By JACQUELINE BRODY After five months of training, running with my parents at 6 a.m. before school, and long hikes on weekends in the Santa Monica Mountains, we were ready. My mom and I were on our way to climbing Banner Peak. Banner Peak is near Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our first day, we started at the Agnew Meadows trailhead in Devil’s Postpile National Monument. We hiked seven miles through the San Joaquin Valley up to Ediza Lake, our campsite. Since our campsite was so close to the lake, mom and I could sit by the water, draw pictures and whittle wood. We also made sundials, moon-dials and compasses. Did you know you could make a compass out of a straight pin, pocketknife, water and hair? At 4 a.m., with cold winds and a full moon, we set off up Ediza Creek towards Banner. Our headlamps helped us see where to step. We started by hiking up huge boulders that went on and on. During this time my mom realized she had lost her GPS that my dad had given her. That was good for me when later I lost my new pocketknife and sunglasses (I didn’t get in as much trouble). We finally got to one of the three glaciers on the mountain. As we got closer to it, I got more worried about having to climb it. Of course we would. Anyway, it was extremely windy on the glacier. It was like a huge wind tunnel. We had to wear a harness and climb up with crampons and ice axes. A couple of times the wind made us lose our balance and we had to dig our ice axes into the snow to keep from slipping down the glacier. At the top of the glacier, the saddle, we patted ourselves on the back and started our final climb to the peak. I thought we had finished the big boulder climbing earlier, but no, there were more boulders. At 12,000 feet I was getting really worn out. The higher we went, the bigger the boulders got. Soon we had to wear our harnesses and rock-climb a bit. My mom said it was only Class 3 climbing, which seemed pretty nasty to me. After a long time through rocks, rocks and more rocks, we made it to the summit! We were on the top of Banner Peak at 12,945 feet. Wondering on the way up if it would be worth it was pointless; the view was beautiful. I’m normally not afraid of heights, but at the top I wouldn’t stand up. My mom had to convince me to stand up for a picture. But you shouldn’t blame me; you probably would have felt the same thing. We wrote our name, date, age and inspirations in the Sierra Club ledger stashed in a metal ammunition box. I was anxious to start down the mountain because we were technically only halfway done with the day. On our descent I got my energy back. I also got a little hyper. We belayed down the glacier. My mom and I were so scared we found that singing Sheryl Crow songs helped distract us from our fears. We took a different route on the way back with fewer boulders. Yeah! It was fun to walk down and across the slippery rocks along the creek. Once I slipped and landed on my bottom. Other than that, it was probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. There were mini-waterfalls, moss and pretty yellow flowers. Just below the creek was a small glacier. Time for butt glissading! That was really fun. After getting back from our big trip we had hot cocoa and dinner; we read and then went to sleep. I learned a lot of things while climbing the mountain. I learned about sun cups (depressions in the snow surface casued by sun or warm, gusty wind), crevasses and berkshrund (a larger crevass). I learned that you don’t stink too badly after five days with no bath. I also learned how to work very hard towards a goal and how wonderful it is to accomplish that goal. I can’t believe I did it. I climbed Banner Peak!!! (Jacqueline Brody is 12 years old. She lives in the Palisades Highlands with her parents, Cindy and Mike, and her three sisters, Katherine, Madeline and Caroline. She is in the sixth grade at Calvary Christian School and is continuing her love of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by skiing on the Mammoth Mountain Ski Team on the weekends.)
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
