thanks to Mike for his input and motivating pix on the Slideshow, full TR at: http://www.splitboard.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=647


<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/dkj2hike/ritter/9a8fcb90.jpg" border=0>
Next time, 4 days so I can enjoy that sweet line off Banner!

oaklandish

Awesome dkj2hike. Of course, I saw it on splitboard.com, but I'm pretty dense... didn't realize you were digdug. Hopefully you know that I'm a junkie. <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

tried to get the moniker revised, oh well - split personality.

yeah, you are clearly a Kwood Junkie, we all know that by now. sweet stuff @ Horse Creek btw.

oaklandish

Yeah. Hey, if it snows enough, I may hit up the Wood on Sunday. Hopefully boundary will open.

I'm going split next year. Saying it out loud to hear how it sounds. Can't wait.

Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

WELCOME BROTHA!!

I skied Mt. Ritter on Sunday. I approached from June Lake, via Gem, Clark and Thousand Island Lakes. Camped above Nydiver Lakes on Saturday night, then skied the South Face and SE Glacier in perfect corn. Lakes and streams are opening up quickly, making travel more difficult. Tucker's skin track from last weekend is now brown dirt.

Here's a few photos. Others can be found here.

Interested in doing it again? I'm thinking of driving up after the storm this week.

_________________
SierraDescents.com

We skiied the SE Face route of Ritter on Sunday, April 19th and had good snow coverage from Shadow Lake to the Summit.


Molly is amped up and ready to get going after the drive from Reno. The temp was 34 F leaving the parking lot at Mammoth at 5AM. Lots of activity at the base at that hour and we found ourselves dodging snowcats and bilers on the Minaret Summit road. Mammoth Mountain security was very cool in giving us good instructions on where to park in the case that we found ourselves out longer than our planned day trip. They gave us the thumbs up and we were en route.


At Ediza Lake at 830 AM looking up to Mt.Ritter. The snow coverage was fantastic but a bit softer than optimal for skating and moving fast . The temps were warm and even at 7AM we were able to get some nice glide on surface melt skating across Shadow Lake. On the descent skate across Shadow Lake at 1:30 PM, the snow/ice layer looked much thinner and the ice gave off a nice blue shimmer.....indeed the ice sheet I was skating on cracked then collapsed then sank down a foot while I was skating on it, submerging my boots and skis. Fortunately the ice sheet stayed intact and I was able to double pole through a foot of water until I reached the shore. Molly saw this happen about 200 feet behind me and skated around the submerged ice sheet and made it to shore perfectly dry. She was mainly interested in how the Toko HI Fluor Yellow would hold up after being skiied on under water.....a true Nordic racer at heart.

The Minaret Skyline from Ediza Lake at 830AM. Ediza was in much better condition for safe skating.


The spring skiing set up. The big sun and lack of wind set up nicely for early corn snow above Ediza Lake around 930-1000AM. We debated running a few laps on the perfect corn lower down but continued on in the big time heat to the perfect solar reflecting bowl of the SE Face of Ritter.




Looking down to the chutes used to access the SE Face of Ritter.



Looking up at the SE Face. The coverage was wall to wall. I skinned from the chute all the way to the summit. Molly preferred booting. The snow was already forming good corn at 11AM and was likely better even earlier.



Enjoying the warm temps, no wind, and big views at 13143 ft / 4006 m.


View of the Minarets from the summit of Ritter



Mammoth Mountain is in the middle left. Looks like a long way away. We skiied from the summit at noon and the snow was getting heavy.


Molly skiing the lower sections below the Ritter Banner saddle drainage. The snow was a bit heavier, but skiable.



Some point releases we propagated around 12:30. Some of the sunball rollers were massive.....chest high on me and nearly to Mollys head. Moving slowly down the slope and just getting bigger and bigger forming crazy swirly formations.....right out of a Dr.Suess book.


Good coverage for touring.


The heavier snow made the touring sticky on the descent but most of the snowbridges were still intact and we were able to ski right down to the bridge over the San Joaquin River. We made it back in time to get a few pints and ribs at Whiskey Creek to rehydrate and refuel after a long 12:45 day.

Nice spring blitz Tucker! can't wait to shake this cold and follow your lead.

I just looked for my old post and found my website messageboard doesn't have pre 2003 pics. Must be lost in old website world. Here's my pics of the area for those who are curious what it looks like out there. This is the middle of May in 2002. We walked from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area Parking lot to the bridge. A little bit was snow covered to ski down on, but not enough. It was all melted of course when we came back up the road, still gated. We camped at Shadow Lake, and skied Mt. Ritter the next day, and then Mt. Banner on the following day. Walking that road sucked, especially coming back with no food. I remember John finding Skittles unexpectedly, and savoring every one of them.







You can see a lot of the route up to Mt. Ritter. There's about 1000' of snow above tucked around the side of the peak.


Looking across Shadow Lake at a couloir one of our crew skied on day 2, while we went to Ritter.


My overbuilt Bibler Tripod Bivy had one important feature the other guys lacked: mesh to keep out bugs!







Mt. Ritter on the left, Mt. Banner on the right. We went up Banner on the second day through the obvious little snow couloir above the glacier.


Back to the Mt. Ritter Climb, you wonder how long it's really going to take when you get below this enormous chunk of rock.








When you get to the top of Ritter, you instantly have a goal of skiing neighboring Banner's backside. This hidden southwest couloir almost reaches the summit.




John and I went up Mt. Banner. Glen skied Ritter that day with Dan.


This is at the top of Mt. Banner. The couloir behind us was a nice 35 or so. I think I remember it continuing all the way to the valley behind the peak. We of course banged a left and returned back to camp at the col.




gotta stick this one in of John.

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

Nice pics to compare the touring conditions in different years, Mike. For anyone thinking of touring in the area in the next few days, the Minaret Summit Road and Devils Postpile Road is well covered in snow as of April 19. We skiied continuously down the road and skated across Agnew Meadows right down to the hiking trail in the 2nd pic in Mikes TR (the water fall near the trail was in full force on the return hike). A bit of dirt hiking there down to the river and then we skated to the bridge. All snow to the Ritter summit from the bridge. The Devils Postpile Rd looks to have about 2-3 feet of snow coverage with no pavement visible (looks like it will be covered for a bit if it is not plowed). We skinned the road on the return in the afternoon. Also, the SW Couloir off of Banner went to just near the summit and looked similar to Mikes TR photo.