05.25.14 South Sister

South Sister Climb

The road upended up on 5/21/14. There was too much snow at Devil's Lake Campground so we drove down the road to Lava Lakes Campground.

Left the trailhead at 6:30am. Snow the entire way (except a small section of scree at the top). Some people put on snowshoes and micro spikes when going up through the trees. I waited to put mine on until after the plateau.

The wind picked up once we hit the last ridge at the edge of the Lewis glacier. The clouds were starting to form and the top looked really windy so we weren't sure how it was going to be. Saw a decent size crevasse on the glacier, took off the shoes and was on the scree ridge for a short time, then nice boot track for the final push to the summit crater. Wind subsided a little in the crater with the clouds whizzing by over head. Really windy on the summit proper, had a quick break in the clouds to see the other sisters and brokentop before going back to the crater to eat some food.

Decent was very soft. We plunge stepped down a was before trying to glissade but it was too soft to pick up any speed. Once back below the ridge there was little wind and sunny and warm. Long slog back to the cars but well worth it.