Weather or Not...Mt. Ritter, 14-18 July, 1997
Cast of characters:
- Yehuda Ben-David, Nancy Wolfe (Oakland CA)
- Ed Milner (Ramstein AFB, Germany)
- Tom Milner (Albany NY)
- Alan Ritter (St. Louis, MO) (de facto leader)
Monday, 14 July...Agnew Meadows to Thousand Island
Lake
After several failed attempts at the eastern
approaches to "my" mountain, we were determined
to try Mt. Ritter from the west side. The group met at
the Agnew Meadows trailhead on Monday, 14 July and headed
up the High Trail toward Thousand Island Lake.
Wildflowers of myriad hues greeted us on the slope
above Agnew Meadows, including these spectacular tiger
lilies. The views of Mt. Ritter, Banner Peak, and the
Minarets from the high trail are unsurpassed, and showed
another good snow year, quite comparable to last year.
(Not surprising...both were about 400-inch years at the
nearby Mammoth ski area.) With binoculars, we picked out
a couple of climbers attempting Mt. Ritter via the
southeast glacier route.
Several of us (Nancy, Yehuda, myself) are regular
backpackers, while Ed is a frequent participant in
"Volksmarches" in Germany, but Tom
("man-mountain") hadn't been hoofing it since
his Boy Scout days, and clearly suffered as a result.
Nonetheless, everyone made the 10-mile hike into Thousand
Island Lake in greater or lesser degrees of comfort.
Tuesday, 15 July...Thousand Island Lake to
Ritter Lakes
The next morning dawned clear and calm, with Banner Peak
reflected in the nearly- calm lake. We packed up and
prepared for the next leg of the trip. This would be
a much shorter, but more strenuous, hike, involving
some snow climbing plus much off-trail scrambling.
Tom wisely opted out of continuing over North
Glacier Pass and on to Ritter Lakes, preferring instead
the relative comfort of remaining at Thousand Island
Lake.
The four of us set out to hop over the low ridge
between Thousand Island Lake and the valley leading up to
North Glacier Pass. There were only occasional patches of
snow around Thousand Island, but the snow in the valley
started about 10,500' and was continuous up to the pass
itself at about 11,200'.
The valley itself is an easy
snow climb...possible in boots, but certainly easier for
us with crampons. The view of Thousand Island Lake from
the upper reaches of the glacier is spectacular.
Upon
reaching the pass proper, we were presented with a
striking view of the west side of Ritter and Banner
towering over Lake Catherine. At 11,000', Lake Catherine
was still over 75% frozen, and the snowdrifts in the lee
of the granite domes to the west and south of Catherine
extended from lake level nearly to the tops of the domes.
We made slow but steady progress down the steep
boulderfield between the pass and the lake, and worked
our way around to the west of the domes. From there, the
view out over the canyons is dramatic, especially when you
realize that the bottoms of the canyons drop from the 11,000'
level of the lake to less than 9,000' in a fraction of a
mile. As is evidenced by the photo, Mother Nature has
contracted with Walt Disney for exterior decorating...we
spotted this incredibly balanced rock on the west side
of the domes...hard to believe a melting glacier could
so delicately balance several tons of rock in an isolated
point like that.
We intended to
camp near the southernmost of the Ritter Lakes. However,
this proved to be a more aggressive plan than we were able
to achieve...class 2 boulder hopping gave way to class 2
and occasional class 3
rock scrambling on the margins of the domes, and at one
point, we reached a chute down the southwest side of the
southern dome which required lowering our packs and a 50'
pitch of solid but exciting scrambling down to the next
broad ledge below.
From there, we could look down to one
of the Ritter Lakes, nearly totally frozen, a couple of
hundred feet below us. We continued around the second
dome and found a dry spot to camp between the dome and
the flanks of Mt. Ritter. The moon shone brightly as we
settled down for the night, planning our assault for the
next day.
Wednesday, 16 July...Planned Summit Day
Summit day...so what are all these
clouds doing here? We awoke to a sky full of cirrus and
cirrostratus clouds stretching in bands as far west as we
could see. Yehuda opined that the pattern looked like it
would develop into some serious weather by afternoon and
that we should not climb. In addition, he was concerned
about our rather exposed campsite should the weather
develop into thunderstorms, since there was nothing but
rock and a few low bushes around, making us rather
tempting targets for lightning.
We dallied until about
7:30 a.m. before finally accepting that the clouds were
there to stay, packed up camp, and headed back to
Thousand Island Lake. Rather than repeat the previous
day's steep scramble, we opted to take to the snow piled
up in the lee of the dome. This proved better, although
the last few feet to the top of the drift were steep
enough that Ed resorted to cutting steps rather than
trust kicking our crampons into a 50-degree-plus slope.
We made it safely, surveyed the crack (drifted over)
where the cornice would eventually fail, and scurried
down the rock on the other side of the dome.
The climb
from there up past Lake Catherine to North Glacier Pass
was familiar but no more comfortable...the boulder field
has just enough loose, tippy, rocks to make for nervous
boulder hopping with full packs. By the time we reached
the pass, the overcast had become solid, although it had
not lowered to the peaks. We stopped and talked to
several other climbers who were either planning on doing
Banner Peak that day or thinking about heading to the
back side of Ritter, so we gave them what intelligence we
could about finding their way to the appropriate point on
Ritter Lakes. The walk down the snow from North Glacier
Pass was a comfortable slog with crampons. With the cloud
cover, the snow did not soften too much, and we reached
the rocks near the waterfall which marks the headwaters
of the San Joaquin River without incident.
There we
stopped for snacks and to pay our respects to the grave
and memorial to the two German climbers who died on
Banner Peak in 1934. Looking over the vista of Banner
Peak and Thousand Island Lake, we mused that it might be
a good place to spend eternity. When we returned to our
first campsite, Tom was waiting for us, hoping to hear
better news about the climb than we had to report.
As we
prepared dinner, we were treated to a spectacular view
of a bank of clouds sculpted by the wind, hanging over
the ridge to our east. After dark, the wind came up
and remained high all
night, moaning in the pines above our heads.
Thursday, 17 July...The Trek Back
Thursday
morning, we awoke to worse weather than had chased us
back from the west side of the mountain the previous day.
The cloud base had lowered nearly to the summits, and
occasional bands of clouds flowed through the
Ritter/Banner saddle, at 12,000'. With the wind still
howling through the trees, it was apparent that we had
made a good choice in leaving our exposed campsite on the
west side of Mt. Ritter, even though Wednesday would have
remained dry for the climb. If the clouds were dropping
any moisture at all on the west side, those boulders up
from Lake Catherine to North Glacier Pass would have been
doubly treacherous.
Disappointed, we packed up camp and
headed back to Agnew Meadows, opting this time to take
the River Trail back, rather than return via the High
Trail. The rapids and waterfalls along the river were
picturesque, recommending that trail for anyone who has
not walked it before. With the cooler weather and
occasional breeze, even the mosquitos were tolerable most
of the time. Reaching Agnew Meadows, we retrieved the
cars and drove back into Mammoth Lakes, looking forward
to hot showers and real beds. A farewell dinner at the
Ocean Harvest restaurant put a pleasant cap on the trip.
Friday, 18 July...The Trip Home
Friday morning, Ed, Tom, and I packed up, ate breakfast
at Blondie's (best waffles in Mammoth!), and headed back
to Reno to catch our
flights back east. Nancy and Yehuda made their own way
back to Oakland. Once again, weather had interfered with the
climb...tough to work around when long-distance travel
and six-month leadtimes for wilderness permits are
involved. However, a week spent in the mountains is
better than any week spent at work, so the time was not
wasted, and Mt. Ritter will be waiting for us again next
year...Yehuda and I are ready to try it, probably from
Ediza Lake via the Southeast Glacier, and Ed is willing,
depending on his plans to visit the states again next
summer. Full moon weeks in 1998 will be following the
July 4th weekend, and again the first week of August.
...we'll be back...
Alan Ritter, jar@eng.bausch.com 27 August 1997
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