Ritter/Banner Saddle Conditions 8/12/2022

[alpinemike]

***Posted this in the climbing section as well but figured it would be useful here as well, since the conditions are significantly different than expected!***

Wanted to post a quick report on the status of Ritter/Banner Saddle and specifically from the Lake Ediza side.

To my knowledge Ritter/Banner Saddle has always contained some amount of snow on the Ediza side. I went through the Sentinel Hum Imagery through some of the drought years and even in October there was still some snow going up the chute to the top. Often times the top most section would be melted out but towards the middle and bottom there was always snow.

Quite incredibly this past weekend 8/12/2022 that is no longer the case. A "cataclysmic" (albeit jokingly, but the word my buddy and I used) event must have happened because there is no longer any snow in the chute at all. It is completely possible to go up to the top of the saddle without an ice axe and crampons, which from my understanding has never really been suggested.

It was apparent that a huge mudslide/landslide took out all of the snow in the chute. You can see in my photos below that there is a large debris flow that is taller than my hiking partner and he's over 6 FT tall. My guess is that one of the thunderstorms dumped an insane amount of water on the snow, weakened it and then it just all slid at once as if it as an avalanche. Rock and debris may have also been mixed in due to the amount of water flowing down through the chute. On either side of the debris flow you could poke into the sides and it was still solid ice, so the ice/snow was completely cut out of the center.

You can see that in the Satellite Imagery from Sentinel that the snow chute is in tact and goes almost to the top of the saddle. About 2 weeks later the snow is gone and there is an obvious brown debris flow. Seriously incredible to see this on satellite imagery. You can see other slide paths on the snowfield as well.

With regards to actual conditions in the chute... they weren't ideal. Everything is very loose, and at it's narrowest point you are basically standing in a body wide channel that at it's steepest point is 60+ degrees. The sides are very unstable and have residual debris. The bottom in various sections was muddy, silty, and very slick. And most importantly the rock that you must climb now is quite unpredictable and has many features on it that can flake off. A significant chockstone is located about half up now and it required a single Class 4 Move to surmount. It's a challenging feature because of the slickness of the rock/mud below it and the fact that your shoes got coated in mud while you were trying to climb up it... Serious caution should be exercised climbing the chute and a helmet should be mandatory gear, because of the potential for rock/debris fall from the inherent instability of the surrounding rock.

It's a little hard to believe that this "mostly permanent" snow feature is no more. At least for this year... I'm very interested to know if it will return in the capacity that it's been in over the last 50+ years. When you get rid of the underlaying ice layer it's likely that it will be much harder to retain it's full permanence as before. Just a reminder that the Sierra is in a constant state of evolution into it's next form...

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[SSSdave]

Thanks Mike for this fascinating thread showing the results of one of longest and most widespread across the range Mexican Monsoon events during my lifetime. Since the monsoons kicked in, on days I've been at home, I tend to monitor where storms have been active and caught the largest storm in the series atop the Ritter Range I posted on this August 7 thread using the NOAA WEATHER & HAZARDS DATA VIEWER 72 hr Precipitation Analysis mode.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=22445&start=10

Most of the earlier storms that made news were further south. On this date it sat right atop the Ritter Range a long time. That blue area is in the 4 to 6 inch range though is measured by satellite based modeling, thus not directly. In the next few weeks given further post processing, I'll add a further thread based on images I captured showing how these storms affected landscapes I visited after it waned a week ago.

I expect some other members here were caught in some of these storms and became so gear and clothing wet that they had to head back to trailheads and are yet a bit too embarrassed to post. When heavy hail pounds down a long time, it can push water through even the smallest pin holes plus condensation tends to form on inner tent walls that the hail blasts down on one's sleeping bag and other gear. The only solution to the latter is having a water repellent sheet atop one's gear and a cloth to regularly wipe as much water up before it puddles. After an hour or so it can get scary because there are events in which such storms with moist inflows from all sides do not move but rather just sit atop a zone of high peaks.

[KathyW]

Great post. The rocks are so unstable under the permanent snow fields and glaciers. All those great snow climbs are now exposed loose crap.

[The Other Tom]

Wow! Normally we don't get to witness large changes like that. Thanks for posting.