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Ritter and Banner
Ritter and Banner… Should I tell more? Actually to make it sound even more epic – it was a winter ascent, so double
Some of you might know where these mountains are located, for others – this is in the very heart of beautiful Ansel Adams Wilderness area.
Winter ascents have their own perks and in this case we added somewhat around 5 miles of plain walking from Mammoth resort (lifts) down to the Agnew Meadows trailhead - thanks to the deep snow. We’ve decided to break it down into 3 full days due to the snow: the first day was for hiking in, the second – to actual summits and the third for hiking out.
The approach itself was fairly straightforward... it’s a highway all the way until Ediza Lake, mostly flat. On the second day we’ve approached Ritter first and were able to cut a little on the west slopes via one narrow chutes just above the glacier. The summit was a blast but the fun began when we started traversing down from Ritter to the saddle below the Banner. I was not very comfortable with rappelling at that time and just descended on my own (now that I think of it was a bit stupid) but doing so allowed me to take a pretty epic shots of guys from the perspective otherwise impossible (lessons learned – have a second rope and rappel in parallel to the group for that epicness)
Anyhow, Banner was much easier but some of us were a bit slow so we met the sunset descending.. and the real challenge begun… The thing is that in order to get back to the Ediza Lake one has to go down rather steep slope (from the saddle between Ritter and Banner) And while I bet it wouldn’t be as much of a challenge during the day light, but the night added a few moments to that descent… We made it down safe regardless…
Next day was a long and painful return (lifts at Mammoth Mountain are slightly higher Ansel Adams Wilderness.) and while normally it would not be a problem, that extra winter gear got me so slow… – I barely made it back to lifts…
Awesome tri
Ritter and Banner
Ritter and Banner… Should I tell more? Actually to make it sound even more epic – it was a winter ascent, so double
Some of you might know where these mountains are located, for others – this is in the very heart of beautiful Ansel Adams Wilderness area.
Winter ascents have their own perks and in this case we added somewhat around 5 miles of plain walking from Mammoth resort (lifts) down to the Agnew Meadows trailhead - thanks to the deep snow. We’ve decided to break it down into 3 full days due to the snow: the first day was for hiking in, the second – to actual summits and the third for hiking out.
The approach itself was fairly straightforward... it’s a highway all the way until Ediza Lake, mostly flat. On the second day we’ve approached Ritter first and were able to cut a little on the west slopes via one narrow chutes just above the glacier. The summit was a blast but the fun began when we started traversing down from Ritter to the saddle below the Banner. I was not very comfortable with rappelling at that time and just descended on my own (now that I think of it was a bit stupid) but doing so allowed me to take a pretty epic shots of guys from the perspective otherwise impossible (lessons learned – have a second rope and rappel in parallel to the group for that epicness)
Anyhow, Banner was much easier but some of us were a bit slow so we met the sunset descending.. and the real challenge begun… The thing is that in order to get back to the Ediza Lake one has to go down rather steep slope (from the saddle between Ritter and Banner) And while I bet it wouldn’t be as much of a challenge during the day light, but the night added a few moments to that descent… We made it down safe regardless…
Next day was a long and painful return (lifts at Mammoth Mountain are slightly higher Ansel Adams Wilderness.) and while normally it would not be a problem, that extra winter gear got me so slow… – I barely made it back to lifts…
Awesome tri