At the end of the summer of 2014, after I had been working at Summit Adventure in Bass Lake, California, I set off to climb Mt. Ritter by myself.

The first day I drove up to the trailhead and then hiked up the trail until it was dark before setting up camp. In the morning I woke up to this, with the beautiful sunrise caused by all of the wildfires in the area,

and then began hiking again.

I went down one side of the North Fork of the San Joaquin River canyon, crossed the river at Hemlock Crossing. I continued up the North Fork until I need to head to the right up to Glacier Pass.

On my way, I met a troop of boy scouts heading up and a couple heading down the pass. I made it all of the ways up to Lake Marie before heading south and setting up camp next to one of the Ritter Lakes.

Continued