Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Banner/Ritter in May

Hello Everyone,

Have a climb planned around Memorial day for Banner/Ritter and was looking for some input on the conditions, best routes, things to convey to the group. As always, everyone's help is greatly appreciated. Climb hard, be safe.

Thanks In Advance,

K

never been there this early in the season. Lots of snow in May, basically be ready for winter conditions.

Google found this for "May Ritter Banner:"

http://www.stanford.edu/~galic/rettenbacher/ritter1971.html

The earliest I've been up there was mid-to-late June and you could be anywhere from summery to full-out winter camping on 6' of snow. Your first issue may be getting to the trailhead if you plan on going up past Shadow Lake and Ediza Lake from Agnew Meadows. The Minaret Summit road sometimes opens by Memorial Day but often not until later.

Follow snow conditions at the Mammoth Mountain ski area. So far this year, they've had about 434" of snow, which is higher than average for the past decade or so. Not up to the record (over 600") by any means but you'll probably be camping on snow above Ediza in May unless it really warms up fast.

For me, climbing "my" mountain on snow is easier than when it's mostly rock. Check out the '98 and '99 trip Mt. Ritter reports on my web site for what I consider the "easy" way up from Ediza via the Southeast Glacier and the back chute up to the upper bowl. If it's all snow, it's a walk-up with ice axe and crampons. If the snow has melted out of the chute, it's still a straightforward scramble.

Good luck, and remember the First Rule of mountaineering: The summit is optional. Coming back in one piece is mandatory.

Thanks Fish.

Sad story when the weather makes a dramatic change like that. We have a group of seven with varying degress of experience and no one who has done any of the routes. Hopefully we have good weather.

K

Thanks Alan.

From what I can gather our starting point is the main lodge at Mammoth if the road is closed and Agnew Meadow if open. I will check your site for more info and convey that to the group. As always on this site, thanks for responding.

Mahalo

K

This truly is your mountain.

Thanks again!!!

K

Well, after all, it does have my (last) name on it!

FWIW, I haven't been able to establish a blood tie to Karl Ritter. It's a pretty common German name and my Ritter ancestors were over on this side of the pond well before Karl Ritter's day, so I'd have to find some common ancestor several generations back from Herr Professor Karl.

I figure sharing what I learned over the various attempts may help somebody else get to the top the first time instead of the seventh! I tried to detail out the route descriptions so they're pretty easy to follow.

Happy (and safe) climbing!

Hello Alan,

The site, route descriptions and overall information is very helpful. I forwarded that info to a few of the others and they are also taking a look. It is pretty obvious there will be quite a bit of snow and in May, things can still be quite unpredictable. I will post back and let you know how we all did.

Thanks,

K