Matthes Crest

We are still in the high country of Yosemite in the Tuolomne Meadows and have grand ambitions of doing about 4 more peaks before we leave the area. As we start making plans for each peak we soon realize that some will be unattainable due to the fact that we can't leave the van overnight because of the bears. This limits us to about 2 of the 4 peaks that we can still do.

The first one we head towards is Mount Conness. Planning accordingly we get started hiking at about 6AM so we can make it back to the van before dark. Pretty much right as we got on the trail we encountered a massive amount of snow still covering the trail. We had chose to not bring boots with us as most the peaks we have been to thus far have been relatively snow free. Slogging through the snow in approach shoes made for really slow going. Continuing to hike, we finally realized at about 11AM that we were moving too slow and the approach to the route we wanted to get on was going to begin with a snow couliour and clearly had not came prepared enough. We made the logical decision to head back down. The scenary was once again spectacular so we took about an hours nap on the exposed rock slab. Sam thought it would be a good idea to get some Vitamin D on his fish belly white stomach so he slept with his shirt off. Needles to say, he was no longer fish belly white, but bright lobster red when we finally aroused and hiked out.

Next up is the Matthes Crest. This is something hard to describe but absolutely incredible to climb. It's not a peak, not a mountain range, but also contains two peaks in the middle for summit opportunites. Crest is definately the right word to sum it up. It is a knife egde band of rock that runs nearly a mile long north and south in the middle of a valley. It was going to be another full day with a 6 mile hike to get started, the climb and then the descent out so we got started early.

The majority of the ridge was a mix of 4th class scrambling up to about 5.5 so we simul climbed the majority of the route. If we were to have pitched it out it works to be around 18 pitches and surely a bivy would have been in order to complete this. This climb has ended up being one of my favorites thus far. We were 2000ft up on a skinny ridge and floated flawlessly for a mile above the valley floor. Some parts of the ridge were only about a foot wide and others widened up to about 5 feet across. By simul-climbing we were able to protect the steeper and skinnier parts with ease.

 

 

The last pitch was certainly the most technical of the entire climb and was one of the 4 pitches we actually fully roped up and pitched out. The picture looks steep and intimidating but it's actually a pretty reasonable and moderate final pitch.

Took a quick moment to sign the summit register before making our way back to the van!

 

 

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