Returning to Lake Ediza: Lake Ediza to Thousand Islands Lake

Underway by around 8:30, we head up the same wooded slope that Andrea and I had climbed the day before on the way to Ritter. We continue past the beginning of the gully until the slope up to the Nydiver Lakes is visible to our right. In front of us there are a couple of people with a tent and someone else is crossing the talus towards Ritter's face. Curious, we watch this for a while, wondering what they are up to, until they start to scramble up the face and then begin climbing. Obviously a solo climber. Wonder how far they're going; we won't know, because we're moving on. We finish the last bit of climb to the first of the Nydiver Lakes and admire it for a bit. Here we finalize the decision that we're going to take the longer route around the crest to Garnet Lake instead of taking Roper's White Bark Pass (with its promised loose-talus descent). Onwards, around the first and second lakes, down a bit to a couple of tarns.

heading off in the morning in front of Mt. Ritter and Banner Peak

reflections in Nydiver Lake

A short break at the last of these and then we head cross-country steeply down into the next valley, past some old exploratory mining trenches (at least that's what we think they are), to about 3020m. Here we contour a bit around the valley wall before climbing the other side, steeply up through nice-smelling trees and scrub until we hit the broad ridge. Cross this ridge with some dried-up tarns and then lovely Garnet comes into view. We take a lunch break in a shaded spot with nice views over Garnet and then descend to the shore of the lake itself. Here we pump a bit of water (not-so-nice-tasting water) and then, since Garnet's shores are not walkable, climb back up a bit to the first shelf to get to the west end. Along the way we go by Roper's pass... sure enough, it looks loose and possibly unpleasant. Now we climb up a bit to the first crest, where the pass over to Thousand Island Lake becomes visible. Onwards, past a couple tarns, to get to the slope leading up to that pass. We traverse this on the diagonal, including some very enjoyable large-talus hopping, to reach the pass itself. From here there's a nice view down to the west end of the lake. We plan our campsite strategy to optimize morning sun and then set off along a clear use trail down to the shore. This leads us around the end of the lake (between it and a couple of tarns) and then onto a broad meadow of sorts (probably marshy when things are wet). We go past a group of camping fishermen, spot a bunch of Belding's ground squirrels (mis-identified at the time as prairie dogs), and finally get to an area where there are some trees and large rocks. Here we scout around a bit until we find a good campsite, set up camp, pump water, wash, and do all the usual things. As the sun vanishes behind the wall of mountains behind us, we get a new surprise: howling coyotes. What a wild sound. Hope they don't come visit.

Garnet Lake

campsite at Thousand Island Lake

 After dinner we stroll around the empty, and mostly empty, ponds and tarns that scatter the complicated landscape around us.

Dinner: broccoli cheddar soup with chipotle and cumin; mashed potatoes with curry and salami.

Track:

Returning to Lake Ediza: Climbing Mt. Ritter

When we were camping around Lake Ediza years ago we ran into a couple who were on their way up to climb Mt. Ritter. At the time that seemed like a rather strange thing to be doing... how times have changed for us. ;-)

While planning this trip we looked into climbing Ritter and decided that it was feasible for us and that we didn't need to carry too much extra equipment with us; crampons and ice axes would be adequate. So we planned an extra day at Ediza to allow us to give it a try. Monday's rain caused some doubts, but there were no clouds in the sky when we got up, so we packed minimal packs and set off. Our intent was to follow the so-called Clyde Variation, as described here.

We start by heading up the slope to the lovely bowl between Ritter-Banner and the Nydiver Lakes. There's no use trail on our side of the stream, but it's easy enough to pick a route through the woods and then, higher up, the meadow until we reach the bottom of the "Lower Gully". Along the way we spot a group of 4-5 deer who aren't overly concerned by our presence. Of course there's not even a trace of snow in the gully at this point, so we make our way up the steep grass/gravel/talus until we're at the top. We proceed there to make what seems to be exactly the same mistake described in the linked report and, by not turning right sharply enough, end up in terrain that's more difficult than planned. With a bit of careful scrambling and following Andrea's simple guidance: "there's no higher point on the map than where we're headed, so as long as we keep going up everything's fine" we top out and head towards the "Upper SE Snowbowl"; this has a bit of snow left on the steeper slopes, but is otherwise just loose talus with rock-covered ice at the bottom. We navigate the moraine-like side of this until down on the ice, put on the crampons, and then head to the chute that takes us to the "SE Col". This starts very loose and gravelly, so we leave the crampons on (they are great in loose gravel) until we're up on more stable rock. As we reach the top of the col, we realize that the "snow" wall that's been visible for quite a while (and that we saw on other days) is, in fact, ice.

From the col our plan is to get onto the glacier, traverse down a bit to a gap in the rock spine splitting the two pieces of glacier from each other, then head up and around the "three-toed buttress", following Alan Ritter's description. The problem is that we need to first get onto the glacier. In order to do that we have to get from the rock up a 3-4m vertical wall of ice. This is a problem. Our ice skills are not the best (not much practice), we have the wrong equipment (our ice axes are really not ideal for vertical climbing), we don't have anything with us to belay the transfer, the ice is pretty rotten, and the consequences of a fall are bad (~10m onto the rocks in an inaccessible narrow crevasse between the glacier and the cliff). Removing any one of those and we might have done it, but the combination was too much: we decided that we couldn't safely make the transition. We also rejected the option of starting on the ice on the col side and heading over the ridge to the transition: we weren't comfortable with the long stretch of exposed bare ice. Looking down, it's clear that the Alan Ritter's SE glacier route is not only doable, but the glacier has shrunk enough that it's probably doable without crampons. We picked the wrong route. Would we have known this if we had remembered to ask at the ranger station when we picked up our backcountry permits? Who knows. After a break and some gnashing of our teeth, we turn around and head back down.

testing the ice

parts of Ritter's South-East-glacier

view down onto Ediza Lake and Shadow Lake

We end up scrambling down beside the col instead of descending the steep talus/gravel bit. Back at the edge of the "snowbowl" we enjoy the fantastic views for a bit, then head down the correct (=nice talus hopping instead of scrambling) route to the top of the Lower Gully. Rather than continue back the way we came up, we opt to loop around and descend the head of the valley that lies to the West of Ediza (where we camped). This fun descent (including chancing upon a very curious buck who is too impatient for us to leave to run away) leads us to the valley floor, where we contour around, past a not-yet-dry tarn, and then climb up to the ridge overlooking Iceberg Lake. What a view of the lake, the wall up to Lake Cecile, and the Minarets! After enjoying the views for a while, we head back down to our tents where we do all the usual end-of-day stuff.

rest after a long day

Post-dinner stroll back up to the end of the meadow.

Dinner: chicken-noodle soup; freeze-dried chili with cous-cous added.

Track (there are all kinds of problems with the bits close to cliffs when viewed at high zoom levels):

Returning to Lake Ediza: Minarets Lake to Lake Ediza

 

Rain the night before and clouds; climb to ridge over Lake Cecile on obvious use trail past a small tarn; nice views from ridge, people on other side in saddle, lots of talus; traverse talus to saddle, passing people coming other way with dog; break in saddle, scouting two possible routes, choosing one near outlet; descent along obvious use trail from outlet, no real scrambling, not at all hairy; pass couple coming other way with dog with hiking booties (!); no snow field to cross this time; lunch break on shore of lake enjoying views despite the clouds; continue to meadow above Ediza by following a use trail left of the main trail from outlet; scout around a bit, find a camp spot, pitch tents just as rain starts.
Longish break since we're there pretty early and it's raining; go for walk along slope to Nydiver Lake; wait out short rain fall under some trees; Andrea, fed up with the rain, goes back; Greg and Chris continue to reconnoiter the beginning of tomorrow's Ritter climb; come back on use trail on other side of main stream; have "challenges" finding a crossing (rocks are super slippery because of the rain) and end up crossing on a broken log bridge almost all the way down at Ediza.

Dinner; post-dinner stroll down to Ediza; dramatic "sunset" because of clouds, but no further rain.
Dinner: broccoli-cheddar soup, cous-cous with toasted sambar and salami.

campsite underneath the Minarets

on the way to Cecile Lake

talus hopping along Cecile Lake

steep descent to Iceberg Lake

Track:

Returning to Lake Ediza: Devil's Postpile to Minarets Lake

Drop our rental car at Agnew Meadows trailhead;  drive with Chris to Devil's Postpile, start hiking.

Follow clearly marked trail towards JMT and PCT; make one route-finding mistake due to interesting signage, catch it within 100m; up, up through the forest, going from shelf to shelf. Clear, heavily used trail, not too many people. Tantalizing, though somewhat infrequent, views until we are right on top of Minarets Lake. Packs are, as always on the first day, heavy, but the day is short.

Scout around for a while to find a good campsite; end up with something nice in a meadow above the lake and to its east. Optimized for wind shelter and morning sun.

See several deer on the slopes up to the cliffs above us; they don't seem much concerned by our presence.

Post-dinner stroll around the lake; see a few other people; scary clouds coming in make for very nice pictures.

climbing up towards Minaret Lake

short break in front of Minarets

Minaret Lake

Minaret Lake with Minarets behind it

Dinner: Chicken noodle soup (a different kind, much better); mashed potatoes with salami and garlic.

Track:

Returning to Lake Ediza: Overview

Five days backpacking in Ansel Adams National Wilderness with our friend Chris.

We visited Lake Ediza with Chris nine years ago. This time we did the hike in the other direction and added some extras. After nine years there should be some extras. :-)

The days:

1. Devil's Postpile to Minarets Lake
2. Minarets Lake to Lake Ediza
3. Climbing Mt. Ritter
4. Lake Ediza to Thousand Island Lake
5. Thousand Island Lake to Agnew Meadows

Aside from the addition of crampons and ice axes for the Ritter climb, our packs were more-or-less the same as what we had with us for the six days on the SHR. We also followed the same frequent-snacking-instead-of-lunch strategy.