Mt Conness - Eastern Approach (Saddlebag Campground Trailhead)

9 August 2008 (Friday)

Hike Times: 9am - 4pm PDT (approx. 7h hike duration)

Distance/Elevation: 8.5 miles / 2500 ft (rough approximates)

Mountain Conditions: Summer conditions with minor snow patches on north-facing slopes near the summit.

Weather Conditions: Dry. Moderate temps. Clear the entire day.

Crowds: Very sparse. Encountered only one person at the summit.

A great friend of mine and I did this hike more than ten years ago (before the advent of smart phones and the like). I decided to share this trip report to try to highlight similarities and important differences between the High Sierra and the Colorado 14ers. Each are amazing in their own ways.

The California Sierra are the first mountain range that I really fell for. We spent the better part of a month in Yosemite National Park conducting geologic fieldwork on the Sentinel Granodiorite, an attractive stone emplaced near White Wolf Campground. The Sierra Nevada batholith has abundant hard rock exposure and accommodating underbrush, making the entire park above 8,000ft a literal hiker's paradise. With a good topo map in hand, you can hike to your heart's desire.

The main thing to stress about the Sierra Nevada is the sheer size and scope of the range. It's massive in its length (400 miles) and depth (60+ miles from foothills to crest), which dwarfs the Sawatch Range dimensions. Road infrastructure is limited except for the National Parks and a couple major roads, but the distances are still significant. In Yosemite NP alone, the drive from Yosemite Valley to the Tioga Pass is 65 miles and nearly 2 hours.

The weather was dry and stable the entire month we were out there. We saw none of the afternoon thunderstorms that flare up in Colorado's summer monsoons. 2008 was a relatively dry year (and fires in the area produced a lot of smoke), but it was remarkable how stable the air mass was the entire time.

The last major point is that the California black bears (often golden in color) are real, very large and will raid your food stash in an instant if it's not secured in a bear box.

We chose Mt Conness because we had heard good reports of the hike. It also probably didn't hurt that the peak is the third highest point in the park at 12,590ft (13ers Mt Lyell and Mt Dana have it beat). Using our USGS topo map as our guide, we parked at Saddlebag Lakes Campground just north of Tioga Road (near the pass) and hiked west up the mountainside to the peak. A rough approximation of our path is represented in the map below.

We started west from the parking lot and crossed Lee Vining creek near the reservoir dam. The trail starts in the red, crumbly metamorphic terrains. We hiked off-trail near the point where the mountain slope breaks into the valley, since the landscape stayed dry and passable while not requiring too much scrambling that would be necessary just up the slope.

After 1.5 miles, we began our hike up the much steeper mountain slope towards Alpine Lake. We gained about 1000ft elevation in just under a mile, mostly on steep hillside and talus. Before you know it, the High Sierra scenery begins to open up before you.

Alpine Lake was a great stopping point and nearly half way up the mountain. Just glorious scenery. However, it was at this point that we started to second-guess our map reading skills and wondered how easy it would be to get up the rim.

Hiking was slow-going and the altitude was beginning to become more apparent. We carefully navigated the talus and exposed bedrock towards our interim goal (the slight slope break two-thirds the way). From there, we decided to make our way towards "the notch" in the rim, scrambling up the rock ridge and making our way across the bedrock exposure just above the snow bank. The final scramble was very steep but still doable without climbing gear. Probably Class 2+.

Once reaching the notch, we found ourselves on a very flat slope with incredible views.

However, the mountain had one last surprise in store. The Conness summit stands oddly above the slope like a giant knob and can be accessed by scrambling up the "ramp". It was great fun and had moderate exposure. While I didn't take a picture of the general feature, folks have posted wider angle shots in other forums ( https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/mount-conness-north-ridge/photos ).

Summit views were breathtaking in every direction. There's enough room on top for a handful of people but not much more. It was finally at this point that we met our first hiker on the trail, who had summited from the north. I must stress that the vastness of the Sierra were incredibly obvious from the top, where mountains stretched in every direction and there was little sign of humanity anywhere. Views to the east went clear out past Mono Craters to the White Mountains.

We encountered no major issues on the way down from the summit, but the views still boggle the mind.

Back on "the slope", you get great views of the Twenty Lakes Basin and can also very easily see the geologic junction of the white granite batholith against the red metamorphic pendant rocks. Geology exposed before your eyes!

We continued back more or less the same way we went up. No major issues but the lack of trail and steepness of the slope kept our pace slow.

I would highly recommend this hike to anyone visiting the Central Sierra Nevada. I think it gives a good representative experience of the High Sierra, provides just astounding views of the area, and offers you with general map reading, route finding and boulder-hopping challenges that are not always available on the well-engineered trails of the Colorado 14ers. And there's no better place to study Cretaceous Granites in the Lower 48! Have fun.