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We rock climb so much that I’ve basically been moving from one injury to another.

I recently became aware of a concept called “resting and taking time off from climbing” that many an online climbing blogger claims has some benefit in terms of injury avoidance and getting stronger in the long run. I know, right?

OK, but what’s a person to do if they’re not climbing? Oh, yeah, how about hiking some Sierra canyons and climbing some peaks. It is summer after all, and high season for the aforementioned activities. Plus, we’re in pretty good shape!

Tioga Peak (11,526′)

Arriving in Tioga Pass late in the evening in early July, we decided to try a hike from our “Tioga Tramps” guidebook, parked and headed up to Gardisky Lake. From the lake, looking up and to the south, there’s an easy Class 1 scramble to the top of Tioga Peak, so we headed up. The “easy” part would be if one had done any high altitude (>10,000 feet) hiking anytime recently. No matter, slow and steady usually overcomes most any obstacle, and before too long we were at the top with a pretty awesome view of the Tioga Pass area.

More Tioga Peak pictures.

Mount Conness (12,590′)

Next morning, up at a leisurely hour, we headed up Slate Creek Canyon with not much of an objective in mind except to see part of the Mount Conness climber’s walkoff. I have an interest in climbing some of the technical routes on Mount Conness; it’s always good to know how we’re going to get back down.

We had a couple liters of water and a few snacks, plus the following beta from “Tioga Tramps”: ‘Mount Conness can be climbed from the Slate Creek valley via romantic Alpine Lake at the base of soaring cliffs.” OK, then. Once having entered the Harvey Monroe Hall Natural Area, the trail devolves into what’s probably a smallish climber’s trail. We found the drainage from Alpine Lake (a beautiful triple cascade drains into Slate Creek canyon), and kept following the trail until it became clear it wasn’t going to turn and go up toward Alpine Lake, at which point we struck off cross-country heading up toward the lake. Pretty steep; after gasping our way up to Alpine Lake we had some lunch and sat searching the cliffs in front of us for a weakness –  we saw a path to the summit plateau that looked doable and off we went, basically making a new decision on whether to keep going every time we stopped to rest. We got on the summit ridge and looked across at the peak of Mount Conness – wow, we’re going to have to do some actual climbing to get on top.

We stopped and ate the rest of our food and drank the last of the water – going to be a hungry, dry return trip, but once peak fever hits…

The scramble to the top did involve some pretty spooky spots –  big dropoffs on either side of a narrow ridge –  a “no mistakes” zone. Arriving on top, we found 3 climbers that had just climbed the north ridge of Conness – they made it sound fun.

We got back to the camper in the gloaming, consumed a bunch of fluids and food, then headed back down 120 toward Lee Vining. I’d heard much about the Mobile restaurant there, so after grabbing and consuming an ice cream bar each (dessert first!), I ordered the buffalo meatloaf dinner. It was just OK; I could have done better. Being at least 12 ounces of meatloaf, it did fill the void.

More Mount Conness pictures.

Mount Starr (12,835′)

We decided to try a different area – the writer of our guidebook “Exploring Eastern Sierra Canyons – Sonora Pass to Pine Creek” is really entranced with the Rock Creek area near Tom’s Place. We’ve been in there a couple times looking at rock climbs and bouldering or just to get high out of the heat, but hadn’t yet hiked the area much, so –  we picked out Mono Pass (there are multiple Mono Passes in the Sierra) and Mount Starr.

Reasonably early (for us) we headed up the Mono Pass trail. It’s a popular, busy place, so if you’re looking for solitude, look elsewhere. As we approached the pass, the early morning clouds consolidated and became worrisome. Sure enough, after we had trudged up the sandy slope to the Mount Starr summit ridge, we heard thunder and had to bail within a couple hundred yards of the summit block. By “had to bail” I mean –  we choose life over being fried by lightning. We did, however, find Sky Pilots, so –  a good day.

FWIW, I wouldn’t put Mount Starr on your short list of peaks to bag –  the climb from Mono Pass is up sand, scree and talus and is just a slog. However, if you’re looking for good exercise, there you go!

More Mount Starr pictures.

Mammoth Peak (12,117′)

Another easy peak in the Tioga Pass region. Surprisingly good wildflowers…

More Mammoth Peak pictures.

Mount Gibbs (12,773)

Mount Gibbs is the gentle-looking giant just south of Mount Dana, and is the 3^rd  highest peak in YNP. The ratio of Mount Dana hikers to Mount Gibbs hikers is 100 to 1 (a statistic I just made up). True or not, you’re more than likely going to be alone on Mount Gibbs. A bonus hike would be to climb Gibbs, get down on the Granite Divide between Gibbs and  Dana, then climb Dana from the south. Plan on a strenuous day if you do this.

On our first attempt, we were run off the mountain about 1/3 of the way up when saw multiple lightning strikes not too far away. The picture below is a grab from a video Carol was shooting. That bolt has struck about 7 miles away, entirely too close.

More Mount Gibbs Storm Day pictures.

Back at it 4 days later, on a clear day, we went for our second Mount Gibbs summit attempt, and all went well. In fact, on the summit, I posited that we could make a longer day of it by traversing south to Mono Pass and then returning via the Mono Pass trail. This made the day more interesting in at least 2 ways.

Up high on the ridge, we saw a storm over the Mono Basin and visible lightning strikes. We also saw smoke, as the lightning had ignited a fire in the Mono Basin.

There was a long (1,600′), tedious scree slope to down climb to get to Mono Pass. We did it at the cost of enough torture on my knees that we headed home the next day.

Our Mount Gibbs GPS track (in green).

More Mount Gibbs Summit Day pictures.

Epilog

Good times, plenty of views and in those few weeks we laid down a high altitude baseline like we’ve never had before. This led to a “slow and light” attempt on a technical California Fourteener, which I’ll talk about in my next entry.