North Ridge of Mount Conness, North Peak and White Mountain

Mount Conness 12,590′, North Peak 12,242′ and White Mountain 12,057′
Rock Climbing– Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 10:20
Distance: 12.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 5200′
Crux: Class 5.6 A0
Trailhead: Saddlebag Lakes, full services

---

---

---

Mount Conness along the northeastern boundary of Yosemite National Park has some of the best moderate technical alpine adventures in the Sierra Nevada. The West Ridge is probably the most famous, rated 5.6 with about a dozen technical pitches leading to the lofty summit. The north ridge, almost as popular is also rated it 5.6, but its’ technical portions are actually down climbs into notches along the ridge line which can be rapelled, making the rest of the route mostly third and fourth class. Because the technical sections can be rapelled, the route is often soloed with a rope and had been on my to do list since the move. My plan was to link it up with the northeast ridge of North Peak, a similar although shorter ridgeline which would allow me to bag and extra Sierra Peak Section peak along with the two alpine ridge routes. I had opportunity to scout out at least the northeast ridge of North Peak the week before on my climb of Excelsior Mountain, and was ready to attempt the more difficult route with less smoke and 0% chance of precipitation. Despite the favorable weather, I still planned for an early start and reached Saddlebag Lake at about 7:30 in the morning. I again hiked around the west side of the lake opting not to use the ferry and followed the trail through the high alpine basin, passing a number of lakes to the north west.

I aimed for the saddle formed between North Peak and Shepard Crest and utilized class two and three slabs to hit the ridgeline slightly south of the saddle low point. I had brought a harness for the rappel sections along with a climbing helmet, and put these on to save a bit of weight and make room for my water bottles, hoping not to lose yet another water bottle scrambling. The northeast ridge North Peak is mostly class 3 with two crux notches that can be easily down climbed to one side or the other, or climbed directly at low fifth class. The initial scrambling along the ridgeline was good across solid granite with almost no loose rock encountered. I passed a couple of very small notches, unsure if these were the cruxes I had read about. About halfway up the scramble portion of the lower ridgeline I hit the first true notch and was able to down climb using class three ledges to the left.

Although not trivial, getting through the first notch was fairly straightforward and less exposed than I expected. After about 100 yards I came to the second notch. This was easily bypassed to the right.

I quickly reached the third, deepest and most difficult of the notches. The notch actually had a tower of rock in the center that if one was brave enough you could jump to get across to the other side. The rock was uneven and it would be a catastrophic landing to botch, so I gingerly down climbed on class three slabs to the right of the ridge line.

I crossed left back over into the notch and descended a bit to the left finding a ramp/ shelf to lead me to a dual crack system which I easily climbed back up to regain the ridgeline proper. With the crux of the northeast ridge now behind me, I thought it would be a fairly straightforward scramble up to the top. However rather than climb the ridge directly as I should have, I cut across the climbers right slopes of the ridge, see an impasse higher above that I probably easily could’ve surmounted.

Now a bit below the ridgeline I struggled to make my way back up having to climb around a series of choke stones to get back to the highest rib of rock. Once I had climbed through this last difficulty it was easy scrambling up the final bit of rock to the high talus summit plateau and up to the high point. I signed into the summit register. Not surprisingly seeing many summit throughout the summer with the short approach and wide range of route options. The north ridge of Conness was directly to the south with basically the entire route laid out before me. From North Peak the ridge did not look all that long and the two towers to be rapelled were quite early on in the scramble. I felt like I would be at the summit in under a few hours.

I easily dropped off North Peak using sandy scree slopes and dropped down to the saddle between Mount Conness and North Peak. The first portion of the north ridge of Conness was very easy and in parts I could simply walk straight across, nearly class one with only a little bit of class two and three mixed in. The ridgeline steepened as I neared the first tower and I was unsure of where to traverse across this first impasse, my beta suggesting a traverse on the climbers left side of the tower.

I could see the ledges skirting across the left face of the first tower, but needed to climb nearly to the top of it before I could safely traverse over. Even then I stayed a bit too high and needed to cut back-and-forth across the ledges to reach the notch between the first and second towers. So far so good- although I knew the crux of the day was still to come.

From the notch, I followed the ridge line further, staying true to the highest rock and quickly topped out on the second tower. The exposure was significant and I was thankful to quickly find the first rappel station with fresh webbing. I anchored myself in as a set up the rappel, the first of two to get myself off this second larger tower. The first rap was only about 30 feet and it was unclear where the second anchor station was from above. I started down going probably close to 40-50 feet to a large ledge below. I still couldn’t find the second anchor station, and undid my rappel gear, scrambling up a ramp to my right and finding the second rappel station near the top off of some slung boulders. I went back down to retrieve my rope and then scrambled back up the ramp to the second anchor station. I again clipped myself in to set up the longer second repel, this one probably around 70 feet. The wind push the rope and it got tangled on granite knobs which I had to painfully undo as I headed down the second rap.

The technical portions now behind me, I assumed the final bit of the north ridge route would be straightforward and I would be at the summit in no time. But looking up, the featured slab did not look much easier than the ridgeline itself, although certainly less exposed. Starting up, I was happy to find that the slab climbing was easier than it looked from below, although it seemed to keep going on forever and ever. Every time I thought I was nearing the summit, I would pop up over and see more slabs and pillars towering over my head. The most exhilarating scrambling was near the ridge crest, however near the very top there was a series of gaps that required one to drop down to the slabs on climbers right in order to bypass them.

Every time I would re-climb up to the ridge line for the most solid scrambling I would need to drop back down for another deep notch. I was almost surprised when I did actually hit the summit, starting to feel that it was never going to come. The high point was a bit smaller than I remembered from my first time up when I climbed the southern slopes, and I took a long break at the high point having been scrambling almost continuously for several hours. I used the break to take off my harness and remove the water bottles from my pack.

As a rested I eyed White Mountain directly to the south. While I had originally planned on descending by the class three east ridge, the prospect of tagging one more peak seemed like a more interesting idea. I hadn’t researched White Mountain ahead of time but thought I had remembered it was class two from the north, and the ridge connecting Conness and White Mountain did not look all that challenging. It was only mid afternoon and I certainly had plenty of daylight to continue on with the traverse. So after checking some distances on my GPS, I decided to go for the third summit of the day dropping off the south slopes of Conness with a little bit of class 3getting off the summit block itself.

A thin use trail cut across the sandy slopes and I quickly reached the deep notch between White Mountain and Mount Conness where I had ascended Conness on my first trip. There were actually some cairns and a thin use trail that continued up White Mountain, but whoever placed the cairns seemed to have no interest in scrambling and more enjoyment in slogging up scree.

There were a couple gaps just below the high point that I scrambled around and quickly topped out, taking less than 30 minutes from the saddle below, an easily worthwhile side trip. A small jar contained the summit register, seeing far fewer summits than I expected, although this one was similarly missing a pen like Excelsior the week before.

This is not an exaggeration, but the summit had more marmot turds than I have ever seen on any peak in my entire life. Because of this and the later hour and despite the good views I started back down. It looked like from above I could cut down the east ridge of White Mountain directly rather than drop back down to the saddle with Conness. So I decided to give this a try, reaching a series of gaps that I was able to get around using very loose scree ledges to the right.

From there, I had a few options, I could drop down to the right into a small basin, which would have taken me a bit further from my car and definitely not save time, or get back over the ridge and try and drop down scree there. Unfortunately, the left slope was north facing and held some late season snow, forcing me to scramble down ledges rather than utilize loose scree as I had hoped. Ultimately, it definitely took more time than dropping to the saddle with Conness, and I was fairly annoyed by the time I reached the valley below. I picked up the use trail but continually lost it, thinking I needed to follow the stream but it likely being a bit further to my north. Once I re entered forest, I abandoned all plans for staying on anything that looked like a trail and charged cross country through the forest directly towards my car. This worked better than it should have and I reached the trailhead lot a bit before 6 PM, the entire day taking about 10 hours. I tossed my gear into the back of my gear and peeled out of the lot, happy to have ticked off the classic route before the end of summer (and retrospectively, the start of some much worse smoke).