West Ridge of Mt Conness July 23rd-24th 2011
We came out of the Palisades early. Out by 9 AM. Then spent a day being
tourists. Got the bear barrel back, swam at the Bishop community pool, ate out
for lunch and dinner, sat in the breezeway of a mall, in Mammoth Lakes people
watching, before seeing the Harry Potter movie. Then back to the
normal....finding a squatting site and sleeping on the ground near Mono lake.
SteveB. and the Crane, Ryan Hull came in at 12:30 AM. After hemming and hawing
and almost having the ranger station talk us out of it, we went for the snow
filled basins, on our way to Conness Peak in Yosemite.
We planned it as a two day trip. We did find much snow. Lots of it sun cupped to
2-3 feet deep. We settled in to our high camp of the trip, on the shoulder of
the mountain, at 12,000 feet. Dinner and sunset watching gave way to a cold
night for some. The next day starts with an 800 foot drop, down hard snow to the
toe of the ridge. What followed was just splendid. My favorite climb of the
trip. Seven or eight pitches up to 5.6, up a stunning ridge, on great rock, with
fantastic positions. What wonderful movement, with distracting views. After an
hour on the summit, we went down to our camp and reversed the snowy basins, to
the cars. Our California buddies, headed through the park and we went down to
Lee Vining, for another night of sleeping on the ground, our 19th in a row. Two
more climbs and 3 more nights of squatting to go.Trim, tired and tan, we mostly
did not want it to end.
Pictures?
https://picasaweb.google.com/aramv14...ly23rd24th2011
