Mount Conness (Yosemite, CA) by East Ridge

pics by Harlan W.S. and Eric K.
Aug 27, 2011

The weather looked iffy, so we made it to the summit before 10AM, and were off shortly thereafter. There seemed to be a lot of snow for this time of year, but generally we were able to avoid snow travel.

I first contemplated climbing Conness in 1984, while I was working in that area… but never got a work weather window. I planned again in 2007… but was turned away by a whiteout with 6-12” new snow.

GPS trace of route.	Eric by one of many waterfalls.	Marmot.
Jana and Eric. We met Jana just as we were about to leave the use trail for the route to the east ridge. She is a pleasant person who came from the Czech Republic 5 years ago.	Alpine Lake.
One mandatory snow crossing. There is a big gap, not visible in photo.		Eric and Jana below.
Jana pops over edge of pre-summit plateau.	Summit block. Much of the way has “steps” of granite levered into place by the trail-builders.	Another semi-mandatory snow crossing, just before summit block.
Jana comes up summit block.	View NE from summit.	I went NE to next crag, so I could get good pics of Jana and Eric as they summated… and got a bit chilled waiting for that short time.
	Views down (NE) to Conness Glacier.
	View ~SE. Lyell is the highpoint near center, with the large glacier on its flanks; Banner and Ritter are sharp peaks to L of Lyell.	Zoom to Lyell.
Jana searches for a register book that is not filled and wet.	Eric’s summit shot (via self-timer!)
Eric’s photo of Jana and me heading down.	My views back at Eric and Jana on summit block.
		About to pop over edge, down east ridge.
Eric’s photo of me as I descend.		Eric negotiates a rock- snow problem.
	Eric’s photo of us on lower east ridge.	Heather.
Alpine Lake again.		An umbellidae member.
	Creepy narrow bridge with water washing over it.	Iris.