TheOtherBob Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Trip: North Sister - SW Ridge Date: 8/19/2015 Trip Report: Hailing from Portland/OregonHikers here. EB and I camped on the Obsidian side on Aug 18 and had the summit of North Sister to ourselves on Aug 19th. The info is a week old at this point, but I'm posting in case anyone is interested. The prose is sparse because the images speak for themselves and because I don't think many members of this community need a detailed play by play for this peak. We scouted the area back in mid July when the "Terrible Traverse" was still under snow. It was obvious during our approach that the snow is now completely melted. The following image illustrates the state of the route from the Obsidian area up to the base of the SW ridge. There was quite a bit of haze from the recent fires. High bivy site. Crevasses near the route. Minimal snow crossing is still necessary. Approaching the base of the SW ridge. View of the haze after gaining the ridge. Current state of the Collier near the base of the ridge. Start of the climber's trail up the ridge. Top of the ridge. Ascending 1st gully. Route toward 2nd gully. Ascending 2nd gully. Current state of the moraine lake at the base of the Thayer. Making the final round toward the "Terrible Traverse." Scoping the traverse itself. Fixed line placed across the traverse. Heading up... ... toward the Bowling Alley. Ascending BA after placing rap line for safety. View from between the horns. Toward the summit. Summit panoram! EB ascending summit. Cheers! Time to go. Pausing to admire Broken Top after the haze cleared a bit. Heading down. Collier in the afternoon. North Sister looking its best in the afternoon light. Cascade volcanoes over the Black Fin, near sunset. Fireworks to end the day. Thanks for reading. Safe climbing! -Bob Gear Notes: Near side of the "Terrible Traverse:" orange and yellow Metolius cams and/or 4-7 BD nuts. Far side of the "Terrible Traverse:" two slings for the horn (look above the traverse trail) or assorted 1-2" cams for the cracks Bowling Alley: webbing and rap rings/links. A 60 m rope or 2 glacier lines will give a dual/line rap to the bottom of the BA. Descent from BA: either downclimb free or place a line through the tunnel near the bottom of the BA for safety. Approach Notes: From Obsidian via SW ridge. No major difficulties with navigation. The snow remains hard before the sun is on it--just slow down, go around, or use microspikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andesite Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Great late season climb. So much safer with a small group. Go Team 6.3 !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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