Even if you go to bed at 9, getting up at 5AM is hard. It’s always darker than you expect and it’s usually freezing. In any case, Calley and I crawled out of our respective vans at 5AM in the Tuolumne Meadows campground, shoveled down some cold cereal, and rolled out for the day’s objective, the West Ridge of Mount Conness. TM Herbert, legendary Tuolumne badass, described the climb as “2 Cathedrals stacked on top of each other.

After 4 days climbing long moderates in Tuolumne Meadows, Eben and I were stoked to get out of the park for the weekend and escape the crowds on some eastside alpine rock. After a few minutes of flipping through the guidebook, we settled on the North Arete on Bear Creek Spire. The granite prow of Bear Creek Spire rises to 13713’, roughly 1500’ above the scree at its base. The North Arete climbs the steep north ridge line through 10 pitches up to the summit.