Mount Conness

October 2024

Zach and I originally intended to climb the iconic West Ridge of Conness, but a nasty case of food poisoning scuppered our plans. I was feeling queasy for the entire drive Friday night, not sure of the cause. The huge greasy burrito I had for dinner mid-drive certainly did not help my cause. Eventually, we got to Tuolumne, walked off into an obscure pine stand, and slept under the stars. I had trouble sleeping on account of my ailment and in the morning, finally vomited profusely. I felt a sense of relief, as one often does after cleaning house, but still felt horrible. The weekend was not looking good. Zach was a good sport about the whole ordeal and didn’t seem to mind the fact that the weekend might not go as planned.

Our original plan was to do some trad climbing in Tuolumne to warm up, then hike to Young Lakes where we would camp for the night before attempting the West Ridge on Sunday morning. Somehow, I summoned the strength to do something other than lay on the ground in agony next to my puke, and before I knew it Zach and I were off to Stately Pleasure Dome. There we did some simul-climbing practice, working out our technique and communication strategy on some easy, but runout PG-13 (even by Yosemite standards), slab. Moving on the rock together in synchrony was extremely efficient and felt pretty freeing compared to our usual methods of pitching everything out.

We retuned to the car and Zach ate some lunch while I took small, pathetic sips of water, the only thing I could get down. For some reason, we thought doing a 700 foot trad route was a good idea before packing up and setting off for Young Lakes. Three hours and four epic pitches on “Holdless Horror” later, we were on top of Dozier Dome. I was exhausted and quite literally running on empty, but the climbing was fun, and we even saw an old friend of mine, Sam, while down climbing back to the car. What a crazy coincidence to see him out there in the middle of the wilderness, not even on a trail.

Once back at the car, we drove to the trailhead for Conness, sorted our gear, and took off. It wasn’t long before the sun set over Tuolumne Meadows, and were we hiking under the stars. The approach was much longer and steeper than we thought, so we were thoroughly thrashed by the time we got to Young Lakes. We set up camp and were fast asleep before long.

At 3:40 a.m. our alarms dutifully went off. I walked over to Zach’s tarp, sat down, and we discussed our situation. I felt pretty crappy, but definitely not in the worst state I’ve ever been in the alpine. Ultimately, we decided to play it conservatively and come back for the West Ridge when we were both feeling 100%. We were both mildly relieved to be able to go back to sleep for a couple hours. We rose around 6:30 and decided to hike the relatively mellow class two southwest face to the summit.

The hike up Conness was strikingly beautiful the whole way. We trundled through beautiful valleys and eventually made our way well above tree line. We navigated moon-like landscapes to the summit ridge, where a beautiful, exposed, granite staircase of sorts led to the summit. We were treated to wonderful views on the summit. Maclure, Lyell, Ritter, and Banner all loomed large to our south. The Whites, Inyos, and numerous imposing ranges in Nevada lingered to our east. To the north, the upper reaches of the range stretched out. Smog choked the valleys to our west. I told Zach that on a clear day you can see straight out to the ocean.

We made our way down to camp, packed up, and lugged our heavy bags—weighed down by all sorts of climbing gear we didn’t end up using—back to the car. We took turns driving and made it home at a reasonable hour. It was a few days before I could get substantial calories down, but eventually I made a full recovery—just in time for the last few weekends of trips to the Sierra before winter well and truly arrives.