My friend Jeff and I made the six hour drive on Saturday
afternoon to Mammoth with a plan to get up early and explore the glacial
valley just above Ediza Lake. At five in the morning the alarm clock
sounded and after a little preparation we were on the trail at about
six-thirty in the morning (see the rest of the trip
report below the video).
The walk up to Lake Ediza was uneventful yet a little warm. We mostly
had the trail to ourselves, seeing various others camped out at Ediza. We
took our first and brief break at Ediza to consider our options. We
decided to go around the lake and explore the valley above Ediza.
Upon leaving the lake, one must pick a suitable route up to the
valley above the trees and/or look for one of the use trails. During our
trek, the snow melt caused the streams to run quite high, so we dealt
with a few water crossings too. After the march thru the hills and
scree, we were soon looking out across a field of sun-cupped snow
leading the the snow field and glacier below Banner and Ritter. Once
again Jeff and I contemplated if we wanted to push on, and that we did
while agreeing to decide later where to turn around.
We walked across the snow field until it turned vertical at which
point we donned crampons and helmets. From that juncture it was just a
matter of placing one foot in front of the other and walking up the snow
field/glacier. The recent heat had caused the snowfield to have deep
channels, runnels and sun cups which made upward (and downward) progress slow
going. Regardless, we made fair time to the top end of the glacier, just
below the notch.
Near the top, we realized we were within striking distance of either
Banner or Ritter, but after some discussion about time of day and making
the return back home, we opted out of the extra hours and headed
down the hill.
Our hike out was fast, moving off of the snow and cross country to
the lake. One of the stream crossing we used on the way on was
completely submersed on the exit, so we just found a good spot to walk
thru the widening creek (the inlet to Ediza). With our feet cooled, we
made record time getting back to the trailhead a total time for the day
a little
less than 12.5 hours car-to-car.
All in all, not a bad bit of exercise with an 18 mile+ round trip
with a net of about four thousand foot gain elevation. We got back to my
place around 1:30AM (much better than a 4:30 return time had we chosen
to summit).
