Summit Ritter or Banner in Early August

[Asolthane]

Hi,

A friend and I are going to do this basic route in early August https://caltopo.com/m/NLDF

Which route to the summit of either or both of Ritter or Banner is most likely to not require ice axe and crampons at that time of year in this heavy snow year. I have the Secor book so have that for reference. If we need to bring crampons of micro spikes, we would consider acquiring them.

Ritter: It looks like the easiest way up Ritter is the west slope from lake 3377-T. Secor lists that as class 2. From the East it looks like the Southeast Glacier or Clyde Variation are the easiest bet. Both listed Class 3. Vaca Russ posted a route up the Clyde Variation from same time of year, he used crampons https://goo.gl/56RtZM

Banner: Secor lists a class 2 route from Lake Catherine. No clear info is given on this route, though it looks pretty clear from the map that I would go up the glacier going SE from lake Catherine up to the saddle, and then follow the ridge to the summit. It looks like JeffEndicott came up from Thousand Island Lake to N. Glacier pass, but his route to the summit wasn't clear https://goo.gl/uRW0qT

Any tips or info would be helpful. BTW is there a way to tag members in a post? Just put a URL to their profile page?

[Gazelle]

I would think anyway up Ritter this year would require crampons and ice axe. here is a link to the west side http://highwire.stanford.edu/~galic/hiking/ritter2009/ As for banner I went up last year end of July did not need crampons but had them with me, others I saw all used them ( I am very comfortable on snow). I would think some of the other passes may need them this year also but depends on snow melt. I went over North clinch pass vs clinch pass on that trip and many of the other passes you want to cross. My trip report is in the HST meetup 2016.

Kristine

[Wandering Daisy]

I did the easy route (up the "glacier") on Banner years ago. It will likely have ice, not just snow, particularly early morning. I recall the glacier/snowfield was in the shadows quite long in the mornings. I had and used crampons. The later in the year, the harder the snow, and more likely the surface will be ice. When I did Ritter, the problem was melting snow was dropping rocks down the route where you have to traverse the lower snowfield. Pretty freaky. This is common when the sun first hits the snow. I actually had a rock climbing helmet that I used.

[Gazelle]

I did go up Banner at probably 1 pm if not a little later had come from Nydiver lakes that morning and the day was hot/ warm. If it was earlier in the day i am sure I would have used the crampons!

[SNOOOOW]

As far as Banner goes, you are correct. If you are standing on the NW area of Thousand Island Lake then the route up to North Glacier Pass is pretty clear, once up to North Glacier Pass and at Lake Catherine then you would just head S SE over to the glacier and right up to the saddle then to the summit. I was up there in late July last summer and it is all pretty straight forward. Below are 2 photos to maybe help, the photo of the glacier is obviously not as helpful as I am sure it will look A LOT different this summer. IMO the easiest way onto the Glacier was the lower part of that ridge in the right side of my photo. Hope this helps, sounds like a fun trip

[JeffEndicott]

I was up there about a month after SNOOOW in August of 2016. His pictures are good beta. I didn't climb any snow or ice of the glacier to get to the Banner-Ritter saddle. I aimed between those two small snow fields in the upper left part of the picture, then cut right to the ridge. There was some tricky downclimbing about 10 feet to easy talus that led to the saddle. This option avoids the large snow/ boulder fields that lead to the tongue of the glacier.

[CAMERONM]

I thought about attempting one of those peaks on my 2017 SHR trip this summer, but the volume of snow when I passed by on July 27 this year easily dissuaded me. I was using an axe and crampons extensively, but did not feel like I have enough snow climbing experience for an effort like that.