The last weekend of May was filled with peak bagging fun. Saturday was Red Top Peak in Mammoth. Sunday we headed to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park to tackle another peak: Ragged Peak. At 10,912′, this isn’t the tallest or most technical peak, but it is still my most fun climb to date with some sweet ladies.
We started at the Young Lakes via Dog Lake trailhead and followed the trail out to Young Lakes. We had to cross over Delaney Creek, but the crossing on two tree branches was quite stable. The trail gradually ascends until you reach Dingley Creek Meadow with sweeping views of Cathedral Peak, Cockscomb, and more. I haven’t spent too much time in Tuolumne and I’m not really sure why! Alpine meadows are freakin’ gorgeous.
We followed the trail until Ragged Peak was in our sight, beautiful fingers jutting into the sky. From here, we headed off trail and made a beeline straight for Ragged Peak, ascending up to a giant field of scree dotted with boulders. We attempted to navigate the scree in a direct route, but it proved to be pretty miserable, so we climbed up a little higher to traverse across boulders to just below the summit.
It was a nice class 3 scramble to the top with one really exposed section with steep drop-offs on either end. There was a little crimp action and a little stemming and then we were on the summit, which fit the three of us comfortably. The wind was picking up so we snapped some photos willy nilly and began the scramble back down.
We used all the scree to our advantage and scree-skied our way down to the meadow where we headed in the general direction of the trail until we hit it, and retraced our steps back to the trailhead. Super fun climb.
Gear: Mountain Hardwear Scrambler 30, Outdoor Research Constellation Hoody, Icebreaker Tech T Lite, Norrøna Bitihorn Softshell Pants, Salewa Alp Flow Mid GTX Boots
