I made a huge pancake breakfast on Saturday morning at home (blueberries, chocolate chips AND bananas, in each pancake!), and in the early afternoon I flew south to Lee Vining, where Dow graciously offered to pick me up from the airport after he drove there from St George. I showed up a bit early so I walked over to the Whoa Nellie where I had a phenomenal lunch (mm, food) and relaxed before he showed up. I was glad Dow didn't get lost in a bar in Tonopah! Our plan was to hike in halfway the evening before, so we can sleep a bit longer and get an early start on Sunday. I was supposed to be at work in Mountain View on Monday morning - no time to waste!

We started hiking in the early evening, and everything seemed to be perfectly clicking into place. I had done the hike in before with my friend Pavel, so I knew the approach - or, more accurately, I should have known where the approach is. Because of the fact I had done it before, I was fairly complacent, and we were chatting, having a great time, completely forgetting we have to make a right turn and go off-trail towards the 3rd class ledges/cliff bands. I did remember having to go over 3rd class ledges, and I commented to Dow at one point that the approach is much more straightforward than I remembered - great news! Or not. Well, eventually we ended up almost at the top of the ridge, having gained several thousand feet, when I suddenly looked around and realized we're completely in the wrong place! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - our legs were already feeling tired, and we had totally messed up the approach. We could have tried to do some shenanigans and traverse the ridge, but it was unknown whether that would work - so we decided it's safer to retreat back down and go up the correct gully. We didn't lose all the elevation and were able to traverse around eventually, but the whole thing definitely cost us a couple of hours and a whole bunch of energy. Anyway, eventually we made it to the top of the cliff bands and since it was getting dark, elected to just bivy there (an hour from the car, after 3 hours of hiking... sigh)

The sunrise was gorgeous! For some reason it was windy all night and windy in the morning, so it was pretty cold. We made it to the top of the ridge/summit plateau and hung out there for a little while sorting out gear and finding a place to leave our packs. We went down to the descent gully (which isn't that hard to find, the first couple of gullies look suicidal, it's the first reasonable-looking one, and the first one from which you can see the entire face - btw, great approach beta on Luke's page here) and it looked shady and cold down below! We debated whether to hang out on top until the sun came around enough, but eventually we realized the sun isn't going to hit the wall until 10am this time of year. So we reluctantly made our way down and started climbing around 9am. I guess that's why it makes more sense to just hike in car-to-car - the bivy is pointless. Dow battled the first wet pitch for over an hour - it was horrible and sketchy, running with water, covered in slime making it impossible to get any friction. He did a fantastic job getting us up there - I would have just bailed in frustration (though there's a dry variation to the right apparently). Anyway, I'll just skip talking more about it - the second pitch was, in contrast, quite amazing, if a bit sustained! The other stand-out pitches were of course the offwidth pitch - which was definitely burly and Dow did a great job leading it, with me barely surviving on second - and the one after - the 5.10 traverse isn't the crux, it was the 5.8 squeeze chimney at the top which felt just as difficult as the 5.10 offwidth. I read on summitpost that Pavel felt the same way. I made the mistake of leaving the #6 at the belay (we carried it for the offwidth pitch) - it would have been handy to protect it! After that was over, a couple of more straightforward pitches lead to 3rd class, and then the top.

The descent went pretty quickly, though we missed the Whoa Nellie Deli's dinner due to our slow speed - bummer! Should have climbed quicker, but it was not in the cards that day :) In retrospect, we both felt Keeler Needle was quite a bit easier, which is funny because the supertopo guidebook tells you to climb Conness to prepare for Keeler. I suppose it's all relative :)

It was hard to sleep during the night because it was super windy, gusting to 30-40mph from the west. I was nervous about flying in the morning (I'd be grounded if that wind kept up), but thankfully it did calm down. We had breakfast at the Whoa Nellie (almost as good as the dinner?), Dow and I said our goodbyes (he was going to climb the rest of the week in Tuolumne), and then I took off around 8am. I flew right over Mt Conness to check out the SW face, and then along the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne river and Hetch Hetchy. At my desk after showering at 10am... not bad. I'm not sure what I enjoyed more - the climb or the flight over the Sierra! :) It was certainly easier to take pictures during the latter. Though like the climb, the flight felt serious, with lots of inhospitable terrain and very few good emergency landing zones (after all, that's why as climbers, we love the Sierra - it's very rocky!)

	Departing from Truckee towards Lee Vining	Big blue	Marlette Lake

	Kingsbury grade	Minden (including airport bottom left)	Bridgeport Lake/valley

		Bridgeport	Twin Lakes near Bridgeport, gorgeous area

	Virginia Lake in the distance	Lundy Lake	Mono Lake

	Tioga Pass		Mono Lake, with Lee Vining airport. Gorgeous place!

	The crazy color of Mono Lake		Stanley tied down and ready for a rest day, while I go climbing with Dow

	Gorgeous sunrise	Sunrise!

	It was pretty cold before the sun came out!		At the top of the summit plateau

	The entire SW face, as seen from the correct descent gully		View towards the meadows and valley. Lots of smoke down there!

	Donald Goodrich memorial. He died from rockfall on the first ascent attempt.	Dow at the start of the climb. The first pitch was horribly wet and took us almost 2 hours. A better way is to climb dry rock on the right.

	Starting the second pitch (technical crux)	Dow on the second pitch - 5.10c

	The top of the 5.10c	Looking towards the descent gully	The offwidth pitch - the physical crux of the route

	The offwidth pitch - the definite physical crux for most

	5.10b traverse pitch after the offwidth pitch. The 5.8 squeeze chimney at the end was a bit of a surprise	Getting into the squeeze chimney at the top of the last 5.10 pitch	Dow starts the second to last pitch

		Pitches 8 & 9 - 5.8 stem, to a 3rd class ramp, to a short 5.9 finish	The final difficulty (short 5.9)

	At the top of the technical difficulties - so happy!	Looking towards Tuolumne Meadows. Fairview Dome looks tiny!

	North ridge

	Excited to be on top!	Descending the 3rd class ledges on the approach	Gorgeous light as we hike back to the car

	Sunrise at Lee Vining airport with Mono Lake in the background. We had breakfast at the Whoa Nellie and I took off at 8am.	Transferring the gear :)	Dow dropping me off at the airport

	Departing Lee Vining over Mono Lake. Doesn't get much more beautiful than this!!!	Grant Lake (and June Lake behind it, not seen)	Mono Lake and the Lee Vining airstrip as seen from several thousand feet above.

		Mt Dana and the Third Pillar of Dana where Melissa and I got engaged :)	The Tioga pass road, and Ellery Lake. Have driven this so many times!

	Another look at Mt Dana and the plateau	Looking towards the meadows	Young Lakes

		Mt Conness SW face in full view.	Rough outline of the Conness SW Face route.

		Flying towards Pine Mountain Lake. Rocky inhospitable terrain...	The upper part of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne

	Lots of walls to climb back here - but how do you get there?	Over Hetch Hetchy. One of the best options in case of emergency I suppose...	Fire damage

	Bird's eye view of the Yosemite Rim fire	E45 - Pine Mountain Lake airport (with the namesake lake!) - Groveland, CA