South Sister Summit 8/28/08

Mom and I spontaneously decided to turn a mellow weekend backpack into a big adventure. Our goal was to backpack to Moiraine Lake, at the foot of South Sister (the 3rd highest mountain in Oregon, at 10,358ft), wake up the next morning, summit the mountain, and hike out. We woke up in Amity to cold, drippy skies, but by the time we'd crossed the cascades and rolled into Bend the rain shadow effect produced KAVU skies and temps in the 80's. The backpack up to Moiraine Lake proved to be beautiful, through oldgrowth ponderosa pine forests.

We found an incredible campsite on a ridge overlooking the lake, with great views of South Sister and Broken Top. The lake itself had an incredible turquoise hue. Probably one of the prettiest campsites I've ever camped at.





We intimidated ourselves by looking at the trail zigzagging its way up the face of South Sister, seemingly too steep to climb, although we knew that hundreds of people a day throughout the summer make it to the top. If you look close at the next picture, you can see the faint trail up to the summit.
We got up early the next day, ate some breakfast, and headed out. I was being very careful with my knee, having hurt it in Colorado several weeks before. We made great time up the steep trail. It started getting really steep and scrambly, and we were glad that we'd gotten off to such an early start.

Looking back at Mt. Bachelor and all of the beautiful cascade lakes.

Mom, with the toughest part of the hike still to come! Feeling good though!
The last .5 mile of the hike was pretty brutal, and slightly vertigo-inducing. We slogged through STEEP pumice fields, using our poles heavily to prevent sliding back down. The sun was hot at this point, and I think we were both starting to get a little dehydrated. Every now and then people would pass us coming down, saying how gorgeous it was at the top! That is what kept us going.

Finally we're there!!!
The gorgeous little lake in the glacier at the summit. We were surprised to see a glacier at the top, and sketched out by the sound of rushing water underneath it!! And even more sketched out by the numbskulls who were walking across the glacier!
Mom and I at the north side of the summit, with middle and north sister in the background.

Sketchy climb down from the north rim.
Bounding through ankle deep pumice on our way down. It was like skiing through powder, except it wasn't quite as soft.


One last view of a beautiful mountain.The look says it all. NOTHING like a cold Pelican IPA waiting in the car after a long hard hot hike.

All in all, an absolutely INCREDIBLE hike. I want to do it once a year. It seems that people tend to do this hike in a single day, but I would think that for all the pain, you miss out on one of the more incredible lakeside campsites I've ever seen. From the camp, we hiked 4 miles with 4000ft elevation gain to the summit, 4 miles back to our packs, and 2 miles out to the car. LOONG day, but so worth it!!!