Ski Mountaineering

Skiing Around the Minarets

April 10-, 2002

Rich Henke



In April 2002, I joined 3 friends from Northern California to do a circum-ski of the Minarets. I met Hal Tompkins, Craig Taylor and Tim Huh on Wednesday night, April 10, at the Rush Creek Trailhead near the north end of Silver Lake. Our goal was a counterclockwise loop around the Minarets via Thousand Island Lake, the Banner/Davis Col, Beck Pass, back to Thousand Island Lake, and ending at Silver Lake. Two 15 min quad maps, Devils Postpile and Mono Craters, cover the route.

Day1 - Silver Lake TH (7,225 ft) to Thousand Island Lake (9,834 ft): 7 hr 20 min. We walked the summer trail to Agnew Lake following the old tramway for the last few hundred feet. Continued to Gem Lake walking on the bare trail on the north side of the drainage. Crossed Gem Lake outlet stream below the dam and started skiing a short time later. Snow was deep and unconsolidated at first but got better as we crossed Agnew Pass (9,842 ft). We contoured to Thousand Island Lake and camped at the west end. Chopped a hole in the ice for water. We had 3 people in my Sierra Designs Stretch Dome with Tim outside in a bivi bag. Used Gaz hanging stove for everyone.

Day 2- Thousand Island Lake (9,834 ft) To Middle Slide Creek (10,600 ft): 10hr 30 min. Tim decided to turn back due to a leaking thermarest and general discomfort about being tentless. He skied with us to the Banner/ Davis Col (11,200 ft), and had a good downhill run back to Thousand Island Lake. The rest of us descended to Catherine Lake and then skied up the backside of the Banner/Ritter Co!. From the saddle, it was an easy class 2 scramble to the summit of Mt. Banner (12,945 ft). The last entry in the summit register was Oct 2001. The ski descent back to Lake Catherine was as good as it gets. We skied across the Ritter Lakes west of Mt. Ritter and crossed a high pass (11,700 ft) above Slide Canyon. The scenery here was spectacular. After a difficult soft snow descent using ice axes, we camped at the first flat area. We had to melt snow that night for water.

Day 3 - Middle Slide Creek (10,600 ft) to Minaret Lake (9,800 ft): 9 hr 15 min. We crossed a small col (10,400 ft), which led to Dyke Creek. We contoured around the upper part of the canyon and then descended 1000 feet before climbing toward McDonald Pass (10,400 ft). The bottom section was steep and ice axes were useful. From the pass, a long traverse got us to Beck Pass (10,800 ft). We contoured around to Deadhorse Lake, which required a steep ice ax descent and was the most difficult part of the trip. After a short ski, we reached Minaret Lake and a great campsite next to snow-free rocks to sit on.

Day 4 - Minaret Lake (9,800 ft) to Silver Lake TH (7,225 ft): 10 hr. We followed Cecile, Iceberg, and Ediza Lakes north, skiing directly across the first two. The ski descent north of Iceberg Lake was a thigh burning experience on very steep, icy snow. We contoured north above Ediza Lake past Nydiver Lake, Garnet Lake and finally reached Thousand Island Lake. We then retraced our route back to Silver Lake.

Summary: In this very low snow year, we still had good snow coverage above 10,000 feet. The skiing was good with the exception of the area just north of Agnew Pass, where we had soft unconsolidated snow and broke through up to our chests several times. We had great weather and wonderful views of an area seldom visited by skiers.


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