Cathedral Peak / Mount Conness
Ascents of Cathedral Peak (Mountaineer's Route) and Mount Conness (East Ridge), with Sven Feldmann, September 20-21, 2002
Timeline:
September 20, 2002: Sven Feldmann and I left the Bay area at 7:30 and after numerous stops parked on the roadside in Tuolumne Meadows at 13:30. After a short approach via Budd Creek and a long lunch stop, we proceeded up the scree to the right of the Southeast Buttress. We were on the summit around 16:00. There was one other party on the summit, who had climbed the SE buttress, and then a soloist appeared. The weather was perfect and we had a view of large parts of Yosemite National Park. We returned to the car via the John Muir Trail, a longer walk. This was worth it as we caught the alpenglow on Fairview Dome. We reached the car around 18:30.
September 21, 2002: We started at 10:20 from the Saddlebag parking lot and proceeded to hike up to Alpine Lake, which we reached in under an hour. From there, after Sven took a dip in the lake and we enjoyed the late morning sun, we hiked up talus and scree to the summit plateau. The ridge traverse, while trivial, was pretty airy. We reached the summit at 14:00, and spent around an hour there having lunch. We were back at the car at 17:00 and back home in Palo Alto at 22:45.