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Loading backpacks at Mammoth Mountain
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Date: 07/02/2010
Views: 1
On the first day we got the wilderness permit, drove up to Mammoth Lakes, got lunch, and then headed up to Mammoth Mountain to pack our backpacks and take the shuttle bus down to Devil's Postpile.
07/02/2010
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Snow on Mammoth Mountain
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Date: 07/02/2010
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There was so much snow this year that Mammoth ski resort was still open in July! The shuttle bus that took us to Devil's Postpile is to the left of the Mammoth bus.
07/02/2010
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At the trailhead
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We started at the Devil's Postpile trailhead and finished at Agnew Meadows, using the shuttle bus system to get from/to our car.
07/02/2010
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Devil's Postpile
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Basalt columns neatly formed into 6, 7, and 8 sided columns.
07/02/2010
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Top of Devil's Postpile
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Date: 07/02/2010
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The top looks like a tile floor!!
07/02/2010
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San Joaquin River
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Date: 07/02/2010
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This side of Mammoth Mountain is technically on the western slope of the Sierra, since the San Joaquin flows into the San Joaquin valley and eventually to the Pacific Ocean.
07/02/2010
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Crossing Minaret Creek
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Date: 07/02/2010
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From Devil's Postpile we took the Minaret Creek trail up to Minaret Lake.
07/02/2010
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Johnston Lake
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This is the point where the Minaret Creek trail branches off from the John Muir Trail and heads up to the Minarets.
07/02/2010
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Another creek crossing
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Date: 07/02/2010
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There were many creek crossings on the way up.
07/02/2010
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Mountain Pride Penstemon and Minaret Creek
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07/08/2010
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Waterfall on Minaret Creek
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Date: 07/02/2010
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07/02/2010
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Garter Snake
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We came across this garter snake slithering across the trail.
07/02/2010
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First view of the Minarets
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07/02/2010
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Snow!
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Date: 07/02/2010
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There was a ton of snow, and we were hiking in it before even reaching Minaret Lake at 10,000 feet.
07/02/2010
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Clyde Minaret
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This is our climbing objective: Clyde Minaret.
07/02/2010
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Enjoying the sunset at Minaret Lake
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We arrived at Minaret Lake in time to eat dinner and enjoy the sunset.
07/02/2010
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Minaret Lake and Clyde Minaret
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Date: 07/02/2010
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Minaret Lake was covered with ice.
07/02/2010
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Cooking dinner
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07/02/2010
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Our campsite at Minaret Lake
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Date: 07/03/2010
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Clyde Minaret is the obvious spire in the background.
07/03/2010
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Neal crossing a snowfield
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Date: 07/03/2010
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To get up to Cecile Lake, which is at the base of Clyde Minaret, required crampons to negotiate some snow/ice slopes.
07/03/2010
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Terri and Minaret Lake, heading up to Cecile Lake
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Date: 07/03/2010
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07/03/2010
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Terri with the frozen Minaret Lake far below
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Date: 07/03/2010
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07/03/2010
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Our campsite at Cecile Lake
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07/05/2010
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Terri with my boots on
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Date: 07/03/2010
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07/03/2010
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Ritter and Banner as seen from Cecile Lake
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Date: 07/03/2010
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The two major peaks in the Ritter range are Ritter(left) and Banner(right). They are taller than the Minarets but easier to climb, with 3rd class routes to both summits.
07/03/2010
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Our shadows, Cecile Lake, and Clyde Minaret
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07/05/2010
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The South Face of Clyde Minaret
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Date: 07/04/2010
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The south face route follows the left facing corner systems all the way up the face.
07/04/2010
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On the glacier above Cecile Lake
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Date: 07/08/2010
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After reaching Cecile lake we quickly set up camp and then headed up to reconnoiter the route on Clyde Minaret. After locating the base of the route I headed up to "South Notch" to get a look at the other side of the ridge and to see if I could find an easy way up any of the other nearby minarets. Terri headed back down to camp, allowing me to capture this shot of her way down at the bottom of the glacier.
07/08/2010
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Neal at the base of the route
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Date: 07/04/2010
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Up at 5am for the big day, I kicked over the stove and dumped a pot of boiling water on the bottom of my foot. What a start! It was mostly 1st degree with just a little blistering, so the climb was still on! After negotiating the glacier and a rock-spewing couloir we reached the bottom of the route. There was a mote where the ice had melted away from the rock wall and we ended up climbing 20 feet down into the mote before starting up the route because it was so awkward trying to get geared up on the steep ice with this chasm in the way. We were climbing by 8:30am with a long ways to go to reach the summit.
07/04/2010
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Neal partway up the route
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Date: 07/04/2010
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I was very concerned about the weather, as afternoon thunderstorms had built up in the early afternoon the day before. I hoped we'd top out before any bad weather came but the route was much bigger than the topo indicated, and it was soon clear that we'd be on the route all day. Fortunately the clouds never showed up, and it was clear blue skies all day!!
07/04/2010
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Neal climbing the first dihedral pitch
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Date: 07/04/2010
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This was the crux pitch of the route, involving a very tricky traverse into this huge dihedral. Peter Croft's topo calls it 5.8, but we learned not to trust his topos.
07/04/2010
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Terri in a chimney high on the route
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Date: 07/04/2010
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07/04/2010
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Our tent from near the top
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Date: 07/04/2010
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Our tent is visible as a tiny yellow dot just right of the rocky pinnacle in this shot- far, far below.
07/04/2010
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Terri and Neal on the summit
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Date: 07/04/2010
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The route took us about 15 pitches and something like 10 hours to complete. The descent is also big, going down 4th class ledges on the back side into a huge ice-filled couloir down to amphitheater lake, behind Ken Minaret, then over to South Notch to get back to the Cecile Lake side. We didn't make it back to the tent until 1am, about 20 hours after we started!
07/04/2010
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Neal on the highest point
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Date: 07/04/2010
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The sierra club summit registry is bolted onto the rock just below me. We signed in at about 7:30pm and started the descent. We had been out of water for hours and when we finally found a trickle coming off a patch of snow we tanked up, that was right around when it got dark. It took some time to find "South Notch", the pass back to Cecile Lake, but after squinting at many dark monoliths in the light of our headlamps we eventually figured it out.
07/04/2010
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A marmot near our campsite at Cecile Lake
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Date: 07/08/2010
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The next morning we were greeted by marmots munching on their grassy breakfast. We saw a lot of marmots on the trip, they were everywhere!!
07/08/2010
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Two marmots pause their grass munching to check us out
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07/08/2010
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A mountain lion footprint in the snow
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Date: 07/05/2010
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We never saw a mountain lion, but with the abundant marmots it's not surprising they were around.
07/05/2010
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Iceburg Lake
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Date: 07/05/2010
Views: 1
We took a different route on the way out, following Shadow Creek down to Agnew Meadows and passing several lakes on the way. We almost aborted this plan because we couldn't find a reasonable way down to Iceburg Lake, but thanks to Terri's suggestion to check one last option we found a snow slope that was low enough angle that we could descend safely.
07/05/2010
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Terri descending to Iceburg Lake
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07/05/2010
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Neal following a snow-covered creek down to Lake Ediza
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Date: 07/05/2010
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07/05/2010
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Mostly melted out Lake Ediza
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07/05/2010
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Corn Lilies sprouting
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Date: 07/05/2010
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This is one of my favorite sierra plants- it amazes me that they grow so big and then completely die again all in one season!! You can see last years' stalks decomposing into the ground.
07/05/2010
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Terri soaking feet in the icy cold Shadow Lake
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07/05/2010
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Agnew Meadows
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A billion mosquitoes greeted us at Agnew Meadows- the thick swarms were really a sight to behold, and to run away from!! We met some other San Diegans on the trail and they ended up giving us a lift back to our car so we didn't have to wait for the shuttle bus- whew, escaped the hordes of mosquitoes!!
07/05/2010
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Neal's Photo Gallery
