Banner Peak Backpack, Day 2 – Thousand Island Lake to Banner Peak to Rush Creek TH, September 13 2015

When we left Rush Creek trailhead on Day 1, we were planning on setting up camp at Thousand Island Lake, possibly waking up to take some sunrise photos, then hiking out at a leisurely, enjoyable pace. About 9 miles into our hike though, we got our first good look at Banner Peak. At that point, we both knew we’d be headed up that mountain in a few hours. After setting up camp at Thousand Island Lake and getting some sleep, our crazy 24 hours began:

• Awake at 4 AM
• Leave camp around 4:45 AM
• North Glacier Pass 7 AM
• Ritter – Banner Saddle 9 AM (only 4 miles from camp)
• Banner Summit 11 AM (only .5 miles from R-B Saddle, but 1000 ft higher)
• Back at Glacier Pass around 1 PM where we get thunder, rain & hail.
• Back at camp at 3 PM
• Back on the trail in a thunderstorm after packing up, 3:45 PM
• Back at car at 9 PM
• Home at 2:30 AM
• Done unpacking showering at 4 AM
• Up for work at 6 AM

This trip deserves a detailed report, which I am unable to write at this time. It’s been a month since this trip, so I feel I need to get the photos posted now.  As time allows, I will add details to the timeline above. 

Route Finding

From Thousand Island Lake to North Glacier Pass, there is a use trail, but we did not find until our descent. By hopping into the boulder field earlier than needed, I believe we cost ourselves an extra 45 minutes or more.

In the images above, you can see where we passed through North Glacier Pass. The topo map shows our routes – our ascent in blue and our descent in red. The red follows a use trail and is much easier.

From North Glacier Pass to the Glacier NW of Ritter-Banner Saddle, we did not find a trail. It took us some time to figure out where we should go to get over to the glacier, but here are the details of the route we took.

Here is the same route, looking back towards North Glacier Pass.

Heading up the glacier, we opted to wear MICROSpikes and Trail Crampons and stayed on the ice as much as possible. Once we reached the saddle, I believe we started towards the peak a little earlier than we should have. There is a use trail that we didn’t see until we were nearly on the summit; if we had continued further north before cutting towards the peak, we would’ve seen it earlier. In the images below, our ascent is shown in blue and our descent in red. Red is the better way to go.

Near the summit, their are two distinct use trails – one headed to the left and one headed to the right. The one to the left is the easier route to the top.

Geek Stats

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Gear

• Jacks ‘R’ Better High Sierra Sniveller
  • Performed as expected; great product. Here is a link to my initial review –  First Look: Jacks ‘R’ Better High Sierra Sniveller Backpacking Quilt
• WoolX Merino Wool
  • Lightweight Merino Wool Hoodie, Outback Merino Wool T-Shirt & Merino Boxers
    • Performed as expected. Link to my full review here: WoolX Lightweight Merino Wool Baselayer Series – T-shirt, Hoodie & Boxers.
    • Didn’t carry a change of boxers or shirt since these will last several days without stinking.
• Darn Tough ATC Sock Micro Crew Cushion
  • Wore these for 20 miles on day 2, then wore them at the gym for 3 days at the gym the following week. At that point they started to smell.
  • The “weave” on these socks seem to be tighter than the F2F socks I reviewed. I suspect that I’ll find that these socks offer more support and are more durable as a result, but it also seems that my feet won’t breathe as well.
• Six Moon Design Fusion 65
  • It carried well on my trip to the summit (<15 lbs), but when I loaded it up with my backpacking gear for the hike out, it’s wasn’t long before it was uncomfortable.
  • After some research and experimentation on the trail, I’ve decided that my torso is too long for this pack.
• Geigerrig
  • Hydration Pack Engine, Geigerrig Nano Drink Tube & Geigerrig In-Line Water Filter
    • I tried using the bladder, nano drink tube & in-line water filter together. With the small tube size and the pressure required to pull water through the filter, I didn’t like it at higher elevations, however the nano tube works great with just the bladder.
    • I will try the filter with the normal tube on a future trip.