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[TR] Three Sisters - North to South in a Day 8/16/2014


dawuda

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Trip: Three Sisters - North to South in a Day

 

Date: 8/16/2014

 

Trip Report:

I don't post many reports and mainly just stalk this site, but I'm proud of my weekend warrior efforts last weekend, and feel the need for a pat on the back..... :grin:

 

I'm not a big birthday kind of guy, but seeing as it was my 30th, I thought I should do something mention-able. Crappy thing about not being a birthday kind of guy.... you don't tell your friends, and then they're all busy on you birthday. So I planned a solo trip. Initially I was just gonna aim for the wilderness with a bottle of whiskey and my dog, but as i pondered various solo excursions, I kept being drawn back to my desire to solo the 3 Sisters in a single push.

 

No reason to make this long, so heres the deets...

 

Woke at 2am on Saturday

Moving by 2:40

 

Terrible traverse @ 6:10 - The traverse was still full of snow and was quite icy. Having been on the summit at least 3 other times, I opted to live another 30 years and forego the traverse (don't judge!)

 

Being that it was my Bday, I had brought a beer for each summit. First beer at sunrise from North Sister!

 

A little buzzed, I scrambled down to the saddle and ran up Middle.

 

Arrived at the Middle Sister summit at 8:10 in complete solitude.

 

Drank another beer....

 

As I scrambled to put my stuff back in my pack, my crampons got feisty with the last beer. The poor can didn't stand a chance and sprung a leak. My red bull attempted to defend the beers honor and suffered a similar fate. Realizing the circumstances at hand, I made a rash decision and chose to shotgun the Red Bull rather than have a 3rd beer. Probably the better choice.

 

I hurried down Middle sister to Chambers lakes. Took an hour to get down. I hydrated and fill my nalgene. An old man traveling solo stopped by to say hi. Super nice guy enjoying some time alone in the woods.

 

I had been down the North side of South Sister about 12 years ago and vaguely remembered the route. I spotted out a series of ridges that led to the Northwest ridge. But a small rock band choked access. I crossed my fingers that I'd find a way through and headed up. Amazingly, I found passage on the left side of the rock, albeit very loose!

 

I was greeted on the rim to a cheering crowd of at least 10,000 people. Ok, maybe not that many, but holy hell everybody and their mom was up there. It was 12:30pm.

 

I rested for 30 minutes and took a quick cat nap before running down the south side, veering East to Green Lakes. I hyrdated and swam, ecstatic about my accomplishment.

 

I had originally thought the trip might take me almost 20 hours. It had been 12.5 and I had maybe 8 miles to go to get back to Pole Creek. I set a new goal of 14 hours and set to it. After hiking out of the basin, I started running. I ran for 3-4 miles before my legs started to tell me no. Accepting that 15 hours would suffice, I slowed and walked the last couple miles.

 

I arrived at the car 15 hours and 15 minutes after leaving. Not bad for 30th birthday!

 

I'm lazy, so ya'll only get one pic.

 

 

20140816_062618.jpg

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:rawk:

 

awesome! Maybe I should peg that for my 35th.. I'm a bit surprised there is still plentiful snow on the traverse, this being a warm hot summer..with rain events in a non-banner snow year, though I suppose snowfall at 9k+ was probably not hit.

 

thank's for sharing. Bummer about the crampons/beers..had that happen once, a real shame.

 

Cheers and happy belated birthday!

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