Clyde Minaret – Rock Route

Clyde Minaret is the highest point of the rugged Minaret group of peaks near Mammoth Lakes. I have wanted to climb in the Minarets since I first viewed them from the summits of Mount Ritter and Banner Peak in 2007. There are 17 minarets  in all, but most are rarely climbed. The rock in the Minarets is of volcanic origin so it is poor quality compared to the solid granite found elsewhere in the Sierras. I climbed Clyde Minaret via the Rock Route, which is the easiest route up to the summit and relatively solid, but still involves exposed class three scrambling and a class 4 downclimb near the top. I reached the summit 5:03 after beginning, took 15 minutes on the summit, and returned in 4:27, for a total roundtrip of 9:45. Check out the complete trip report for a collection of 40 photos from the trip!

Alpenglow on Mount Ritter and Banner Peak from Shadow Lake

Since I had climbed Mount Sill in the Palisades the previous day, I was hoping for a shorter outing, but the route up Clyde Minaret proved to be involved with quite a bit of scrambling and spicy snow/ice sections. In addition, there was over 9 miles of trail (18+ miles RT) to cover in order to reach the start of the climbing portion. However, this was a delightful outing with spectular scenery virtually the entire way and excellent visibility made for some awesome photography!

Panorama from Lake Ediza

Route photo and video after the jump!

Rock Route

Many more photos on the complete trip report.