Aaaahh, the Middle Sister's Southeast ridge. We had been kicking this climb and ski around for a long time. A truly excellent trip.
I'd been talking to Shawn at work all week about going.
"You in or out?"
Even on Friday: "Don't know yet . . . "
Todd and I linked up with Matt at the Frog Lakes snowpark and then rumbled to Sisters to meet Jon at "Papandreas" for lunch. After about 15 minutes of waiting around, I gave him a ring on his cell phone. Before I'd said word one . . .
"I'M COMING!!"
It was good to get a good meal in the belly before starting out. LARRRRAYYYYYYDO !!!
With all of overnight gear in the pack, the addition of skis and boots to the load for the dry-trail transit always seems to cause immense suffering. From Pole Creek we followed the trail to the bridge crossing at Soap Creek where the muck and slush began in earnest . . . . a mix of firm snow, slush, and dry interspersed with infrequent bogs. The snow became continuous soon thereafter and we switched over to skis & skins. There was a fairly well-trodden foot path and then skin track so the breadcrumbs were pretty easy to follow to treeline. Wound up jamming another 2-dude party for the next hour or so - they were in sync with our route and pace - they couldn't shake us & we couldn't shake them. Wilderness weekend . . . what are you gunna do...
We finally exited the trees below the Middle and North Sisters and the Hayden Glacier. We had planned on a lower line that would have taken us across the Squaw Creek drainage to Camp Lake but the track we were following was pretty obvious and we just kept following the packed out trail.
| First good view of the Middle Sister as we emerge from the trees. Southeast Ridge peels off the summit to the left |
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| Jon and Todd trekking beneath the Hayden Glacier. South Sister at left |
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The route we ultimately took placed us below the East face of the Middle and then to a bench above Camp Lake in a bit of a nook with a few trees and rocks sprinkled in. After a bit of debate about dropping down to the Camp Lake elevation - our original overnighter - we called it good and set up shop for the night.
| Matt and Jon hug a traverse with the east face of the Middle Sister looming above |
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"We'd like the room with the patio view, please"
Posh accomodations for the evening |
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Pretty windy spot and as the light faded it got chilly in a hurry. We retired to Matt's community rec center and kitchen (megamid) for some cooking & jawbonin'.
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"Well . . . you've got yer water that's froze, yer sorta slushy water,
and the watery kind with them bugs and pine crud"
Jon burning snow in the kitchen |
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Jon breaks out this weird-colored Nalgene and proceeds to do some calculations: margarita mix + tequila mixed in Nalgene + salt + unlimited amount of snow = frozen margaritas!!! After a huge dinner feed we decided on a 4am wakeup and retired.
| Sunset over the Middle Sister (Jon Carney photo) |
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Slept like a stone - we even snoozed a bit until 4:30 then finally started to rustle around and were on our way at about 5:30. We followed a line beneath a big cliff feature and then the entire SE Ridge presented itself. The slope steepened pretty quickly and I switched out to crampons while Matt made like a bug and continued to motor on the skins. The climbing was excellent . . . a good overnight re-freeze had set up the snowpack for really easy and firm climbing and what promised to be some great skiing on the way down.
After our 1st break, we continued up to within 400 feet of the summit where the summit ridge became much more defined. We continued along the ridge and pretty quickly reached the top.
| Jon and Todd (lower right) on the final summit ridge |
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| Todd on his way up the final pitch |
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We hadn't been on the go for that long - seemed weird that we were already done. It was a beautiful summit with views north to Mt. Hood and beyond, and to Diamond Peak in the south. Almost no wind and maybe in the upper 30's up there. From the top we could see some really nice lines some fellow enthusiasts had placed on the South Face of the North Sister (noted & added to the tick-list) - and could see some people making their way up the Hayden Glacier thousands of feet below as we looked down the East face.
| Me & Todd on top |
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| Matt gettin grins after observing some excellent lines on the South face of the North Sister behind him |
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| Jon, Todd, and Matt on top of the Middle |
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After the obligatory summit shots we tip-toed our way down the summit ridge and then stopped and waited a while for the snow to soften up a bit more. The sun still hadn't rotated around to the South yet and our pitch was still firm. We took the next hour or so to slackjaw and wait. I had actually gone out on the slope to fart around with my inclinometer (& while most of the slope was 30-ish, actually found a 62 degree measure on one of the steeper westerly rollovers) when all of the sudden:
"Bubba!!"
Todd said all he knew was that suddenly I was cussin' some guy on the slope below them & they didn't know what was going on! Shawn had left the trailhead at Pole Creek at 7:30pm the night before and had managed to make it to the top of the drainage below the Hayden for the night. He said he knew we were up there b/c he had see my rig at the trailhead. He'd actually opened up one of the megamids near where he spent the night thinking it must have been ours - it wasn't! I can just picture the people in there ("what the . . . ??") He started up the SE Ridge behind us & had linked up with us as we were on our way down. What a freak! We couldn't wait any longer on the descent as the snow was cooked and ready to go. Shawn decided just to skip the summit and make the descent with us.
The ski down was outstanding with pretty much continuous steep fall- line skiing from about 9600 to about 7800 when we had to start traversing to the East and back to our camp.
| Jon racing the chunkies on one of the steep sections on the upper ridge |
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| Shawn looks on as I make like a dot on the lower ridge (Jon Carney photo) |
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| Shawn does indeed ski "like Schtein!!" |
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| Todd carving up a few more turns on the lower ridge - Matt looking on from below |
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| Shawn, Todd, myself, & Matt just prior to reaching the bottom of the ridge |
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| Matt pinches off just a couple more just above our camp |
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Skiied pretty much summit to camp except for a short portage across some rocks. We re-loaded all of our gear and started the ski down to Shawn's bivvy. Skiing thru the mandatory grit and snirt made for some pretty tricked-out navigation with heavy loads on our backs.
| Todd doin' his best to shoulder his bag-a-rocks |
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Lower down the flume ride down to the end of the snow began. Lots of good whooptey's and dips and dives along the way. (Todd later admitted to several spectacular fully-loaded tumbles). Finally had to retire the skis, but I left my boots on until we reached Soap Creek - maybe a mistake as the prize for the weekend was a blister on my left heel the size of a Susan B.
Totally classic Cascades early summer exit - acting as human mule with about a million pounds on board. Note mind-bomb to the weary traveller on the egress: The wilderness boundary sign is not significant for "you're there". . . . it's actually encountered a very cruel 7-10 minutes before reaching the end of the trail.
Cheers.