R03/R04 TR: The Ritter Range and Bench Canyon June/July 2018

[The Other Tom]

Excellent report and pics. Thanks!
Loved your comment about "Maverick weather"

[Harlen]

Harlen asked:

Has anyone ever fished Lake Catherine? It's about 11,300 feet.

Well? Are there even fish in it? I don't think I am exposing a secret spot- I got the feeling there weren't any fish in it. Do I have to be more oblique about these fishing questions? Okay: Has anyone ever tried fishing the high lakes in the region northwest of the two famous mountains called something like "Rhythm and Blues?" I promise not to drop a line in either way; we were just curious.... Daisy? John?

Look, Daisy even shows a photo of a great big fish, with the name of the lake it came from.... I guess the image didn't come through, oh well.

Daisy wrote:

Image
Fish from Garnet Lake

[ExploreABitMore]

Great TR and photos, sounds like a very nice trip. Thanks for sharing!

[Gazelle]

Definitely a beautiful area loved the north fork SJ. Did you take the nasty chute down from Davis or go back to Lake Catherine? loved the views from Davis probably more than from Banner as you can see Banner and Ritter! Thanks for the TR

[Harlen]

Thanks for the nice comments. Gazelle, which "nasty chute" did you mean? We did not, as we had to get back to that big round lake to look for fish???
How did you climb Banner? I have always heard that the climb up Banner from the west was easy, but the last people we met on the way up the NG Pass were 4 old climbers who had decided to bail on it, saying something about too much snow. It didn't look trivial to us either, and so we chose to only climb Davis.

It looks like there are a lot of routes up from Lake Catherine, which, BTW, may or may not have any fish in it, ... but is the simplest route to just head for the R&B saddle in the snow, and ascend the talus slope from there?


*Photo below is looking east from Lake C. at the Ritter-Banner saddle, with the easy talus route up Banner barely in view, left from the saddle.

Below is the view up at the northeast side of Mt Davis, is your "nasty chute" seen from here Gazelle?

[Gazelle]

I went up Banner by going over to the rib between NG pass and the snow chute, dropped down some loose crap to the snow up to the saddle then the main route. Snow was soft enough to not use crampons but other people did. As for the nasty chute,from top of Davis go down just a little and take a right goes right down to the NF SJ. Loose but quick! I said it with my backpack. Kristine. Are you going to the meetup I would love to meet you?