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Mount Ritter (13,157') and Banner Peak (12,945') are located in the Ritter Range of the California Sierras, approximately twenty miles south of Yosemite National in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. We began the expedition by hiking in approximately nine miles to Thousand Islands Lake from the June Lake trailhead. There we made camp on the edge of Thousand Islands Lake. The next morning we moved the camp to the base of Banner Peak and practiced climbing with crampons (boot spikes) and ice axes on the ice fields on the east face of Banner Peak. While Mahmud practiced with Brant using ice axe and crampons, Dan and I climbed the leftmost icefield below the Banner Tower. As it grew steeper, our traversing French technique gave way to German-style frontpointing all the way up to the bergschrund (a crevasse between the top of an icefield and rock wall). The next morning we left camp at 6:00am to climb Banner Peak. We crossed the pass north of Banner Peak and descended to Lake Catherine. From there we put on our crampons and climbed up the long Ritter-Banner ice field to the saddle between the two peaks. From the saddle we climbed to the top of Banner Peak, reaching the summit around 1:00pm. We descended via our ascent route and reached our base camp by 6:30pm. All in all, a great expedition with no injuries! |
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