel of the "mini-plateau". I tickled my alpine itch this weekend by heading up highway 120 and climbing the North ridge of Mt. I had thought this part might have been class 3 also, but I didn't use my hands at all, even on the steeper upper part. We chose to get some garlic noodles but he made the wiser choice with Chick-fil-A. After passing beautiful alpine lakes, we get a view of the North East face of Mt. Conness with Mitchell. Lastly, how scary is that summit block? In fact, moments before summiting, I lost my brand new Arc'teryx hat. Descent via class 2/3 East Ridge Trip Report GPS Track Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board), Web Page & Design Copyright 2001-2020 by Andrew Lavigne. Conness is a spectacularly long and serpentine alpine ridge ⦠Views of the Conness Glacier from the ridge were great. More Articles About California Hiking ... totally wiped out and fell asleep in the cold wind. Ascent via class 2 east chute between Conness and White. Conness in particular has claimed a number of lives. Posing with the awe-inspiring ridge traverse of⦠2. It reminded me at this point of the knife edge on Katahdin in Maine. The emergence onto the plateau also meant that I had entered into the territory of Yosemite National Park. Conness - East Ridge Route Trailhead: Sawmill Campground - marked Distance: 9 miles â up and back Elevation gain: 2,900 feet Elevation peak: 12,590 feet Time: 6 to 8 hours Difficulty: 4 Danger level: 3 Class: 3 â a few spots How easy to follow: 3 Children: No Map: See Page 6 Fees/Permits: None Waypoints (WGS 84): See Page 5 I awoke before dawn and packed up, quietly walking back through the Sawmill campground to my car. West Ridge of Mt Conness. Mount Conness offers challenging technical rock routes on its north ridge and southwest wall. Two trails encircle the waters of Saddleback Lake. There are at least two class 3 routes to the summit. Gradually, the terrain on the south side of the ridge began to merge with the main southeast bulk of Mt Conness. I watched it rise and blow easterly with the winds as my eyes filled with tears. Although the forecast was good, I wanted to get a nice early start to minimize the chance of encountering afternoon showers or thunderstorms. al. If I had been with others, I might have been more adventurous. It took me quite a while to figure out how to safely descend the chimney. It is a scenic climb with not too much vertical gain and can be done in 1/2 day. Although afternoon clouds had begun to form, it was still mostly sunny and only slightly breezy on the summit. Brett scrabbling up the NOrth Ridge 3. I chose the western one, crossing over a dam that harnesses the water of the lake - although at this point, the water level was so low as to nearly render the dam useless. Conness is perhaps the best moderate alpine climb in Tuolumne. For those interested in less technical scrambles, Mount Conness crest area is paradise. From here you can climb the class 3 East Buttress itself for excellent views of North Peak and Mount Conness or skip the buttress by heading northwest to gain the East Ridge more gradually. Mt Conness - North Ridge North Ridge Route 5.6, Border of Yosemite National Park Lee Vining, California 1 day / Cost: $375.00 / per person with 1 Climber 1 day / Cost: $225.00 / per person with 2 Climbers The North Ridge of Mt. It was airy in a couple of places, but only in one or two spots is a hand needed to assist progress. To do the entire stretch of Mt Conness' east ridge, one starts at Saddleback Lake - a roughly 10,000-foot high body of water not far from Tioga Pass, and accessible via a short intermittently gravelled road off of highway 120 near Yosmite National Park's east entrance. Conness, the Conness Glacier and the long, serpentine ridge forming the right skyline. A few minutes later I was standing on the 12,590-foot summit of Mt Conness. The bump drops off sharply to the east and south in ribbed cliffs; to the west, the bump gently merges with a small, gravelly mini-plateau. Being the highest peak in the area, the view was unobstructed in all directions. There's one section of particularly significant exposure, however the rock and route quality remain consistently good. Sarah and I met up with Andrea in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Pleasanton as usual. It's more of a scramble most of the way and probably more enjoyable in sneakers than in climbing shoes. I had hoped to camp at the Saddlebag Lake campground, but that was full by the time I arrived (on a Thursday evening, no less). Right of Conness one can see the highest ridge of Yosemite NP, with Mount Ritter and Mount Maclure. Conness. On the north side, the sheer cliffs continued westward, transitioning to form the headwall cliffs of the Conness Glacier. To the west, the angle of the ridgeline afforded me my first view of the 12,591-foot summit of Mt Conness - bare, solid, and still about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away. Conness is one the best moderate alpine climbs in Tuolumne. With such suitable conditions and given the near-noon time, I took off my pack and had a nice lunch break. We didn't end up pulling up to Saddlebag lake road until around midnight. I couldn't help but try and fit in some time in the mountains before heading back east. The first route from the west requires an overnight stay at Young Lakes or the closer Roosevelt Lake. How about the White Mtn/Conness saddle approach? Airy but walkable. Reminding myself that Secor et. The lake sits beneath a rounded buttress that forms the ultimate termination of Mt Conness' eastern reach. had described this as a class 3 route, and remembering to be extra careful while being out here alone, I started my way along the crest of the ridge. The walk across the plateau was a nice change from ridge scrambling or ledge climbing - nice, easy, flat walking. Specifically the east ridge approach? Beyond the dam, a few hundred yards of easy trail walking brought me to a point beneath the buttress that seemed to offer the best possible ascent line, and I turned off, heading uphill over loose, blocky talus. Anyone here hike Mt. Fantastic views were now available both north and south off of the ridgecrest; to the north, the Conness Lakes Basin, and to the south, the basin of the Monroe Hall Research Natural Area, plus many craggy and high peaks of Yosemite National Park beyond. North Peak juts into the sky across the valley containing Conness Lakes. I chose the northern Sierra as my target, but something a bit off the beaten path: a climb of Mt Conness, highest of the Sierra Peaks north of Tioga Pass and full of interesting routes, from easy to challenging. Dana (at the far right). Next morning I started from Saddlebag Lake around daybreak and made my way towards the tarn east of Alpine Lake and the east ridge of Conness. North Ridge of Mt. 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