High Sierra Topix

Has anyone gotten a look at the route from Lake Catherine to the Banner/Ritter Saddle Lately? I'm once again thinking about doing Banner this month if my shoulder can handle the weight of an overnight pack. If the snow has turned into boilerplate ice I will wait until next year.

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Not sure how helpful this is, but here's the pass at the West end of 1000 Island...on the North side of Banner...completely clear. This was about 10 days ago. My memory is that the Ritter/Banner saddle looked clear on the East side.

Today (Sunday 9/7/14) there was a huge plume of smoke rising behind Mounts Banner and Ritter from the fire burning in Yosemite. Hopefully this fire gets controlled quickly, but the winds were really blowing hard. Not a pleasant sight, for sure.

KathyW wrote:Has anyone gotten a look at the route from Lake Catherine to the Banner/Ritter Saddle Lately? I'm once again thinking about doing Banner this month if my shoulder can handle the weight of an overnight pack. If the snow has turned into boilerplate ice I will wait until next year.

Note that if you completely bypass snow and ice at this time of year but the trick is not to ascend from the toe of the glacier but rather to ascend to the crest of the low spur the bounds the glacier on the north (this is what amounts to the northern extension of Banner's NW buttress/ridge). The north side of this little spur (and somewhere near its lower NW end) is climbed from Lake Catherine via a class 2 slanting bench/ledge system. It is then ascended to where it steepens then one moves off on a talus/scree slope that is above the snowline of the glacier at this time of year. After a short traverse across this slope beneath the cliffs of southern face of the NE ridge/buttress one can turn and head up the easy (class 2) WSW slopes of Banner. This route was entirely class 2 and totally lacked snow or ice. I climbed Banner via this route in September 1973.

I usually post that the hike I did the next day (Ritter from west) was the first route I planned and directed from start to finish (age 14), but that is not technically correct, Banner was. My point being is that, whereas the slanting ledge/bench to the crest of the low spur is the key to keeping the route at class 2 and avoiding the ice, it must have been pretty visually obvious for me to see it from North Glacier Pass and aim for it, given that I was not hugely experienced at route finding at that time (as my huge error on Ritter the next day is testimony to).

Thank you all for the help. I struggle with doing it now or waiting until is is a nice snow climb. The fire in Yosemite is growing; so there is the issue of smoke in the air. I think I'm going to rethink the trip and even shorten it. I have been wanting to do The Thumb from Birch Lake for while and then I've also been thinking of Pine Creek to Royce Lakes and Merriam Peak (I did Royce a few years back). I won't have to worry about ice on either of these this year - Merriam Peak would be the easiest one to do. If I do head to the Thumb, the air is clear and I have the strength, I could always extend it a day and do Bolton Brown too.

The fire in Yosemite is up to 2600 acres or more.

I was up there two days ago. Glacier is really melted back - dirty ice right now and only on the south side. If you can even get down to where the glacier used to be, you could go up boulders on the north side all the way but it looks ugly. I did this route in July of a high snow year and the walk up the glacier (crampons used) on clean firm snow was very nice. I personally would not do the route right now, regardless of smoke potential from the Yosemite fires.

From Lake Catherine Sunday:






The Sunday flare up became visible to me during the afternoon as I was heading up the west slope to the summit of Ritter. I was only dayhiking, but was glad the terrain between me and the fire was rock and especially glad that the wind was blowing northeast.

Wow those are some amazing photos, both of the scenery and the fire. What is remarkable is that the air seems really clear away from the smoke plume.

I ended just doing an overnight from the Pine Creek Trailhead to Royce Lakes/Merriam Peak. That turned out to be a very nice trek. Banner will wait until there is good snow as Wandering Daisy suggests.

seanr - those are nice photos - the glacier looks really icy. This would probably be a good year to give that route from Ritter Lakes to Ritter a try like you did. How was that route?