Hike starts from Agnew Meadows 2540 m (8333 ft) near Mammoth Lakes and climb 1750 m (5700 ft) to Mt. Ritter 4005 m (13140 ft), its about 32 km (20 miles) depending on the route you take.
 |
| Trail to Mt. Ritter |
I started at 5:30 am well before sunrise. Its quite different feeling when you're hiking alone in the dark versus following hundreds of other hikers on popular trails such as Mt. Whitney or Skyline, which also require early departure. Sunrise caught me near Shadow Lake. You actually can see Mt. Ritter in the middle of this picture.
 |
| Shadow Lake |
Trail is pretty flat at this point following small creek in the forest. Next was Ediza Lake, 10 km (6 mile) from trail head elevation 2831 m (9288 ft).
 |
| Ediza Lake |
Going around the lake along left shore is longer, but certainly has better view. I lost trail somewhere after lake and start to climb steep side of the mountain. Loose rocks made my progress very slow, I reached summit at 1:30, so 8 hours from trail head. Going down was not fast also.
 |
| Going down from Mt. Ritter |
Going down I took slightly different route, but because it was steeper I spend more or less the same amount of time. Sunset again near Shadow lake. Back to the car by 8:00 pm.
 |
| Mt. Ritter |
Here is my
Track Log for Google Earth
