Assuming we don't get smoked out and have to pick a different trail, I am planning on hiking to Thousand Island Lake via Rush Creek this weekend.

I am looking for suggestions for side trips or maybe a peak to watch sunrise from Sunday morning. This entry is still a work in progress, but I wanted to get some input/suggestions as soon as possible. We are looking for nothing tougher than class 2.

Thanks!

http://www.hikinggeek.com/2015/09/09/tri...september-2015/

Chev
Banner Peak is the one
Class 2

from campsite at head of TI lake, it is 10 hrs roundtrip for normal humans.

from camp, go to North Glacier Pass. Over the top look down on lake Catherine, rockbound. Scramble on talus
to your left. Only tricky point might be getting over to the west glacier. Some years easier to travel low on snow (not likely now), some years aim higher on rock. Once on west
glacier, it is easy. Have done it with and without crampons. Having said that, with all the low snow years, it may now be all glazed dirty ice. Mornings are usually firm (or glazed) and crampons or even just microspikes are helpful. It is not steep. I never took an ice ax on any trip. In afternoon coming down it is slushy and "boot-skiing" is fun. Again, it is not steep, not like the technical east glacier. Once to the Banner -Ritter saddle, you have 900 ft of altitude to gain on rock. Just talus hopping. Some people go straight up to the summit. Much easier is swing way left and and make a giant switchback, eventually turning right and slanting up to the top. Glorious views

some pics from 10 yrs ago.
snow conditions are much less today - could make it easier or harder

lake catherine to west glacier access
[img:left][/img]

west glacier is not steep
[img:left][/img]

view from saddle looking down west glacier to lake catherine
[img:left][/img]

from the saddle , zig zag your way to the top
[img:left][/img]

view from the top to the Minarets. See lake Cecile
[img:left]http://[/img]

view to Thousand island lake from above
[img:left][/img]

Thanks Harvey!

Is that 10 hours from the south end or northern end of TI Lake?

the 10 hrs is round trip.

the head is the west end next to Banner Peak, not the outlet.

That area is only a half hour or so from where many people camp along the north shore closer to the JMT. For Banner Peak climbs, we always camped on a flattish area about 50-100 ft vertical above the lake. Some people go on even further sort of following the small creek and find a flattish area maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the way to North Glacier Pass. Once you get to Lake Catherine it is all rock ,altho there is one small very rockbound tentsite in there but not worth the hassle to lug your self up there. It does have a beautifully austere view.

Another option. If you do go to the Banner end of TI, when you return to wherever, do not retrace your steps. instead stay at that end and go cross-country over to Garnet Lake. (That very low pass may have been the original site of the JMT many, many years ago before it was formalized, I think.) North side is really easy, south side is a bit bouldery but class 2 and only a few minutes. Once down to the small upper lake, stay on the north shore, find your way downstream. Maybe begin to see some use trails here and there. Eventually get to Garnet lake itself, again staying on the north shore and intersecting the JMT. At that point, can go left (north) or right(south), or straight ahead (east and down) on a sparse unmaintained use trail that reaches the River Trail and an easy ford of the small river.

another great hike is the Shadow of the Minarets route......

Thanks Harvey,

I've kind've mapped out a route based on your description (Yellow Line) and the one I found here (near bottom of the page, under Banner Peak): http://www.scaruffi.com/travel/ritter.html

Does that look about right?

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.ph...196253&z=14

yellow and pink lines look right for the 2 routes I described

Whoah! I didn't look closely at the Banner Peak route until now. I climbed it several years ago, but used the main snow route that that extends between Ritter and Banner from Lake Catherine all the way to the pass.

The most difficulty was navigating over to it just above the lake's shoreline. There is a steep patch of snow, and we stayed on the rocks at the top of the patch. We took crampons, and they gave us better footing climbing the long snow chute, but I think the route is ok without them. In fact, I climbed Ritter from the same route years ago and that was definitely without crampons.

Your yellow line crosses some VERY steep terrain above the glacier. Those are metric lines, 20 meters between contours, so they can give a false impression when you compare them to the 40 foot contours of the maps showing feet. I don't believe that is the correct route.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the route, and used a friends camera. Here's the only one, starting the final ascent of Banner. The pass between Catherine and Ediza is in the view below.

Steve, you correct.

I am often guilty of skimming when reading. The yellow line as drawn goes up the spine of Banner Peak and is incorrect

Thanks to pointing it out . Mea culpa. As you state, and my earlier post said, the route is up the west glacier, not the spine. Once you get to the Banner-Ritter saddle, then turn left onto rock. It is pretty obvious when Chevy gets there, but having a map drawn correctly definitely makes it easier to understand

PS in the picture above listed as between lakes catherine and ediza, it is the Banner-Ritter saddle. That picture looks down on it

Thanks guys!

Does this look better (bright green route):
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.ph...200780&z=18

Much better, but you will probably want to actually walk on the snow/glacier rather than any rock. The glacier snow is pretty easy and not steep, unless this late in the season it has turned to black ice.

Thanks for the help!

We hiked in via the Gem Lake route and out via Spooky Meadow. In between we bagged Banner

Loooooong day! TR coming later this week or early next week. In the meantime, here are some conditions for anyone headed to the Thousand Island Lakes area:

http://www.hikinggeek.com/2015/09/14/tra...ber-12-13-2015/

I need to add a location to some of the photos I took yesterday in the snow chute.

What should I say?

West Glacier of Ritter-Banner Saddle? West Glacier? something else?

Too bad you had so much smoke.

Looking forward to the trip report.

I'd caption the picture: "Glacier NW of Ritter-Banner saddle".

That glacier is really dirty. ALL the overlying snow is sure gone! When I was there, it was August, 2011, and there was a nice snow layer covering it. But that was the last heavy snow year.

Congratulations. Well done.