TR: Ritter 1 Russ 0

[Vaca Russ]

Attempted to summit Mt. Ritter on July 16, 2016. My plan was to follow the Clyde Variation route. My actual route is roughly drawn out on the picture below. It looks like this jay made it to the summit!

I began the climb up the snow covered gulley.

The gulley would go from snow to talus and back to snow. This became the theme of this climb…on with the crampons and then off with the crampons. I hate wearing crampons on talus. I don’t feel as if I have good balance.

The snow was very sun cupped. It was really bad here in the upper SE snow bowl and higher.

I made the mistake of climbing the rocks to the left of the SE col. The couloir was steep but one slip on these rocks could get you stuck head first in the gap between the rocks and the ice.

There it is, the infamous three toed buttress. All I had to do now, according to Summitpost, was “…Ignore all the steep chutes to the south and west, look instead to the north. Near the upper end, you should see an obvious, wide chute running almost due north towards the summit ridge. Some parties report being confused by several chutes here. The skinny one on the left can be climbed, but is more difficult (class 4). Climb the (much) more obvious wide chute (often called the "Secor Chute") on the right. Others have described this as a "slope" rather than a chute, which is more apparent in the upper stretch.”

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of climbing the “skinny one on the left”.

To me, I was looking for “Owens chute” and that there my friend is a chute! I should have done better research. This was quite a challenging chute to climb. That should have been my first clue.

Looking up the chute…

Looking down the chute…

I reached the top of the chute and had a great view of Yose, but no summit view.

I climbed back down and decided one mistake was enough for a soloist so I headed back to camp. The mountain will be there another day.

You know, I do have to go back and summit Ritter now. Who wants to tag along? I now know the route!

Thanks for reading my post.

-Russ

[Jason]

Holy Cow that looks steep! Looks like a good time though.

[Teresa Gergen]

.....

[bbayley80]

wow! that IS a chute!
wow.. just got a little more intimidated ..ha!

thanks for the share.

[cefire]

Phew, so close! In answer to your question, I'd love to tag along for part II

[Beantown]

I did it last year solo although the Owens chute was not filled with snow. Bummer you turned back the summit is an easy hike from there.

[BufordT]

Appreciate the honest report!