The Minarets are a formation of jagged peaks which can be seen from the town of Mammoth Lakes. Isabel had day hiked them a few years ago, so she was excited to revisit today. We were also passing under Mount Ritter and Banner Peak, two very classic mountains on the sierra skyline.

Our first objective of the day was to reach Garnet Pass, via a really chill walk up a grassy slope. On the way we met some fishermen with a blow up raft.

From Garnet pass we could see the next target, Whitebark Pass which had a menacing snowfield.To our surprise, 5 people appeared on top of the pass as we approached. They started climbing down a sketchy wall and we soon realized they were using rope. We chose not to go their way and instead aimed for a class 2-looking chute just to their left, avoiding the wall and the snowfield. Talus and some steep scree led us to the group of climbers. When I was within earshot I asked them if they didn't see the class 2 chute or if they were just practicing their rope skills for fun. They said they didn't see it. Isabel went first up the chute. We climbed up the final chimney and topped out right at Whitebark Pass.To descend, a traverse led us right of the Nydiver lakes over a saddle to reach a trail leading down to Ediza lake. This side of the pass was really chill, and I was feeling much better than I did yesterday.

Here we also bumped into another SHR hiker going northbound. We were the first shr hikers he had seen since coming from Lone Pine! He gave us some beta and warned us about some snowfields by Iceberg Lake.

Soon we made it to Ediza Lake, where there was an option to hike into Mammoth directly, or see the Minarets. After some debate, we decided to go for the Minarets. My hunger levels were fine, and everybody was stoked to get more high route action.

We ate lunch, left Ediza and climbed up some switchbacks to reach Iceberg Lake. Not only was this lake stunning, but we could also see the snowfield traverse the guy we met earlier had mentioned. It looked sketchy as hell.

At the snowfield, I went first to deepen the steps in the melty snow. We tried real hard not to slip, becuase a fall here would have been a long slide directly into the icy water of the lake.We all made it across safely! The next part steepened as we got closer to Cecile Lake. All og these lakes were super beautiful but not very swimmable because the terrain around them contained mostly sharp rocks and big crumbly boulders. Boulder hopping took a lot of time.At Cecile Lake the wind picked up. We had a loose, steep section ahead of us, but as it turned but the descent to Minaret Lake wasnt as bad as we were warned by people and by the guidebook.We eventually found a nice foresty campspot by the water. I cooked two dinners - Mountain House jambalaya and Shin ramen. We had survived and this was our treat before our resupply tomorrow!

Thousand Island Lake to Minaret Lake - 7.3 mi and 2933 ft gained.