Re: We Made It!

A couple weeks ago I posted that we tried to get up to the tarn above Upper Conness Lake but took the wrong route and failed. We tried a different route last week and were successful. Here is a link to a detailed image with the route we took:

http://images.aa6g.org/YosemiteForums/Route-to-ConnessTarn.jpg

As long as you can get to the north side of the upper lake, I think this route is easier than climbing far above and crossing through all that rock. The sections of the route marked with orange ovals are places where you have to cross rocks but they are fairly short. The red oval is a short section of loose rock and sand on a fairly steep slope but again it is very short. The blue oval which is located at the bottom of the climb up to the tarn is a where some of the water from Conness glacier is coming out from underground. There are a number of spots where water is emerging from the ground and joins together to go over the falls. From the blue oval up we climbed along the border of rocks and the granite slope, going back and forth on whatever looked easiest. About half the way was on grass and dirt. Overall it was much easier than I expected. The red dots are the spots I photographed from.

Here's a couple of images from up there.

http://panoramas.aa6g.org/ConnessLakes/ConnessLakesPan180.html

http://panoramas.aa6g.org/ConnessLakes/ConnessTarn.html

The tarn was covered with a thin sheet of ice when we arrived and was mostly melted when we left.

I climbed North Peak this weekend and passed by (above) this tarn. Your route sounds good for getting there. Alternatively, there is a small use trail that branches off from the north shore of the lake, not far above the outlet. It climbs one of the rock gullies and traverses to close to the tarn.

Here's a view of it from slightly different perspective


IMG_20120915_100117 by edg13, on Flickr

If you look at the route photo zoomed in you can see a use trail traversing across to the glacial lake (Conness Tarn.)

I saw the use trail on the image but having been up there on a slightly lower use trail we decided against that. We didn't like that loose scree on such a steep slope. The route we took didn't involve any of that. Also I don't know how you get to that use trail.

You can also see the use trail heading straight down from the middle of the four groups of bushes. We saw that last time but refused to take it because it was so steep.

Congrabulations!

My rule o thumb is... rock up... scree down...
Not always possible... but that is what I try to do. I HATE going up sand/scree with a passion.

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Success. Alright! Pretty cool up there. Looks like it was worth the effort.