Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Ansel Adams/Tioga Pass - Aug 31

Ended up doing Ediza Lake as an out and back from Agnew Meadows Aug. 30/31 just to avoid any potential smoke issues with a longer through hike, and ended up having great air quality. And of course we heard about the NF closure on the hike back out to Agnew Meadows so that was a good decision to switch up the itinerary. Drove up to Tioga Pass yesterday afternoon after exiting Agnew and hiked up to the flanks of Mt. Dana. Great air quality in Yosemite but the Caldor fire was definitely noticeable. Will try to load the pic here for reference.View north from Mt. Dana

Panorama of Tuolumne Meadows and Yosemite high country. Tuolumne Meadows & Yosemite High Country

Nice pictures. Thanks!!

I was hiking early last week on a loop from Garnet Lake, east over a pass down toward Nydiver Lakes, and down the drainage to Ediza. Then around to Garnet via the JMT. Long 9-hour day. As we were hiking down the creek from Ritter & Banner, a hiker descended and passed us.

He had left Agnew Meadows at 2 AM, climbed Mt Ritter, and was headed back to Agnew Meadows -- all as a day hike. I am sure he made it seeing the speed he was hiking. He was a radiologist dude from Fresno & Oakhurst.

Here he is, in the background, and the two I was hiking with.

Yea, my buddy and I tried for Ritter, but we left Agnew at 7am and didn't quite have enough time to get up to the summit. Made it up to the SE glacier, but the loose rock and talus had slowed us down too much. Here is a pic of the glacier. Thing were melting out fast up there...[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WZ2WE_9c6-g77z5lETNnrzyeNuDXN6dZ/view?usp=sharing[/img]