My first week back from the Cascades came with a tough realization. Despite sending nearly 3,000 ft of technical climbing the previous week, my knee was still not fully recovered. I was training for a trail race in the middle of August at Alta ski resort in Utah. It was a stop on the Cirque Series and I was well suited for its short, steep course. But I was only two weeks away from a ruptured bursa sack on my right knee. I ran 16 miles over a few days to test out my readiness and I could have seen what was coming. My knee ballooned once again and I reluctantly broke the news to my race partners in crime. Next year I’d come back for redemption, but for now I needed true rest. In the next few weeks I would reset once again, visit friends and family, and prepare to get back out in the alpine.
Despite not racing, I still made it out to support my friends in Utah. In usual fashion, I arrived on a Thursday night and immediately planned for a packed weekend. The next morning I’d join my good friend Ian for a day mountain biking in Park City. This local biking mecca had free shuttles which we used to ascend 2,500 ft up the mountain. My knee was still not perfect, but we got in a mostly downhill day on some awesome trails in the area. That night our last visitor, Devin, would get into town and we’d get ready for the race the next day. Ian and I were both not racing, but wanted to find some way to have fun anyway while cheering on the crowd. So while Devin was distracted prepping near the start of the course, Ian and I took out a case of beers from the back of the car. Just before the start of the race, we sprinted up the mountain with the case on our backs. We’d trade it off every few minutes and were redlining up the hillside. Our route was direct to the summit of Mt. Baldy and we managed to get up in about an hour with 25 lbs of beer. The race officials loved the idea of handing out sips to the participants and even donated us some plastic cups. After making an impromptu ‘Unofficial Aid Station 1.5’ sign we managed to hand out just about all the beers to random contestants. It was a clear hit for the day and Devin was quite excited to see us waiting at the top. The rest of the weekend was a blast and our trio even managed to get a big alpine bike ride in the next day. Although I was bummed to miss out on the race itself I knew my time would come.
Another couple weeks passed while I slowly ramped up my cardio. My knee was quickly healing but I wanted to stay well within my limits. Thankfully this aligned with a fantastic trip back home. I flew back to see my family in New Jersey for 10 days at the beginning of September. As usual we went boating nearly everyday. Some days it would be slalom water skiing with my family who still get many days out on the water each summer. Other days we’d join my dad’s crew in Bud Lake for wakeboarding. For labor day we’d head to Lake George in upstate New York to try out the new ‘e-foil’ in epic fashion. I was struggling to keep up with my usual running volume, but having the opportunity to go boating nearly everyday was the perfect concession. To add to the fun I even managed to get in three days visiting friends in NYC and one day back in the Gunks for some guided single pitch trad. By the time it was time to go back, I was starting to wish I could spend more time living in the East Coast. But then my focused shifted once again. My buddy Joe was organizing a trip back to the Sierras. My flight back to SF was Friday afternoon on September 11th. The next day I’d drive out to Tuolumne Meadows.
Joe had also taken a step back from climbing as he was starting his next fall semester as a high school teacher. We were forced back into the weekend warrior routine but managed to find a nice inspiring route. Our vision was to link the NW ridge of North Peak with the North ridge of Mt. Conness. It was a classic backcountry ridgeline solo and went at a mellow easy 5th grade1. We’d still bring a rope, but only for a pair of rappels on Mt. Conness’ 2nd ridgeline tower2. Otherwise our group of four would plan on moving fast and light through this awesome pair of Tuolumne peaks. I met the crew just before sunrise on Sunday morning. I had met some of the others before, but we were all a fairly new group to one another. I also had one more surprise to announce for them before we began our approach. I recently bought an old VHS camcorder and was psyched to test it out for a test ride on our day climbing. Thankfully they obliged and we headed off towards North Peak from Saddlebag Lake.
Alpenglow light up the surrounding landscape while we made our way across the lakeside. Soon we were greeted with stunning views of the massive continuous ridgeline above luscious alpine meadows. We took it all in while continuing onwards towards our last water refill station. There we took a quick pause and planned out our off trail route towards the NW ridge of North Peak. It wasn’t long before we were on the ridgeline proper and faced the first section of 5th class climbing. This was a series of two deep notches3 in the ridge that were difficult to climb around. Instead we’d downclimb maybe 10 ft or so and then gain the ridge once more with a handful of thoughtful moves. It was my first time climbing in a while and I didn’t feel great about this initial section. We all wore approach shoes and moderately heavy packs for the alpine. Nerves set in as I knew Mt. Conness would be distinctly harder climbing with more sustained exposure. Regardless I continued on and trusted my gut.
The second half of North Peak was awesome. Outside of the two notches all remaining terrain was no more than 4th class. My spirits began to rise slightly as we moved fast on the awesome ridgeline exposure. Shortly after this ridge widened to 2nd class terrain and we walked another half mile or so to the summit. Occasionally I’d pull out the VHS camcorder and take a view clips of the crew ahead. My intention was to get nostalgic footage while artificially increasing the difficulty of filming in a way that was obvious to the audience. I also was intent on not getting in the way of my friends as we only briefly paused in each section. As we began our descent to the North Peak – Mt. Conness Col4, our buddy Tyler was lagging slightly. Sadly he was not feeling the day and decided to head back after reaching his main objective for the day: North Peak. It was a fairly straightforward descent and he felt very comfortable making it back solo. I debated joining him but was starting to feel a little better about the day.
Joe, Ollie, and I continued onwards to the North ridge of Mt. Conness. Our journey began with quite a long section of 3rd class terrain. We moved quite quickly on this section and it was a blast. No thinking required, just good movement on good rock. Next we’d arrive at the 1st tower and see the crux of the route ahead. We would need to gain the 2nd tower nearby, rappel down, then climb a long ways up the main 5th class portion of the ridge. Joe and Ollie were both a bit more comfortable on this terrain. Joe had been practicing downclimbing at most opportunities throughout the summer. Ollie had climbed the North ridge not that long ago and knew the rappels pretty well. While I conservatively chose to stay roped up, the pair both impressively downclimbed the tower rappels. These went at 5.5 & 5.6, respectively. They were wearing approach shoes, big packs, and from the Northwest were strong winds. I filmed from behind and knew I’d have to step up to the plate if I were to solo this type of route in the future.
Once we regrouped, it was time for the most fun part of the day. We moved fast on slabby, easy 5th terrain up the remaining portion of the North Ridge. We were all having a blast and my worries seemed to melt away. There were plenty of good ledges to rest and there were no individual moves that were particularly concerning. We all took our own paths before joining back at the summit block. Several parties had also been resting there and came from the numerous other routes on the popular peak. From the summit we could see all of Tuolumne Meadows and the huge granite walls of Yosemite background. At that moment I was stoked once again to get back into alpine climbing. The only thing left was our descent down Mt. Conness’ East Ridge. The three of us moved quickly and our round trip time back to the car was just over 8 hours. I felt confident in my general fitness and was stoked to be back in the game with friends. I enjoyed that evening getting dinner with Joe before a spectacular Lee Vining night in my truck.
A few weeks passed and it was time to plan another Sierra outing before Tioga Pass closed for the season. In the meantime I set off on two other great trips: a weekend backpacking with my roommates in Lassen National Park and the following weekend in Vermont for my friends Meredith and Ryan’s wedding. Afterwards plans came together quite smoothly for the beginning of October. My friend Andie from LA invite a group of us out to her family’s cabin in nearby Walker Lake. This stunning alpine community had ten cabins far along a dirt road and was only 15 minutes from Tioga Pass. My old climbing partner Trevor would be joining the crew and the two of us immediately put together some climbing options. The obvious choice for me was to return to Mt. Conness for a true backcountry classic: the West Ridge. This was a much longer and more technically difficult route than its Northern neighbor. Just getting to the base of the route required an approach nearly to the summit of the peak before descending back towards its west aspect. After the West Ridge began with three pitches of 5.6 before easing off to 4th and 5th class terrain. In total it was 1500 ft tall and had some spectacular knife edge exposure. I was particularly interested in the route from its guidebook hype: ‘Peter Croft’s favorite backcountry route’ and ‘a combination of Cathedral and Tenaya’.
I met Trevor and the gang late on a Thursday night at the Lee Vining Mobile Mart. We would try to wake up before sunrise so we immediately headed for the trailhead at Sawmill Camp. Instead of the northern approach from the previous week, our initial ascent would match the standard Mt. Conness descent towards the East ridge. We were once again greeted with a gorgeous alpine sunrise as we slowly made our way up the steep granite slabs. Just getting to the large plateau east of the summit ridge required about 2,500 ft of gain. It took us about 2.5 hours but eventually we made it. There we saw a spectacular vista once again of Tuolumne Meadows. Unfortunately we could just barely make out some looming smoke clouds from the Dome fire near Yosemite Valley. Once again this year we were faced with potential smoke filling the area. Shortly after we were descending towards the West ridge. This required navigation through a small notch and down a steep, loose gully. To our right was the massive Southeast face of Mt. Conness. This face contains the iconic Harding Route: a classic 9 pitch 5.10c put up long ago by Warren Harding5. For today it was far beyond our ability and we continued past towards the adjacent ridge.
Trevor and I solo’d up 100 ft or so before racking up6. Ahead was the steepest portion of terrain and I was feeling the nerves. Nothing looked particularly hard at first, but I knew that it would be easy to get off route. I studied the topo a few more times and planned out my general strategy. The first pitch was stout but straightforward. I aimed slightly right and towards a large corner system. Most of the climbing was low angle and well featured. At some cruxy moves I hesitated while searching for some adequate protection. Eventually I found some old tat7 and made the first belay. Trevor followed pretty quickly and it was time for pitch 2. Although we were now in a corner I felt like this was the crux of the day. Climbing was steeper and I relied heavily on good hand jams8. There was a short section of near vertical climbing that was strenuous and definitely felt harder than 5.6. If this route were in Washington Pass I would not be surprised if it was established as 5.7+/5.8-. Eventually I found the next belay at a nice sloping ledge. At this point I was feeling pretty stoked and once again planned my strategy with the topo. Pitch three had some steep jugs9 in front of me but then I could tell the route started to level off. Not long after I pulled through these moves and cruised onwards towards the next belay. We still had a ton of climbing left to go but I was stoked to have made it past the technical crux of the day.
Our strategy from this point onwards was to simul climb and solo10 as much terrain as possible. According to the guidebook the ridge had a handful of 5.5/5.6 moves but otherwise was fairly sustained at 4th class. Each of us brought one microtraxion11 and I would place these at the end of a rope length. Our first simul block12 went quite quickly. I climbed slowly and steadily without placing much gear at all. I’d guess that we made it through 400-500 ft in total before I eventually placed a fixed anchor to pull Trevor up. At this point the ridge narrowed slightly but still wasn’t quite a knife edge. It was only once in a while that we could peer over the ridge edge and see the Southeast face. It was still a spectacular setting and we could tell the cliffside was slightly overhanging. When I started the second simul block, the ridge steepened once again. I wanted to stick somewhat close to the true ridgeline and encountered a handful of harder sections. This made progress just a tad slower and it was then that I started to feel the fatigue set in. The ridge seemed to go on forever even with our mega simul blocks.
Near the end of the second block, we were gifted with the true knife edge portion of the ridge. It was truly an epic setting and the mountain seemed to give way endlessly in all directions. I started to get a second wind and our pace increased once again. Soon I started to see what I thought was the ridge leveling off. We had climbed close to a thousand feet of simul climbing and I was ready to reach the summit. I offered the lead to Trevor and he took off for the last of the climbing blocks. Starting off was pretty mellow 3rd and 4th class terrain. After a while he called back and said the ridge just kept going. I felt quite comfortable with the terrain so we eventually just scrapped the microtraxions all together. I cleaned gear quickly and we sped through the rest of the ridgeline. There were still some moments of knife edge exposure, but everything after this point was class 3 or below. Finally we made it to the summit block and I was blown away by the scale of the mountain. The west ridge was way bigger than the North ridge from the previous week. The 5.6 cruxes were way harder than I initially imagined. One day I would have to go back for the Southeast face and see what this place really had to offer.
After a short break at the summit we looked back into the valley. What was a somewhat clear meadow earlier in the day had become an opaque blanket of smoke. It was sad to see a continuously increasing frequency of wildfire impact backcountry experiences. I suppose that is the future of my generation. Despite the bleak view, we were still stoked from the day. We would celebrate more when we made it back to our crew. For now we had quite a long ways back to our car. It was the second time in a month that I had descended the East ridge. It would take a while but I knew I just had to hang in there. By the time we made it back it was just before dark. Our round trip was just over 12 hours. Later that night we’d meet our friends back at Walker Lake. We were both completely exhausted and struggled to match the energy of the crew for dinner. Regardless I was incredibly excited for the rest of the weekend. The next two days we would spend hiking and fishing in the Sierra backcountry. The views were excellent and we were lucky to experience them in near peak foliage. The return to hiking after such a wild alpine experience is always quite refreshing for me. What I really love about climbing is the shared moments with friends in wild settings. We got both ends of the spectrum that weekend and I think they were equally quite special.
- Easy 5th class ridgelines are common in the Sierra and toe the line between solo’ing and climbing with a rope for most parties ↩︎
- Intermediate ridgeline sub-peaks, sometimes called towers, usually require downclimbing or rappels ↩︎
- Ridge notches are usually sudden drops in the ridge that lead to gullies on either side ↩︎
- The middle point between both peaks ↩︎
- About 1200 ft of much more difficult climbing. First ascended by Warren Harding, a famous yosemite climber who first climbed El Capitan ↩︎
- Climbed easy terrain without a rope before transitioning to climbing gear ↩︎
- Material used for climbing anchors ↩︎
- Hand jams are a climbing technique used to ascend crack systems ↩︎
- ‘Jugs’ – Easy climbing holds to grip ↩︎
- ‘Simul Climb’ – Climb simultaneously without a fixed belay, generally trades speed for safety. Solo’ing is even faster but less safe ↩︎
- ‘Microtraxion’ – One way device used to catch follower falls while simul climbing ↩︎
- ‘Simul Block’ – About three lengths of rope, 400-500 ft ↩︎