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Conness, West Ridge 7.25.2004 Thumbnails!
Flat out: wow. The west ridge of Conness is one of the most incredible and thrilling hikes or climbs I've ever done. If you can climb/scamper around 5.5 or 5.6, I'd pick this route over the SW slope any day. In fact, I'd recommend learning how to climb 5.5 or 5.6 over hiking up the SW slope.
Chari and I backpacked into Young Lakes on Saturday, and took off from camp just before 5:30 am Sunday. Another team got to the base of the roped section before us, but we scrambled up half a pitch to their right and passed them (with permission). We roped up just after 8 am (how did *that* happen?). I lead the first 2 pitches, which may not have been the standard route, but still fun, nonetheless. After that, NICE knife edge. One of those "I can't believe I'm doing this right now, and boy I'm glad Mom doesn't know about it" moments. It's amazing.
I ended up leading every pitch, and we weren't quite confident enough to simul-climb. Everytime I was about to suggest it, I hit a weird area with an exposed move. The disadvantage was it was slower; the advantage was that I got *really* good at building anchors quickly (a previous weakness). Nothing like 12 pitches to develop a system. Moving with anchored belays, I don't think we could have gone too much faster, with the exception of changing leads. I moved quickly and rarely placed more than 3 pieces per pitch (not counting the first 2 pitches), usually only 1 or 2. We didn't waste any time at anchor stations either. Regardless, we summitted at 5:30 pm (insert low whistle here . . . what happened?).
After 15 minutes at the top, we headed down the SW slope, which looks like a hideous scree-fest as an ascent. Like I said, if you can climb, go for the ridge. We reached Young Lakes at 8:15, started our backpack out at 9, and reached Tuolumne at 1 am. 19.5 straight hours of climbing or hiking. The walk-out to the meadows was brutal: body was done, but we wanted to get out (and back to the Bay Area, which we did just in time for the morning rush hour). Usually we move faster; don't know what happened out there this time.
For normal-speed folk, I recommend 2 nights at Young Lakes or Roosevelt Lake. Our rack consisted of 2 #2, 2 #1, 2 #0.75, 2 #0.5 (all camelots); 1 orange, one purple Metroleus; and one green alien. It ended up being a good rack; I used 'em all, and appreciated the duplicity when I found a parallel crack at a belay station. We brought large stoppers but forgot the nut tool (smack in the head), so I didn't set them.
What fun!
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