Tuolumne Peak, 8/2/2008

Tuolumne Peak

Tuolumne Peak: 10845 ft
Routes: ascending - class 3/4 southeast face, descending - class 2 east face.
The team: J from bayareadragon, my colleague X, Maggie and myself.


We left the bay area at 6pm on Friday. The traffic was not terribly bad, with only a little congestion on I-205. We arrived at the Crane Flat campground around 10pm. I reserved a campsite couple of weeks ago, but there were quite a few empty sites despite the weekend night. Our campsite was huge, enough for probably 5 or 6 two-person tents. I had expected a narrow space as in most developed campgrounds and asked J and X to share a tent. Pitching our tents promptly, we crept into our sleeping bags and aimed for a 6am start.

Mt. Hoffmann

The night was beautiful and peaceful before a coyote started to yell around 4:30am. It probably felt too lonely and called for companies. Hearing that someone came out of the other tent around 5, Maggie and I decided to get up since neither of us could fall asleep again. The team was soon ready for the climbing and we got to the May Lake trailhead at 8. The last two miles between Tioga Road and the trailhead is very rough. It is paved, but with holes and cracks everywhere.

May Lake Trail

The parking lot at the trailhead is very large. There are also bear lockers and restrooms. Mt. Hoffmann is in the view to the west. Of course we cannot see the real summit from here, but rather the summit plateau.

The 1-mile trail to the May Lake is well maintained, mostly covered in shade, but with sections on rugged boulders. As we didn't have any time constraint, we decided to take a slow and leisure pace.

Half Dome

In the last quarter mile, we got a great view of the Half Dome through the Tenaya Canyon. This part of trail is mostly on rocks, but is in very good shape and minimal climbing. Soon the May Lake and the Sierra Club's High Sierra Camp come into view.

The facility at the camp is even better than those at the trailhead parking lot -- they have flush toilet, despite the narrow space. With Hoffmann's steep east side striking out of the ground to the west, and thick woods on the other three sides, the lake is so impressive that we decide to take a break at its shore.

May Lake

The trail led us to the northshore of the lake, from where we turn to west and climb to the top of the ridge between Mt Hoffmann and the Tuolumne Peak.