South Sister Skree Sliding

South Sister Skree Sliding

We climbed South Sister last weekend. It was my son, Mike's, first ascent, and the weather was perfect. We left at about 8 AM from the trailhead at Devil's Lake and took the south summit trail from the campground's North Parking Lot. Watch out for many mosquitos at the lake, but once up above the first crest, and onto the plateau, the view of South Sister was fabulous and the bugs were gone. I noticed much less snow than in years past in the glaciers on the south face, so bring plenty of water for the trip up. But the crater was full of snow and also many colored butterflies joined us while we scrambled up the red skree field slope to the top. We reached the top at about noontime. The trip down was very dusty, and we basically slid our way down on the skree, so it only took us about 3 hours to get back to the car. All in all, a beautiful day in the High Cascades together. One last note - all the way down we were dreaming of burgers and ribs and lemonade at our favorite spot in Sisters, Oregon; Bronco Billy's at the Sisters Hotel, about 30 minutes away on Hwy. 20. We may make it a traditional "after-climbing" hangout. I would recommend it.