The principal reason we stayed an extra night at May Lake was to have a shot at hiking Mount Hoffmann, elev. 10,850′, which lies just west of camp. There’s a steep use trail that guides one up open slopes toward the summit, but the final 200′ are a Class 2-3 scramble up jumbled rocks to the summit proper. Our prior High Sierra Camp experience revealed to us that not everyone hikes camp-to-camp each day – in fact, we made the acquaintance of two other couples who were staying an extra night at May Lake like us. Ellen and John had come out from Hilton Head, SC, while Fred and Julia were experienced HSC hikers from Palo Alto – John was under the weather and stayed in camp today, but Ellen, Fred, and Julia all set out for the mountain with us at 9:00am. When asked how long the hike was, we had earlier heard Brian, the camp manager, respond, “An hour-and-a-half plus your age in minutes” – for us, that figured to be a 5-hour round trip, and we brought our sack lunches along. We walked westward along the lake at first, level for the initial quarter mile but then quickly gaining ground up the peak’s SE shoulder. The trail led up a brushy gully for another quarter mile before topping out in a flat section as we made our way around to the mountain’s south side. Here, we abruptly turned north and headed straight up the steep fall line of the slope – we made our way first up a moderate gradient for a few hundred yards, but that soon gave way to a much steeper section about 400′ high. We were trying to follow cairns along the path, but it quickly became clear that there were multiple sets of ducks signaling various paths through the small boulders and scraggly whitebark pines – all roads led to Rome, and, in the end, we each followed our own path up to the military crest of the hillside, where the gradient eased significantly and the paths all converged back to one. By now, the true summit was in sight, marked by a slim radio antenna at the high point of a rocky spine extending southwest from the mountaintop. We continued up the grassy hillside, now well above timberline, until we reached a deep notch at the base of the summit rocks. At its bottom was a large patch of ice, a curious feature in mid-August, and we got our first views into Yosemite’s remote north country before turning our attention to the summit rocks themselves. We had been cautioned on choosing our route up with some care – the rocks are less steep the more right (north) you stay, but the rightmost edge of the mountain falls away in a near-vertical drop of 450′. So, Chris chose what looked to be a straightforward path that ran between two large, smooth slabs, and he led the way upward – the route turned out to be a good one with nothing really difficult until he found himself walled off – there was a 4′ shelf ahead with a convenient step below it, so up he went, awkwardly clambering to the open space above it. Looking up, he then realized he was about five feet away from the open air to his right – “Wow,” said he (okay, it may have been a stronger expletive), and he moved quickly toward more secure ground to his left (Jane had a very similar experience a few moments later). That was the crux move of the whole thing, and the last 20′ remaining was easy picking. (Chris wore the GoPro on his chest, turned on the power below the summit, but neglected to hit the record button – doh!). Mt. Hoffmann lies at the geographic center of Yosemite National Park, and, predictably, the views were nothing short of awesome – the whole Sierra crest was visible, from Matterhorn Peak in the north to Mount Lyell in the southeast, as were all the familiar landmarks around Yosemite Valley to the southwest. Pedro turned back below the summit, but the rest of our little band made it to the top, and we ate our lunch under sunny skies and a cool breeze. We took multiple paths off the mountain (the downclimb was way more tedious than going up) but we met again on the grassy mountainside where Pedro rejoined us too. We made our way back at about the same pace as on the ascent, loose footing and the still-panoramic views slowing us up a bit. Soon enough, we were back in the trees and making our way down the gully back to the lake, where we all enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. At only 3.6 miles, the hike was certainly short and sweet, but the elevation profile speaks to our feeling of accomplishment. Brian’s time estimate proved to be astonishingly accurate – the round trip took us exactly 5 hours, including our summit lunch break. Definitely a must-do excursion if you have a spare day at May Lake…