Tuolumne Again, July 3-7, 2002

For the 4th of July holiday weekend, I headed north to Tuolumne Meadows and joined a fairly large group of friends, some of whom had been there for days already, for some beautiful granite climbing. On Thursday I swung leads with Erin on West Country (on the Stately Pleasure Dome).

The next day six of us headed out to climb the West Ridge of Conness. Rod, Charles, Jeremy, and I separated from Ed and Viv (who was suffering from altitude sickness) and we promptly got lost. After wandering up and down a steep scree-sloped valley and climbing over a ridge, we ran into Ed, who had gone the right way. We hiked to the top of Mt. Conness instead of doing the ridge traverse, as it was getting late and we were tired from our missteps. It was a fun day despite the lack of climbing.

On Saturday Charles and I climbed Crescent Arch, a very fun 4-pitch route.

Erin on the fourth pitch of "West Country." She led pitches 2 and 4 and I led 1 and 3.

Amy at the top of West Country.

Erin swimming across Tenaya Lake.

Curvy panorama with Erin in the lake.

Friday: Mt. Conness

Rod, Amy, and Jeremy as we began to hike towards Mt. Conness. The mosquitoes were wicked.

Rod, Ed, & Viv (Photo: Charles).

Ed, shortly before we separated into two groups.

Amy.

Jeremy as we hike out of a valley we shouldn't have descended into in the first place. We climbed the ridge in the background at its highest point (off to the right of the picture) and from there we could see the summit of Mt. Conness.

Rod gesturing at something, perhaps the magnificent view.

Rod and Jeremy.

Amy, Rod, Charles, and Jeremy (Photo: Charles, via self-timer).

360 degree panorama from the summit of Mt. Conness.

Charles cutting through the snow all alone. Jeremy, Rod, and I had mutineed and headed around the snow field instead of through it. I was wearing sandals (I had flown up from Southern CA and had thus packed lightly, not bringing my hiking boots) and so the path around the snow field, while longer, was much more attractive.

Amy on the snow. Photo: Charles.

Alpine Lake.

Saturday: Crescent Arch

Charles on the first pitch of Crescent Arch. This route follows a fun hand and finger crack in the dihedral corner of a large archlike feature on Daff Dome. This might be my new favorite climb as far as the quality of climbing is concerned, though I should note, Charles led all the pitches.

Charles starting up the third pitch, which angles to the right under the roof of the crescent.

Charles (near the top of the picture) setting up the hanging belay after the third pitch.

Panorama from the top of Daff Dome.

Amy atop a rock atop Daff Dome. The view from here is wonderful. The hike down was uncomfortably steep for me, so I scooched down it on my butt.

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