Quick Stats: 3.0 Miles & 1,771′ gain via the West Face from the Gardisky Lake Trail.
I’m back! After an absurdly fast recovery from surgery Frankie and I decided it was time for our first technical ascent of a mountain, so onward to Mount Conness we went!
As we got further North along the 395 we started to look at the map to find a good spot to dirtbag for the night; also wouldn’t hurt to find a simple acclimatization hike since we haven’t been at altitude in a while. We noticed a relatively small hike to a relatively high peak starting from a turnout that would make for a good spot to sleep: Tioga Peak from the Gardisky Lake Trailhead.
This was our first adventure since our ascent of Tumanguya (Mount Whitney) in August, so we were a little concerned about how well we would do above 11,000′, and also our general fitness levels. From the get go it was clear that my fitness had definitely dropped at all from my surgery recovery, and Frankie had no issues either (she stayed active during my recovery). The sun started to sit low in the sky as we branched off from the Gardisky lake Trail toward the summit of Tioga Peak, and once it sank below the Sierra Crest the temperature immediately plummeted. We were somewhere around 11,000′ when Frankie decided that she didn’t need to reach the summit; her hands were frozen and she ultimately fulfilled the goal of reaching a some point above 10,000′, so she decided to turn back while I made a dash toward the summit. It’s a pretty well trod use trail over stable talus to the summit; the only catch being the two Fukreeli Points (a.k.a. False Summits) along the way.
I only took a brief moment on the summit, and decided I didn’t want to take a summit selfie. I wanted to make sure that Frankie was in my first summit selfie in the High Sierra with my new face, so I opted for these photos instead:
After a very brief time at the top of Tioga Peak I put my headlamp around my head and started making my way down, trying to make as much haste as possible to minimize how much time I’d have to spend hiking back to Alyx in the dark. The stable talus made for a quick ascent, but ultimately made it so that I couldn’t move too fast (nor scree ski) on the descent. I got back to the Gardisky Lake Trail where Frankie was waiting for me, and then we finished out quick little jaunt in the dark.
This was the warmup for our adventure tomorrow: The North Ridge of Mount Conness. We got Alyx situated and settled in for the night, knowing we would be waking up the next morning for one hell of an alpine start on one hell of an adventure.
