Excelsior Mountain 12,446′ and Shepard Crest 12,020′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 7:10
Distance: 12.2
Elevation Gain: 4300’
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Saddlebag Lakes, full services
In the northeast corner of Yosemite National Park, there are a series of alpine summits that are often climbed from just outside of the park boundary to the east. The most famous of these are Mount Conness and Matterhorn Peak, however there is a collection of other nearby summits that are also on the Sierra Peak Section list. Although I had climbed Mount Conness previously, I had yet to climb any of the others. My initial plan for the day had been to climb the northeast ridge of North Peak and link it with the north ridge of Mount Conness, a climbing route I have been planning for some time. But after getting caught in a thunder hailstorm the day before in Mineral King, I thought I should try a route that I could easily bail from should bad weather start rolling in. Finding an option was actually easier said than done. I wanted to do something in Yosemite to utilize my daily pass, climb something I hadn’t done before, something on the Sierra Peak Section list and something that I could bail off of if the weather turned. After searching the maps for a while, I settled on Excelsior Mountain out of Saddlebag Lake. Although there was a shorter route up Excelsior from the east, the route from saddlebag would only add 2 miles, about 12 total for the day, and could be easily abandoned if bad weather started. In order to optimize the best weather of the day I left home quite early, reaching the trailhead at Saddlebag Lakes at about 7:30 AM. There is a ferry that goes across the lakes which would shave off 2 miles each way from my day, however I wasn’t sure if they were even operating during COVID and figured an extra 2 to 4 miles for the day was no big deal. Besides, the section was extremely flat and I hiked along the lake shore with hazy views across due to the fires that had just started along the coast in the Santa Cruz mountains and surrounding area.
I reached the far side of the lake just as the first ferry landed. Oh well. Several older hikers got off the boat surprised to see someone had beat them to the far shore and that I had taken the time to hike the entire additional 2 miles. I blew past them, passing multiple named an unnamed lakes, the high alpine basin giving some of the best bang for your buck in terms of lakes to mileage ratio in the High Sierra.
Based on the map, I went over a shallow pass at some point (but don’t think I could even tell you where) and ultimately reach a long lake at the north west end of the basin beneath the southern slopes of Excelsior Mountain. It was difficult to tell from below exactly where the summit was, although the nearby peak of Shepard Crest to the west was easily distinguishable. Although I hoped I might be able to tag it as a bonus peak for the day, it would mean that I probably could have done the North ridge of Conness, so I had some mixed feelings. Not quite knowing where the summit was above I headed directly up the south slopes, angled slightly to the east to reach a low point along the ridgeline above. This led to some of the loosest and steep rock of the day just below the ridgeline, and I scrambled up shifting talus to more stable rock above. From the ridgeline east of Shepard Crest, I looked across a high alpine basin with the striking south ridge of Excelsior directly ahead and slightly to the west.
In order to reach the ridgeline I needed to drop slightly into the basin, then traverse northwest to the ridgeline proper. A large gendarme blocked the ridge about a third of the way up, although it looked like from below there were plenty of ledges that I could use to work around it. So I started up, trying to stay as true to the ridgeline as possible to have the best scrambling. It was actually quite enjoyable and the rock was overall quite solid with the gendarme easily traversed along its eastern edge.
The final bit of class 3 just before the top was a bit more vertical, but had fun moves with a bit of stemming to get over the lip to the last bit of class 2 to the summit. Or so I thought. When I topped out, I was surprised to see the high point was still nearly a mile to the north, not much higher in elevation but with multiple intervening false summits and a shallow saddle that would require about 200 feet of descent.
It was a bit demoralizing, but the clouds seem to be behaving and it looked like there were no thunderstorms- at least in the immediate future. I continued along the crest, traversing the various false summits along their eastern slopes until I topped out at the summit before noon. The summit was fairly popular, although not as much as nearby mount Conness, seeing ascents roughly once or twice a week during the summer. The last entry was about one week before, although that person had taken the register pencil/pen and I was unable to sign my name.
Some fluffy white clouds were beginning to build overhead, not looking ominous yet but with the potential to turn into something more sinister. And given the extremely hazy views I decided to cut my lunch short and head back the way I came. When I reached the south ridgeline, rather than scramble down the class three I utilized loose scree and talus slopes to boot ski down just east of the ridge line before traversing back to the saddle between Excelsior and Shepard Crest.
It looked as if the weather would hold enough for me to tag this extra summit and I picked up a fairly well defined use trail that brought me up to a high notch just below Shepard Crest. The initial climb from the notch was the loosest portion, with the rock consolidating past a false summit and up to the thin high point with a register next to a random climbing bolt.
I signed in, this summit seeing far less visitors than Excelsior but at least having its own pen. Based on the register, the last visitor had been to the top only a week before. North Peak looked tantalizingly close immediately to the south and the weather seem to be holding. I debated whether to go for the additional Sierra Peak Section peak that day, although ultimately decided against it since I would need to come back for the North Ridge of Mount Conness anyways, not having any climbing gear with me.
I dropped off Shepard Crest of the south reaching the saddle between Shepard Crest and North Peak down easy class 2 slopes. Dropping off the saddle, slightly more difficult at class 3, was also fairly straightforward with cairns and a faint use trail for climbers looking to climb the north east ridge North Peak. After passing some unnamed upper lakes and filtering some water, I dropped back down towards the trail below.
I passed by some hikers for the first time since the boat ferry that morning and continued past back towards the trail head. The smoke seem to build throughout the day, and I could barely see across Saddlebag lake by the time I got back to the trail head. With Tuolumne Meadows Grill closed for the season, I was happy to have some food and a celebratory beer waiting for me in my car, which I drank along the river out of Saddlebag before heading back home through Yosemite National Park.
