I woke up fairly early, packed my gear and headed up the pass. I stopped about halfway to the top of the North Glacier pass and had some more to eat and stopped to take some pictures.
I made it over the top off the pass and dropped off my sleeping bag and other gear. I headed up towards the saddle between Banner Peak and Mt. Ritter staying above Lake Catherine on the east side.
Most of that was pretty easy going, but I crossed too high and had to drop down to the glacier that comes from the saddle. That was hard and there were a couple of mini bergschrunds to be avoided on the way down to the glacier.
From there it was an easy walk up to the top of the saddle on the glacier, while I could see cracks in the glacier on the side next to Mt. Ritter, there were no cracks or crevasses on the Banner Peak side and it was fairly flat.
From the saddle it was a boulder field with a little bit of scrambling to the top of Banner Peak.
I could not find the register, so I headed down shortly. I went back down to the saddle and then down the glacier, being more careful about where I headed across top the north to my campsite.
I setup my tarp with some rocks and my trekking poles and took a nap. I took some more pictures and then got my gear ready for climbing Mt. Ritter the next day.
