9/22/01
Did the drive from PDX to Bend with KBOO's Saturday morning bluegrass easing me along and accompanying me almost to Warm Springs. The drive after losing contact with KBOO was still a breeze with all of the scenery. Met up with Jon about 11:30.
Loaded up his rig and stopped off in Sisters for a sandwich. I made the unfortunate selection of an incindiary Fried Chicken sandwich with mayo ("you want cheese on that?!") with "Jo-Jo's" - which, of course, became the word for the weekend. The drive over McKenzie pass to the trailhead was pretty quick. The bomb that I had just placed in my stomach was already working its charms before we started hiking up the Obsidian trail.
| Jon feeling fresh at the trailhead. The expression on his face was a bit different on the return. |
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When we finally punched out into a meadow at the PCT I was a little startled with how far away the Middle still appeared.
| Our first good look at the North(L) and Middle Sisters from the lava flow crossing. |
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| "Did you bring the Capt'n Crunch Super-Secret Map Decoder?" Mt. Washington in the distance. |
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| Approaching the Middle in a narrow canyon below the plateau where we made camp. |
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We decided to make camp a short distance from Arrowhead Lake / Camp Riley on a plateau at about 7000 feet. Thankfully there was still some water in that lake as many of the lakes at elevation were gone after a pretty dry year. The sunset was amazing and shooting stars and the Milky Way held our attention until about 10pm.
| The view from near our camp - Arrowhead Lake in lower foreground. Middle Sister - el. 10,047 ft. |
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We rousted at a pretty leisurely 7 AM and made up some breakfast. The night had been dead still and the weather still looked great. We cached our overnight gear and started up the climbers trail.
| "Hiding" our gear about 2 feet from the main climbing route. |
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Our intent was to gain the Renfrew at its toe but we decided instead to stick to rocks as much as possible - we hadn't brought any crampons along and the Renfrew was still rock hard from the overnight cool-off. After some very creative routefinding along the southern edge of the Collier Glacier up a very steep ridge, we reached a flat below the Hayden-Renfrew Saddle.
| Negotiating the jumble of big rocks on the way up to the saddle. Beats climbing scree - except that when big teetering rocks move they break things. Collier cone in the distance to the right. Mt Washington, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Jefferson in the far distance. |
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The winds were funneling pretty hard over the col between the Middle and North Sisters, so a little gowning up was in order, though it was never cold. There were a few folks already descending the scree slopes down the North shoulder of the Middle when we started up - kicking up dust storms as they went. One steep section of pumice was particularly frustrating and our late summer ascent of the Middle was probably best described as "tedious." Snow travel definitely has its advantages.
| The North ridge of the Middle Sister - about 800 feet below the summit. |
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| The final push to the top - the Collier Glacier in the background below the North Sister's West face. |
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The summit views were awesome . . . we could see all the way to Thielsen to the South and Hood to the North, with everything in between. Got a good look down the SE Ridge - supposed to be an excellent ski descent - although the upper part of the ridge looked pretty hairball. Maybe it would look a little less intimidating with some snow on it.
| Jon and I on the summit - North Sister in background. |
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One of the more impressive sights was the degree to which the Hayden and the Diller Glaciers were riddled with huge crevasses. The Hayden is supposed to be a pretty straightforward ski descent. Will take a lot of "filling-in" to be skiable this winter/ spring.
| The Hayden Glacier - skiing lines not exactly continuous. |
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The downclimb was straightforward. The Renfrew Glacier had softened up enough for us to follow it down to a rollover at about 8000 feet.
| An exposed extinct lava tube near the toe of the Renfrew Glacier - totally filled in with lava before it stopped moving and solidified. |
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We regained the plateau on which we had camped and recollected our
stashed gear. The march out to the trailhead from about 7 grand is a
very long one - made even more spicy by a few well-placed
blisters for both of us. Ski descents can't return soon enough!! We
were both relieved to find some ice still hanging tough in the cooler
where we had stashed a few "friends."