Route Type: Scramble Time Required: One to two days Difficulty: Class 3	Page By: Bob Burd Created/Edited: Aug 23, 2003 / Aug 23, 2003

http://www.climber.org/TripReports/2000/667.html

• Peaks: Mt Ritter
    (sorted/filed as Ritter)
• Place: California

For anyone who has read John Muir's account of the first ascent, or the accident report from the 1969 climb on which four Sierra Club climbers lost their lives, the north face of Mt. Ritter has a serious reputation. So it was with some determination that seven of us hiked in to attempt it on the morning of Saturday, September 30. The group included David Harris (leader), plus his colleagues Cora Hussey, Roy Shea, and Alfred Kwok from the Claremont colleges in Pasadena, and Zander Brennen, Nicolai Sapounov, and myself (Jim Ramaker) from the Bay Area.

We left Agnew Meadows at 8:30, hiked down into the aspen-clad valley of the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River, then up the beautiful trail past Shadow Lake to Ediza Lake, where we arrived about noon. Along the trail, we met a wild man from Belgium named Paul Wilms, and invited him to join our group. I later found out that Paul works for the same company I do in an office about 100 yards from mine.

On the hike in, we had discussed the possibility of attempting Ritter that afternoon, but after lunch, the group drifted into listlessness, setting up tents and taking naps. Later on, most of the group took an easy hike south to Iceberg Lake at the foot of the Minarets, while I strolled north into one of my favorite places in the Sierras -- the wonderful alpine Valley between Ediza and the foot of Mt. Ritter. While exploring the creek, meadows, and cliffs up there, I ran into a solo climber just down from the north face of Ritter, who gave me some tips about the route. I also ran into a young couple planning to bivy on the south face of Ritter with nothing more than fleece jackets and an old wool blanket. The "gentle wilderness" of the Sierras is often forgiving toward fools -- the low temperature that night was an amazingly warm 45 degrees -- about 20 degrees warmer than you'd expect at 10,000 feet at the end of September.

Our group of eight gathered back in camp around 5 p.m. for an early supper, and by 7 we were all in our sleeping bags. Maybe one reason climbing trips are so enjoyable is that they sometimes let us revert to childhood -- we get to play all day and then go to sleep at 7 p.m.

But things were different on Sunday morning -- David had us up in pitch darkness at 5:30, and rolling by 6:30. We strolled up the valley toward Ritter as dawn flamed the east faces of Banner, Ritter, and the Minarets, and by 8:30 we were at the cliffs leading up to the Banner-Ritter saddle. David and Nicolai zig-zagged up the rocks in the center of the cliff band, while the rest of us climbed the easy snow couloir at the right end, which was frozen neve but pitted with sun cups and no more than 35 degrees steep.

Gathering at the saddle, we realized that Alfred was suffering from altitude sickness and lagging behind, so we decided to split the group, with Paul, Zander, Nicolai, and I going ahead to scout the route. David straightened out our confusion about the left- and right-hand gullies described in Secor -- the left-hand gully heads up from the highest snow of the North Ritter Glacier, while you enter the right-hand gully via a 30-foot long ledge leading right from about 100 feet below the highest snow. The glacier leading up to the gullies was icy, but again pitted with suncups and no more than 35 degrees steep, so a self-arrest would've been pretty easy.

I led up the right-hand gully, which gave us fun class 2-3 climbing on solid rock and rubble-covered ledges. With a bit of care, it was possible to climb without knocking anything down. It was a warm, clear day with a light breeze, and except for Alfred's sickness, the climb was going great and proving much easier than expected. At the top of the right-hand gully an arete leads left, and on the other side of it we were surprised to find a class-1 scree terrace. We strolled up that until it and the arete were blocked by a large tower. I climbed past the tower to the left and came to the top of the classic north face route, with its class 3-4 headwall and an ice-covered ramp leading up and left.

Paul checked to the right of the tower and found a broad class 2-3 gully leading up to the apparent summit. Could this be it? He, Zander, Nicolai, and I scrambled up the gully and topped out at 11:30, just 20 feet left (east) of the summit. We were amazed at how easy the climb had been -- about 80% of the rock was really class 2, and there was not a single move I'd call exposed. Obviously, we went a different way from John Muir, approximately following the "Starr Variation" to the north face described in Secor.

David, Cora, Roy, and Alfred soon joined us on top, and we relaxed in the warm sun for the usual photos, snacks, and identification of distant peaks in the clear fall air. After an hour or so, it was down the scree slope to the southeast and down the loose but easy gully onto the Southeast Glacier. Alfred was really suffering, and David, Cora, Roy, and Paul stayed back to help him out. Zander, Nicolai, and I waited for them for an hour on the rock island in the middle of the southeast glacier, then talked to Cora and Roy and decided to hike out, figuring that Alfred would feel better as he descended. Zander, Nicolai, and I had a nice hike out in the late afternoon, getting back to camp at 4 and out to the cars just after dark at 7:30.

Meanwhile the rest of the team was having a bit of an epic. Cora took a short fall in the gully above the southeast glacier, bruising her hip so severely that she later started going into shock. And Alfred continued feeling very unsteady. David, Paul, and Roy rallied the team, and Cora, in a lot of pain, recovered enough to hike out carrying all of her gear. The five of them hiked out by headlamp and got to the cars at 10:30 p.m., then went to the hospital in Mammoth to have Cora looked at. David, Cora, Roy, and Alfred finally got home to Pasadena at 5 a.m., just in time to start another work week. Mt. Ritter treated us to a great climb in beautiful conditions, and to another lesson in mountaineering -- even when the summit is won and the descent seems easy, the unpredictable can happen and we need to be prepared.

http://angeles.sierraclub.org/sps/archives/sps00173.htm

Banner Peak, Mount Ritter

16-Sep-95 (California Mountaineering Club)

By: Scott Sullivan

This trip started on a sour note when I had two no-shows at the trailhead. Both are people I have hiked with before and should know better. After a brief wait, Elena Sherman, Craig Haeussler, Pat McKusky, Edward Nunez, Steve Eckert, Carl Stammerjohn, Rich Gnagy, and I left Agnew Meadows at 7:30am. The hike in was uneventful, we reached Ediza Lake just after 11am.

Camp was established above the northwest corner of the lake and lunch eaten by 12:15, when Elena, Craig, Pat, Steve, Carl, and I set off for Banner. We followed a use trail west from Lake Ediza for the first half hour, then donned ice axe and crampons for the snow climb to the Ritter/Banner saddle. From the saddle, it was class 2 talus to the top, which was reached at 4pm.

There was some trepidation in the group about the return down the snow from the saddle. It was steep and a little slick, but we decided it would be better without crampons. Steve walked out to the edge of the chute, compass in hand to measure the steepness. He reported 40 degrees at the top, tapering down to 35 degrees lower down. That said, he put the compass in his pocket and jumped off the edge, doing a textbook standing glissade complete with turns. Its one of the more amazing things I’ve seen in the Sierra. In less than a minute he was way below us looking up with a “what’s everyone waiting for?” expression. The rest of the group was more cautious, carefully stepping down the steep part. Some glissaded from partway down, others walked the whole way.

The rest of the return to camp was spent debating tomorrow’s route for Ritter. We’d stop and read route descriptions and try to pick out the landmarks. Several times we changed our minds about the route as a new perspective made our chosen route less palatable. Finally we ran into another group that pointed out the true southeast glacier route, our chosen route. We were back in camp at 7pm.

At 7am, Elena, Craig, Steve, Edward, Rich and I left for Ritter. Like Banner the day before, this was almost entirely an ice axe and crampon affair. From the outlet of the small unnamed lake (which was still under snow) in the drainage west of Ediza Lake, we climbed straight up the slope of Ritter to two clumps of small trees. Here we put on crampons and went straight up the snow until the angle of the slope lessened. Here we contoured up and north into the bowl below the south face of Ritter. We took the first possible exit chute north to the talus slopes on the southwest side of the peak. From here it was class 2 talus to the top, which was reached at 11:30am.

After enjoying the spectacular view and eating our lunch, we headed down. Steve treated us all to glissade lessons on the way down. We reached camp at 2:30pm, and were back at the cars at 6:30pm. Thanks to all participants for making this a wonderful trip.

http://climber.org/TripReports/2003/1076.html

• Peaks: Mt Ritter, Mt Banner
    (sorted/filed as Ritter, Banner)
• Place: California
• Difficulty: ice axe, crampons, glaciers, helmet, M Rated, snow travel

July 4-6

Timeline:

July 4th Start 11:30pm - Agnew Meadows (Shadow Lake trailhead) hike-in (7 miles)

3:30pm reach base camp at 9700', above Ediza lake

July 5th Start up Mt Ritter (13,140') 5:35am, Peak at 9:45am, Glissade down and reach base (500 ft above base camp) at 12:00 noon

Start up Mt Banner 12:30pm, Peak at 3:30pm, Scramble/Glissade down to base camp 5:15pm

July 6th hike out

Route/Conditions:

Mt Ritter -

http://www.tahoebackcountry.net/features/ritter/ritter_route.htm

http://www.mtritter.org/mtritter.html

I found the above 2 links to be good source for pre-trip plan. But the route I took was different, instead of traverse that they mentioned on the SE glacier and snowbowl to reach the chute (Owens/Secor), I did the traverse at the bottom and went straight up to the chute. I took the Secor chute instead of Owens since it was closer. There was snow all the way to top except for the top half of Secor chute and the last 100ft to the peak. The angle varied from 30-45 degree. Once you are above the chute on the saddle you could go up the 35degree snow slope or if you prefer talus move right to the ridge follow that to the peak. Snow was firm almost all the way.

Mt. Banner -

By now the snow was getting soft so it took a lot more effort. There is snow all the way to Ritter-Banner saddle. The chute the leads to the saddle is about 50degree and with soft snow it took a lot of energy. From the saddle its about 1000ft of talus walk to the peak. Couldn't find a register on top of Banner. There was one on Ritter.

Notes:

There was a group of CMC behind me on Ritter, they had done Banner the previous day. Some of them had done this before, below are some pointers from them and my observation.

1) There is a class 4 route from Ritter to Ritter-Banner saddle, it was too risky to solo. I think it would be easier to go from the saddle to the Ritter peak since you can chalk out the route. It was easier for me come down and go up again.

2) The routes described in the first link as "accidental descent route" is probably a good route up when the snow is all gone.

3) Banner peak cannot be seen from the saddle, it is behind the false peak, so while going up keep to the left of the false peak. Apprantely there is a trail with ducks leading to the peak, but I found it easier to go up straight.

4) You can come up from Thousand island lake to Ritter-Banner saddle, I believe its longer but the slope is gradual 15-20deg. There was a group which started at 5 am from that lake and were coming down from Banner talus at 3pm. They did not need crampons/ice-axe.

5) I took the shuttle $7 to Agnew meadows but it runs between 7:30-7:30 if you can get there before that you can take your vehicle to the trailhead, this way you can finish the hike in 2 days. One of the CMC guys said if you have backpacking permit then personal vehicles are allowed even during shuttle hrs. Not sure about that.

6) The CMC group did this in 2 days, first day they hiked in and did Banner. Next day morning did Ritter and hiked out in the afternoon.

Of the few peaks I have done Ritter probably had the best view from top, you can see yosemite (half dome looks real tiny), mono lake, southern sierras and a bunch of lakes.

http://www.climber.org/Feature/lucky7/lucky7.html

Prologue...

Cast of characters: Yehuda (slave driver) Ben-David (Oakland, CA) Pat (I'm not a morning person) Ibbetson (Fresno, CA) Jason (no fear on snow) Novak (San Jose, CA) Alan (never give up) Ritter (St. Louis, MO) (organizer/scribe/de facto leader)

This would be my seventh attempt at my namesake mountain, climbed first in 1872 by John Muir. Two of the previous attempts had been ended by bad or threatening weather, and the other four by a combination of bad route information and a certain level of conservatism about climbing lousy metamorphic rock. It would be Yehuda's third trip up with me, and would have been Pat's second, save for a broken car just before the trip last year, which prevented him from getting there.

Saturday, 24 July 1999...Departure

Lambert airport was a real zoo. Checked bags at the curb, since the check-in line stretched all the way out of the terminal. I stood around as long as I dared, but my bags were still on the curb 50 minutes before flight time. Hope they made it onto the plane! We'll find out in a couple of hours. Despite the long lines upstairs, check-in at the gate was uneventful, and I made it onto the plane with time to spare. The flight pushed back right on time (8:50 a.m.), so TWA met their on-time goal on this one, at least. It was a smooth flight, with clear skies.

The plane made good time, arriving in Reno nearly 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Baggage took less than 10 minutes to arrive, and my bags were among the first off (hmmm...does that mean they were last on???). I picked up my rental car at Alamo (too bad...they were out of the compact I had reserved, so had to give me a mid-size at the same price). I drove over to the Sierra Trading Post store and did some shopping, as is my habit on these trips. Found a couple of bargains, plus one thing I had seen in their catalog...a battery-powered LED flasher nominally meant for bicycles, but just the thing to clip to your tent as a beacon to home in on if you are coming back to camp after dark.

The drive down to Mammoth took the usual 3 hours, with a couple of soda and stretch stops. Looking to the west as I passed the Shell station at the south end of the June Lake Loop, I greeted Banner Peak and his taller brother, Mt. Ritter, our goal for this trip, through a gap in the intervening hills.

I stopped at the Mammoth ranger station and checked their trail condition notebook (nothing more recent than two weeks old, which is typical, so I left them a copy of Dana Chaney's report which he had emailed to me just the day before.) I checked into the motel and hauled everything into the room.

By that time, it was approaching 5 p.m., so I headed up to Minaret Summit to do an initial intelligence run for the upper part of the climb. It certainly looked a LOT different from last year. Between six feet less snow and being here three weeks later in the season, the upper bowl was probably 2/3 devoid of snow, so we would have a talus slog from at least 12,000' on up. That may work in our favor...we shall see. I also drove down to Agnew Meadows, where the mosquitoes swarmed around me in 30 seconds. We would have to apply bug gunk BEFORE we got there on Monday morning.

Note: I am now thoroughly convinced that Dana and Vince climbed a VERY steep and exposed chute which is clearly visible even from Minaret Summit. Owen's Chute, on the other hand, is hidden from view unless you know to make a U-turn immediately after you pass the "three-toed" buttress. From a distance, their chute looks every bit as scary as Dana's description, and certainly leads to the ridge considerably south of the upper bowl.

Time for dinner, then time to start organizing and packing gear.

Sunday, July 25: Acclimation and Reconnaissance

I took my time getting going Sunday morning, sleeping in late until about 7 or so. After checking the weather forecast (still nice through the five-day period), I walked across the street to Blondie's for pancakes. I drove back up to Minaret Summit as a base of operations for checking out our proposed climb route. Walking south first, I located the clearing from which Owen and I had viewed the middle and upper parts of the route last year. The upper bowl is clear of snow from the ridge at least halfway down to the exits from the chutes up from the glacier. Owen's Chute looks to be partly snow, partly dry, but he maintains that it climbs easily either way. Certainly, the top part of the climb will be a talus slog, but at least we shouldn't have last year's problem of punching through thin spots in the snow.

After a few photos, I meandered the 3/4 mile (per my GPS) back to Minaret Summit. From there, I headed north along the Jeep trail which ends up at Deadman Pass. I stopped perhaps halfway to that point, about a mile-and-a-half north of Minaret Summit, since that area was high enough to see the lower part of the climb, but not so far north that Mt. Ritter blocked any of the view I needed.

The gully we plan to climb up from Ediza is still mostly snow-filled, and the landmarks for our turn point look the same as last year. We'll go above a rock with a prominent single tree, and turn right above the next ridge of rock. From there, the snow bowl looks very much like last year, and from there we will be on the Southeast Glacier, proper. I drove back to Mammoth and called Owen Maloy and Rich Calliger. Rich was still iffy about whether he would make it the next morning, so his joining the group will be a spur-of-the-moment event. I had lunch with Owen Maloy, then returned to the hotel to finish packing. Yehuda and Jason called about 6:30, and we met up for dinner at the Mountain Cafe, along with Owen. We discussed plans for the climb, and Owen assured us that it was "a walk-up". We agreed to meet at Agnew Meadows the next morning at 7:00 a.m., to beat the 7:30 closing of the Minaret Summit Road.

Monday, July 26: The Hike In

I got up at 5:30, finished loading the car, and met Jason for breakfast at Blondie's. He walked back to the Motel Six, and I walked across Main Street to the Econolodge. We all made it over to Agnew Meadows in plenty of time, and I drove to the second trail-head parking lot in search of Pat Ibbetson, who had planned to drive over the night before and just sleep in his truck. Sure enough, Pat was there and still sawing logs. It turns out that he had not arrived until 2 a.m. (something about leaving his boots in Sacramento and driving half the night to fetch them) He said he would catch a few more winks and meet up with us at Ediza Lake.
I filled up my fuel bottle from Yehuda's gallon can, made a last check for anything missing, and we were off toward Ediza Lake at 8:00 a.m. We made good time, pausing at the bridge across the San Joaquin River and again at Shadow Lake, there to take our first look at Mt. Ritter.
Jason was suitably impressed, and we continued along the trail. We arrived at Ediza Lake about noon, and made our way around the north side of Ediza, scrambling over a hundred yards of boulders rather than walking around the south side, which is a half-mile longer, involves a couple of stream crossings and meandering through a large swampy meadow that is a perfect breeding ground for the clouds of mosquitoes which infest the area immediately around Ediza. Jason stopped to sink a food cache in a hidden spot near the shore, since he will be doing a through hike of the John Muir Trail in August. Hopefully, his waterproof packaging really will be waterproof and his cache will remain hidden from both four-and two-footed raiders.

We made our way along the use trail up the first gully past the boulder field and encountered our first snowdrift in a sheltered pocket on the north side of a large granite outcrop at about 9,300'. Shortly, we found a suitable campsite, complete with Yehuda-approved bear-hang tree, at about 9560', per my Casio altimeter watch. Jason and Yehuda headed back down to Ediza for an afternoon swim in the chilly 57-degree water, while I wandered up to get a closer look at our proposed route for the next day's climb.

As I strolled across the braided-stream area between Ediza and the base of the Ritter/Banner glacier, I heard someone call my name. It was Pat, who had apparently rounded Ediza and either missed us or, more likely, simply headed up the wrong drainage, since there are several gullies up from Ediza, each with use trails. I finished my reconnaissance and joined Pat to show him where we had camped.

	The recon was valuable, since the gully we planned to follow as the initial part of our climb was mostly filled with snow, but terminated a series of rocky waterfalls which would have been a pain to climb. There was, however, a series of grassy ledges and rocks to the left on which would be easy to hop up high enough in order to reach the snow above its wet terminus.
When everyone was in camp, we discussed the plans and route for the climb. Yehuda's idea was to treat this as an Alpine ascent, by getting up at 3:30 a.m. and starting the walk over to the base of the climb using flashlights at 4:00 a.m. This schedule caused great wailing and gnashing of teeth from Pat, who was already sleep-deprived from his late-night arrival. Ultimately, he acquiesced, warning us that he is not a morning person, but would get up and moving with us.
After dinner, we packed our day packs for the summit attempt, put the next day's food into BRFCs, hung the rest of the food out of reach of bears, and settled down for what would be an all-too-brief night.

Tuesday, July 27: Summit Day

3:30 a.m. rolled around all too quickly, especially considering that I had slept only fitfully, thinking about the climb. A quick cold breakfast, and we were on our way about 4:15 a.m., following the use trail up to a point level with the start of our climb, then turning left across the valley to the grass slopes leading up to the lower gully. By first light at 5:00 a.m., we were poised to start climbing for real.

We made good progress up the lower gully on snow firmed by overnight temperatures in the 40s. We passed the scrub trees where Yehuda and I had made our time-consuming mistake last year, and continued up to the top of the gully to make our right turn toward the snow bowl and Southeast Glacier. With six feet less snow, and three weeks' more summer melt, the scene was markedly different from 1998. The route from the top of the gully to the snow bowl was over pleasant solid 2nd-class rock.

The snow bowl was still mostly snow-filled, and there was the usual trail over the drifted ridge and onto the glacier. The ridge this year had been wind-sculpted into a more severe peak, pushing us onto 3rd-class snow conditions, as expected. We were on the glacier by 8:00 and took a short break on the large rock outcrop near the bottom of the glacier. Pat moaned over the amount of the climb that would be on snow, as he is not as comfortable on snow as on rock, and slows down a bit out of caution.

By 9:00, we had reached the third toe of the three-toed buttress and made our U-turn into Owen's Chute. It was totally devoid of snow, and presented a jumbled slope of talus and scree. Yehuda and I headed up the left side of the chute, as this was the easier area when snow-filled, as it was last year. Jason paralleled us perhaps 50 feet to the right and, as it turns out, picked a better line, as Yehuda and I ended up with 20 or 30 feet of 3rd-class climbing to reach the top of the chute. With Jason already waiting for us and giving pointers, we wasted fewer than 5 minutes on the 3rd-class pitch, and reached the upper bowl by 10:00.

From there, we could see a relatively flat snowfield which we crossed without crampons and the talus slope leading up to the summit ridge. A second, steeper, snowfield stretched part-way along the upper slope, and we skirted the left edge of this snow, since it was faster and easier to stay on the rock. There are actually the traces of a use trail visible in the gravelly areas amidst the talus, so route-finding is easy at that point. We passed the false summit which looks so tempting from below, going to the right of this rather steep outcrop. I was lagging just a bit behind Jason and Yehuda when they reached the summit ridge. A minute or two later, I spotted them sitting on the ridge, motioning me on and saying that the summit was mine to lead. There are two bumps on the west end of the ridge, the second one being a few feet higher, and it was a simple, but exciting scramble those last 100 or so feet along the ridge to the summit log in its cast-aluminum box.

10:45 a.m., July 27, 1999, was the culmination of a 14-year, seven-attempt odyssey. Yehuda snapped a first photo of me standing triumphant on "my" mountain. Then he and Jason scrambled over to join me and sign in the log. Pat caught up with us perhaps five minutes later after a few pointed remarks about the last scramble and the exposure to the north side of the ridge, which is extreme, to say the least.

We savored the view from the summit, took pictures with Pat's, Yehuda's, and my cameras, and spent an hour or so on the summit, heading back down about noon. We retraced our route down noting Jason's easier, all-2nd-class path through Owen's Chute, back down the Southeast glacier on softening afternoon snow. Jason tried valiantly to boot or butt glissade, but most of the glacier is either too low in angle or too sun-cupped (or both!) to allow long glissades. The rest of us settled for down-climbing or short slides into sun cups, and Jason was waiting at the bottom of the glacier for us.

VR Movie of 360-degree panoramic view from the summit. Note: This is a 700k file, so be prepared for a bit of a wait!

The hop back over the snow ridge and into the snow bowl was a bit tenuous on the sloppy snow, and each of us slipped enough once or twice to remind us how to self-arrest. Pat was the only one to take a more serious slide, which he arrested safely, but not quickly enough to avoid giving himself a good fright in the process. Once again, over the rocky ridge and into our gully, which seemed a bit steeper by virtue of its softer surface. Here, Jason could build up a fair head of steam on his glissades and beat us down the 500' of the gully by a large margin. As we scrambled down the grassy slopes, I spotted the interesting rock formation in the photo to the left. It appeared that an ancient climber had fallen and remained face-down in the brush, turned into granite by some chance of fate. A casual walk across the streams to the use trail, and we were safely back in camp by 5:30 p.m.

It had taken us 6-1/2 hours to reach the summit, and about 5-1/2 to return. Over 7,000' of total "up" plus "down", and we were tired but happy mountaineers. We managed to find enough energy to fix dinner (well, Jason had so much excess energy that he went down to Ediza for a swim before dinner...ah, youth!!). I pulled two airline bottles of Scotch out of a pocket of my pack, and we drank a celebratory toast to our success. Cutty Sark never tasted so good!!

Wednesday, 28 July: Back to Civilization

We awoke about 6 a.m., which felt like "sleeping in" after the previous day! Pat was the first one packed, and left right away, having to get back to Fresno in time to do some "real" work later that day. Jason, Yehuda, and I fixed breakfast, packed up and left Ediza Lake about 8:45.

We paused for photos at the outlet to Ediza and again at Shadow Lake. My repaired Achilles tendon was bothering me a bit, so I fell perhaps 15 or 20 minutes behind Jason and Yehuda on that last miserable 400' climb back up from the river to Agnew Meadows. I reached the parking lot about 12:30, poured my leftover fuel back into Yehuda's gallon can, and packed up the car. Jason and Yehuda headed back for the Bay Area, and I drove down to Devil's Postpile, where I knew there was a handy pay phone.

A first call to TWA to change my return flight to Thursday instead of Sunday, then a call home to let Marcia and Nathan know that I was off the mountain safely and, yes, I had made it to the top!! One more call, to let John Fraser, my climbing buddy of many years, know that I had done it, and then time to head back to civilization.
On the way out of Mammoth, I stopped at the ranger station to fill out a trip and trail report. While there, I ran into a father and son who were planning to climb Mt. Ritter from the west side in a couple of days. We swapped stories, and I cautioned them that their plan to camp at Thousand Island Lake and to climb Mt. Ritter as a day hike from there might be just a little bit aggressive, having been back there and knowing what a slog it is from North Glacier Pass down to Lake Catherine, and that it is a fairly tough cross-country route from there to the base of the climb from the southernmost of the Ritter Lakes. I left them a business card with my email address and hope to hear back from them when they return.
A chicken sandwich from McDonald's and I was on my way. Just south of Lee Vining, I stopped at my favorite spot for a last view of Ritter and Banner, no longer mocking me, but now old friends peering through the afternoon haze. The three-hour drive to the airport motel in Reno went pleasantly enough. Finally, a shower, a real dinner, and I was almost back to human. Packed things up for the flight, hit the sack at 11:45 with my alarm set for 4:45 to catch the 6:30 a.m. TWA flight back home.

Thursday, July 29: Getting Home

I should have been suspicious when I walked out of the motel in Reno and there was a black cat curled up on the doormat! The Best Western driver got me to the airport in fine time (well, it's all of a five-minute drive), but when the gate agent checked my ticket and re-booking information on his computer, TWA showed me as booked on the 6:30 a.m. flight for Friday, not Thursday! Of course, the flight is over-booked now, so I am on priority standby. One can only hope for a few no-shows.

Success!! Enough no-shows that I made it onto the flight. Because of people running late at the ticket counter, the flight was a few minutes late taking off, but not bad. We arrived in St. Louis on time at 12:05, so the flight was within the slack allowance at takeoff time, anyway. Perhaps the black cat's purpose in life was, instead, connected to the unaccompanied 8-year-old sitting next to me, who got a bit airsick halfway through the flight (but that's another story...)

Illustrated Route Description

Epilogue

Thanks first to John Fraser, who started me on this quixotic quest some 14 years ago, and to my wife, Marcia, for putting up with the whole epic struggle.

Second, thanks to Yehuda Ben-David, Pat Ibbetson, and Jason Novak for joining the final, successful, team. (Rich Calliger, you, too, could have been there!)

Thanks also to a long and varied list of participants in the various iterations of the pilgrimage: My son, Nathan; John, Lindy, Andy, and David Fraser; Lori McConnell, Jesse Kingsley, and Martin Jabs; Tom and Ed Milner; and Yehuda's wife, Nancy Wolfe.

Finally, thanks to all of of the PCS folks, especially Owen Maloy for his route information, and everyone else for information, counsel, and encouragement over the years.

Now I can get on to some other peaks...state highpoints like Mt. Whitney and Boundary Peak, and other interesting peaks like Shasta.

Respectfully submitted 23 August 1999, by organizer, scribe and leader, Alan Ritter, Alan Ritter

http://climber.org/TripReports/2000/667.html

• Peaks: Mt Ritter
    (sorted/filed as Ritter)
• Place: California

For anyone who has read John Muir's account of the first ascent, or the accident report from the 1969 climb on which four Sierra Club climbers lost their lives, the north face of Mt. Ritter has a serious reputation. So it was with some determination that seven of us hiked in to attempt it on the morning of Saturday, September 30. The group included David Harris (leader), plus his colleagues Cora Hussey, Roy Shea, and Alfred Kwok from the Claremont colleges in Pasadena, and Zander Brennen, Nicolai Sapounov, and myself (Jim Ramaker) from the Bay Area.

We left Agnew Meadows at 8:30, hiked down into the aspen-clad valley of the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River, then up the beautiful trail past Shadow Lake to Ediza Lake, where we arrived about noon. Along the trail, we met a wild man from Belgium named Paul Wilms, and invited him to join our group. I later found out that Paul works for the same company I do in an office about 100 yards from mine.

On the hike in, we had discussed the possibility of attempting Ritter that afternoon, but after lunch, the group drifted into listlessness, setting up tents and taking naps. Later on, most of the group took an easy hike south to Iceberg Lake at the foot of the Minarets, while I strolled north into one of my favorite places in the Sierras -- the wonderful alpine Valley between Ediza and the foot of Mt. Ritter. While exploring the creek, meadows, and cliffs up there, I ran into a solo climber just down from the north face of Ritter, who gave me some tips about the route. I also ran into a young couple planning to bivy on the south face of Ritter with nothing more than fleece jackets and an old wool blanket. The "gentle wilderness" of the Sierras is often forgiving toward fools -- the low temperature that night was an amazingly warm 45 degrees -- about 20 degrees warmer than you'd expect at 10,000 feet at the end of September.

Our group of eight gathered back in camp around 5 p.m. for an early supper, and by 7 we were all in our sleeping bags. Maybe one reason climbing trips are so enjoyable is that they sometimes let us revert to childhood -- we get to play all day and then go to sleep at 7 p.m.

But things were different on Sunday morning -- David had us up in pitch darkness at 5:30, and rolling by 6:30. We strolled up the valley toward Ritter as dawn flamed the east faces of Banner, Ritter, and the Minarets, and by 8:30 we were at the cliffs leading up to the Banner-Ritter saddle. David and Nicolai zig-zagged up the rocks in the center of the cliff band, while the rest of us climbed the easy snow couloir at the right end, which was frozen neve but pitted with sun cups and no more than 35 degrees steep.

Gathering at the saddle, we realized that Alfred was suffering from altitude sickness and lagging behind, so we decided to split the group, with Paul, Zander, Nicolai, and I going ahead to scout the route. David straightened out our confusion about the left- and right-hand gullies described in Secor -- the left-hand gully heads up from the highest snow of the North Ritter Glacier, while you enter the right-hand gully via a 30-foot long ledge leading right from about 100 feet below the highest snow. The glacier leading up to the gullies was icy, but again pitted with suncups and no more than 35 degrees steep, so a self-arrest would've been pretty easy.

I led up the right-hand gully, which gave us fun class 2-3 climbing on solid rock and rubble-covered ledges. With a bit of care, it was possible to climb without knocking anything down. It was a warm, clear day with a light breeze, and except for Alfred's sickness, the climb was going great and proving much easier than expected. At the top of the right-hand gully an arete leads left, and on the other side of it we were surprised to find a class-1 scree terrace. We strolled up that until it and the arete were blocked by a large tower. I climbed past the tower to the left and came to the top of the classic north face route, with its class 3-4 headwall and an ice-covered ramp leading up and left.

Paul checked to the right of the tower and found a broad class 2-3 gully leading up to the apparent summit. Could this be it? He, Zander, Nicolai, and I scrambled up the gully and topped out at 11:30, just 20 feet left (east) of the summit. We were amazed at how easy the climb had been -- about 80% of the rock was really class 2, and there was not a single move I'd call exposed. Obviously, we went a different way from John Muir, approximately following the "Starr Variation" to the north face described in Secor.

David, Cora, Roy, and Alfred soon joined us on top, and we relaxed in the warm sun for the usual photos, snacks, and identification of distant peaks in the clear fall air. After an hour or so, it was down the scree slope to the southeast and down the loose but easy gully onto the Southeast Glacier. Alfred was really suffering, and David, Cora, Roy, and Paul stayed back to help him out. Zander, Nicolai, and I waited for them for an hour on the rock island in the middle of the southeast glacier, then talked to Cora and Roy and decided to hike out, figuring that Alfred would feel better as he descended. Zander, Nicolai, and I had a nice hike out in the late afternoon, getting back to camp at 4 and out to the cars just after dark at 7:30.

Meanwhile the rest of the team was having a bit of an epic. Cora took a short fall in the gully above the southeast glacier, bruising her hip so severely that she later started going into shock. And Alfred continued feeling very unsteady. David, Paul, and Roy rallied the team, and Cora, in a lot of pain, recovered enough to hike out carrying all of her gear. The five of them hiked out by headlamp and got to the cars at 10:30 p.m., then went to the hospital in Mammoth to have Cora looked at. David, Cora, Roy, and Alfred finally got home to Pasadena at 5 a.m., just in time to start another work week. Mt. Ritter treated us to a great climb in beautiful conditions, and to another lesson in mountaineering -- even when the summit is won and the descent seems easy, the unpredictable can happen and we need to be prepared.

Michael Gordon adds:

Always in the front of my mind is that the summit itself is only *halfway* there. Most accidents in mountaineering occur on the descent. One can never let their guard down just because they've summited.

My report on the North Couloir of Mt. Thompson demonstrated this - the descent took nearly twice as long as the climb, and was far more dangerous.

• Peaks: Mt Ritter
    (sorted/filed as Ritter)
• Place: California

My son, Ryan, and I returned from our trip to Ritter yesterday, the 19th, and it was the most awesome climb we've ever done. We left Clover Meadow trailhead at 10 o'clock Wednesday morning the16th, and made camp at Hemlock Crossing about 4pm. On Thursday the 17th, we hiked up the north fork of the San Joaquin to just below Twin Island Lake. At this point we left the main trail and headed up a beautiful waterfall that led to a bench below the upper Ritter Lake, the one farthest south. Made camp at about 3:30 in a howling wind that shot right up the canyon below.The view of Ritter during sunset was spectacular. We were looking east directly at the face which was framed by two peaks west of the Ritter Lakes. In 97' when we attempted to climb Ritter, we were turned back because of snow and the glaciers above the lakes. This year we took ice axes and crampons and were prepared for the worst.

Our climb started on the 18th at 7 o'clock. We climbed a talus field that took us to a chute just below the upper lake. We ran into a lot of snow but we were able to climb around it to the exit stream that led to the lower lake which goes under the glacier. The lakes had ice in them, but nothing like 97'. At this point we could see that there was very little snow, and we would not need the ice axes or the crampons. We started up the talus slope to the south and west,and it was really steep. Most of the time it was hands on climbing.We kept the snow field that's in the middle of the slope to our left and kept telling ourselves to stay right (south) on the slope. We just couldn't do it. We saw Ritter right there up this steep narrow chute to the left and of course we said we can climb that. Wrong! At this point we cut across the slope on scree that was on top of frozen scree.Really slippery. We got into the chute that's just south and west of the summit which we could see above us. The climb at this point became hands on all the time. We got about 200ft up in this chute and it became apparent that we could'nt safely go any further. I got hit in the chin and in the back by rocks that just randomly broke and fell and Ryan was finding boulder size rocks that were loose and moving. We deciced at this point to back down. We went on belay and backed out of this chute which took about 2 hours. When we got back to the scree field we had lost about 3 hours and all of our adrenaline. I don't mind saying and I think Ryan agrees(although he'd never admit it), that we were both a " little nervous" in that chute. We were pretty discouraged at this point and time was running out, it was now 12:30, but we decided to go to the right side of the slope and and "just see". We found a slab of granite that led up to a spring and when we looked up we saw the route. We climbed straight up a steep, but really nice talus field that led to the ridge to the south of Ritter. At the top we went to far south and popped up on top of the glaciers in between Ritter and the Minerets. We back tracked a short way and had to do some hands on, but we knew we were going to make it. We climbed north and came out on the ridge, and there was Ritter right in front of us to the north. We were pumped. We followed the ridge above the snow field and got to the south edge of the summit and found a "trail" that led west up to some cairns,( we call them ducks). We followed them up to the summit of Mt Ritter. What a feeling! It was 2:15 when we made the summit so we didn't stay long. The wind was blowing sorta hard so it was really cold. We signed one of the books and got a kick out of the old photos of the guys that climbed it in the 40's, I think. We ate lunch did the photo thing and then headed carefully back to camp. The round trip took 11 hours, but it was worth every sore muscle we have.

jenarrow Route Climbed: Southeast Glacier Date Climbed: September 4, 2005  

After climbing Banner seven years ago while working at the nearby Red's Meadow Pack Station, I am happy to have finally conquered its superior twin. We started the trip off with the luxury of my mom and friend (our posse) carrying the heaviest of our load (the tent and jam-packed bear canister) by horseback to Lake Ediza. We made it to Ediza in about 3 hours and 45 minutes. We camped above the timberline on the Northwest edge of the lake where we were a little more protected from the wind and closer to Ritter.

We started the summit day at 7:00 AM. We headed up to the Lower Gully and planned to follow Alan Ritter's route description as closely as possible. We ended up doing things a little differently. We shot off of to the right of the Lower Gully just beyond the trees on the Tree Rock and over the ridge that Alan Ritter suggests you go behind. We found a non-challenging route through the grass ledges that led us over to the top of a very loose chute that spit us out onto a steep snow slope well below the snow bowl. Crampons made the slope an easy descent. From here we made a diagonal shot to the windridge, staying in crampons the entire time. We crossed over a 20 foot wide tongue of rock extending from the pinnacle--easily, but carefully crossed in crampons. From here we headed towards the three toed buttress and made our way up an easy Class 3 chute just to the right of the main chute (Owen's). From the top of the chute we crossed the relatively flat snow field and slowly made our way to the summit staying off and to the left of the upper snow field.

The descent was a bit more exciting. After debating, we picked what we thought might be the same chute we ascended. As we descended, we quickly noticed that the chute was much steeper, narrower, and more technical. Although the chute became more intimidating, we kept descending hoping not to have to climb back up it. When we got to the bottom we knew exactly where we were--the Dead End Chute. We had the option of strapping on our crampons and descending a steep finger of the glacier that reached up into the chute and was barely wide enough to stand on with a 15 foot drop on either side. After stepping onto it and slipping, we stepped back onto the rock, took the crampons off, and crossed over a thin, vertical rock wall and climbed back onto the glacial finger that extends up into Secor Chute.

From here, we made a smooth descent down the glacier and over to the SE Pinnacle. I did manage to do one face plant on the SE Glacier. We stayed low on the snow bowl after crossing the rock outcropping and made a diagonal approach to the rock ledges. We went straight for the trees on the Tree Rock and picked our way down the ledges well below our turn-off on the way up the summit. We made it back to camp just before 6:00 PM.

After two hours of rest, we put our headlamps on and headed off on what we thought would be our night journey back to Agnew Meadows. After a wrong turn and 30 minutes of wasted time, we caught back up with the trail that was to take us back around Ediza and onto the main trail. Shortly after getting on the trail, I shined my headlamp right into the eyes of a bear standing directly in our path about 50 to 70 feet ahead of us. The bear stood frozen for a few seconds, as did I, before advancing a few feet our way. We slowly backed up and decided to pull out our sleeping bags for a peaceful night under the stars. Fortunately, it was a warm and still night. We hit the trail at 6:00 the next morning and had a slow 3 hour and 45 minute trip back to the parking lot.

Ritter was a great peak, with routes for all levels of climbers. It helps to have an idea of how to get to the summit, but I don't think that any of the 4 to 6 parties who summited that day took the same route, and most of us came down a different route than we went up.

eggheadsherpa Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: Aug 5, 2006

Came from Agnew Meadows as part of Sierra Challenge. We came up from the saddle after summiting Banner and went up the right-hand chute. Very enjoyable climb on solid class 3 rock and descended down the SE face.

sierramtngoat Route Climbed: Ediza / North Face (right chute + ramp) Date Climbed: Sep 4, 2005 Climbed with Balaji, Raj, and Tau under perfect weather. The snow was hard throughout the day requiring crampons for the ascent and descend; we found ourselves continually taking our crampons off/on because of the large gaps between snow patches. The right chute of the NF is class 2/3, however, the more difficult lines were solid so we stuck to those. The ramp that traverses the NF is worth checking out.

Desert SolitaireRoute Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: August 26, 2005 On Jennie's team from below. Great climb from the Ritter/Banner saddle. Forged through the class 2/3 route. Plenty of loose rock.

http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/169245/2003-sierra-challenge.html :

headed up the North Face. The icy snowfield at the base proved the most difficult part of the route, after which we enjoyed an exciting class 3 scramble on good rock all the way to the summit.

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_photos/banner_3/reg/DSC00059.jpg