Mono Pass TH
before 7:45a. I was soon off on the trail
which I found almost completely dry and fairly frozen, snowshoes and crampons in
the daypack, poles in hand.
I hiked less than half a mile of the Mono Pass Trail before cutting left to
follow the Dana Fork upstream, forming the canyon between Mts. Dana and Gibbs
and leading directly to the unnamed Peak 12,565ft. I passed by an old
mining cabin
lower down and found 
occasional blazes on trees marking an old trail,
though little of it remains. The cross-country travel here is fairly easy with
only minor brush encountered in the middle of the route. I found much snow
on the south side of 
the creek and almost none on the north side which
I favored on 
the way up. I kept the snowshoes in the pack and enjoyed
the several hours
it took me to ascend the drainage. Trees and brush give way to rock and talus
in the upper section, though nothing I would characterize as tedious - good
footing for the most part. I found two summits to Peak 12,565ft and first
visited the 
lower south one that has a pretty awesome view
looking south to
Bloody Canyon with Mt. Lewis rising high on the opposite side. There are also
fine views of Mts. Gibbs and 
Dana as well as 
Mono Lake to the
east, though the other summit offers these other views as well. I made the
short traverse to the 
north summit, arriving at the highpoint
by 10:20a. I found no register, but took a few 
more photos of the
wintry scenes before starting back down.
Once off the mostly snow-free summit rocks above the saddles, I decided to
descend the south side of the drainage so that I could make use of the
snowshoes I'd carried with me. This occupied me for more than an hour before I
finally 
ran out of continuous snow to use them on.
I put the snowshoes back in the pack,
moved to the north side of the creek and finished my descent back to the trail
below. Not long after noon I had 
returned to the car, finishing
a 3,000ft, 8mi effort.
Not quite done, I headed out of the park over Tioga Pass (surprised but happy
to see the entrance station unmanned and closed for the season) and down the
road a few miles, stopping near the Warren Fork for a second hike. This was a
shorter effort, 2,400ft and about 4mi roundtrip to unnamed
Peak 11,282ft
overlooking Tioga Canyon and a few miles south of Mt. Warren. My ascent route
followed the first drainage up, leaving the trail that plies the Warren Fork
almost at the start. 
The route
is quite steep but it appears a use path has
been forged through the medium-duty brush that grows on the slope. I followed
this up until the brush ends at a talus slope (which appears to be an awful
climb if one were to continue directly up), then followed the boundary of the
brush and talus to reach a more manageable drainage. Where forest cover offered
surer footing, I left the drainage to climb to the summit up the west and
northwest slopes. There was more 
snow here
than I had guessed, and having left
the snowshoes behind this time, I had to make the best of it. I was happy to
be able to avoid most of the snow, and what white stuff I had to plow through
only got my boots moderately wet - my socks seemed to stay quite dry.
It was after 2p when I reached 
the summit, having taken about an hour
and a
half. I found a small plastic medicine bottle holding an Andy Smatko register
which didn't surprise me any - I had found others in this area on previous
trips to nearby Mt. Warren and Lee Vining Peak. Andy left 
the register
on his
second ascent, pointing out that he had made the first ascent some
years earlier. Never mind that miners had probably trampled all over these peaks
150yr ago. It was quite sunny and almost warm at the top, overlooking Tioga
Canyon with Mt. Dana rising impressively to 
the south.
I had hoped to continue to Mono Dome 
further east, but the GPSr
told me it was more than 2mi away and the sun told me I'd get back well
after sunset. It gets cold quickly after the sun goes down
at this time of year so I
decided to turn back. My descent route was a very poor choice in hindsight. I
descended north towards Mt. Warren thinking the gradient would be easier, but
it turned out to have lots of snow I couldn't avoid and the boots got wetter.
I also chose a different route down to the Warren Fork which turned out to be
steep, loose talus and not really any fun despite the fine view of Tioga Peak
to the west while descending. Once back on 
the trail near the creek,
things got much easier and I found my way 
back to the van before 4p.
I was disappointed to find the Whoa Nellie had closed up for the season when I got down to US395. I would have to settle for soup tonight, but first I took a rather tepid shower at the overlook just above the Mobil Station before driving into Nevada where I would spend the night on a very, very lonely dirt road about 4mi from the pavement. My only companion tonight would be the full moon that had just risen over the hills to the east when I arrived at my camp site. More hijinks in store for tomorrow...
Continued...