July 30, 2005
North Ridge Routes - North Peak and Mt. Conness
Joe, Hank
Part 2 of 2
Classic Yosemite high country from North Peak. Mount Lyell on the left, Cathedral Range peaks on the right, and the big bastardo in the middle is aptly labeled above. Our ascent route is in red. Our descent route is in blue.
After snacking, resting and peering down a few death couloirs from the summit of North Peak I had been wondering about, we made the long sandy walk down the west side of North Peak towards the beginning of the North Ridge of Mount Conness.....but not before we savored our surroundings:
Towards Lundy Canyon w/ Nevada beyond
Yosemite's Northeastern Corner:
This trip would also prove to be my last encounter with the fabulous 2004 - 2005 snowpack for the year. Hank and I had to make one sock soaking traverse across a slushy snowfield to gain the beginning of the North Ridge of Conness.
I could not help but reminisce about the ski trip Tony and I made about a year ago to close out our 2004 ski seasons on the Conness Glacier. Here are comparison pictures of the Conness Glacier taken 13 months apart. Another testament to the epic winter we had in 2004 - 2005. There's a lot more snow nearly a month later in the summer of 2005 compared to the summer of 2004:
7/30/05 7/3/04
The North Ridge of Mount Conness is rated at 5.6. The crux of the route is a double rappel (or down climb for some) from the 2nd tower down to the base of the final summit ridge. This was the only section of the route where we used a rope. The ridge started broad and moderately graded (as seen below). The ridge definitely defined the knife edge feel as it gained elevation and became very narrow and steep with serious exposure on both sides. The exposure definitely warranted a rope in many places, but the quality of the granite, abundant holds, cracks and options made the actual climbing fairly easy. It was the mental challenge of the exposure that I had to fend out of my head. Fortunately I was successful in doing so, and enjoyed this ridge more than any other climb or hike I've ever pursued.
Our day's work, laid out in front of us: The ridge steepens just below the 1st Tower:
Resting at the 1st Tower. There was a group of three ahead of us on the route. You can barely make them out on top of the 2nd tower on the sky line, directly above Hank's head in the picture on the left.
The climbing was steep, solid and superb along the ridge to the top of the 2nd tower. I did not take a lot of pictures on this section, but had to get one of Hank being careful not to step on the fragile yellow flowers growing out of the cracks in this granite spine. The picture on the right shows the group ahead of us preparing to make the second rappel. The slings for the first rappel station can be seen in the lower left hand corner of the picture. The massive (and intimidating) final face to the summit is in the background. it was too huge and too close to capture in one photograph:
On top of Tower #2 - Ready to Rap - Yo: View of Tuolumne Meadows, with Half Dome:
Hank on the first rappel (above and above right) and the second rappel (lower right)
Hank carefully makes his way over to the base of the final section of the climb.
We did not stay true to the ridge for the first 100' after the rappel. We opted to work a few cracks on the northwest face, as seen from below. The final sections of the ridge to the summit were quite a bit more difficult and frightening, but still amazing!
Unfortunately my camera took a turn for the worse somewhere along this final section. So I was not able to take any glorious summit pictures, nor any shots of our rather-be-dead descent. I did, however, enjoy the view from the top of Conness and pledged to return with skis. I was ill prepared for the length and misery of the descent. We made a few route finding errors on the descent, but nothing that cost us more than 30 minutes or so. Please take a good topo with you for the descent. Follow the easiest path (or gully) to Alpine Lake and then follow the drainages to the meadows below where you can pick up the small use trail that leads through the Carnegie Research Institute (small structures only). From here we followed an even smaller use trail along the creek back up to the Saddlebag Lake dam. Tioga Toomey's is your next and final stop. This was an 11 hour sweet and sweaty day in the Sierras.
Click Here to see the first leg of the days journey on the Northwest Ridge of North Peak.