Mt Conness
6 July 2018
This climb really knocked my socks off — I was not remotely prepared for the level of fun we were to have this day. Garrett had come up with the interesting idea to approach the north ridge of Mt Conness via the northwest ridge of North Peak after reading a report by Bob Burd describing the link up. Of course, it also allowed us to bag two SPS peaks with relative ease, a big bonus for Garrett. But the real sweet stuff was the rock — golden, knobby absolutely immaculate Tuolumne granite. It all looked like a big mountain, almost all of which have some degree of choss, but the rock was not like a mountain; it was, to quote Mr. Bogart, the stuff that dreams are made of. And the difficulties were right in our wheelhouse with acres of third class, leading to some fourth class, a cruxy downclimb after the second tower, and finally the realization that we could climb the whole damn thing without a rope. It was my first time soloing appreciable stretches of fourth and easy fifth class terrain — a revelatory experience to be sure. I felt completely in control and in some ways, it was reassuring to sort of accidentally have a giant rope which could be whipped out at any time should one of us get sketched out. Not typically an option for the solo climber! But that never happened, just gleeful movement all the way to the top. What a day.
Pictures Postscript:
Here are some pictures all taken around the big notch between the second tower and the final headwall. This area is a nice benchmark for the climb, as the terrain up to the second tower is generally easy, enjoyable scrambling; and after the notch, of course lies the final headwall with its even better fourth and easy fifth climbing on the knobs. Oh yeah love those knobs, so so good.
