Cletus Posted June 17, 2003 Posted June 17, 2003 After an unusually warm couple of days, I headed up towards Green Lakes Saturday evening for the aforementioned Green Lakes plabfest with Timmay and his lovely bride Becky F. Beckey. The slog was somewhat tiresome in the boot deep slush, and having gotten a bit of a late eve start (hoping that things would cool off as much as possible before we headed in), we pulled up short of the lakes themselves in a super secret meadow that no one else knows about. In other words, the first clearing we could find, once we’d decided to quit for the night. GaperT and B.F. Beckey threw together a little fly and poles bivy, and I rolled out little bivy blanket and stuffed myself in my sleeping bag. Does it make it more hard core if I say bivy like that? See, cause, technically speaking, none of us were in a bivy sack. So I’m not sure if it counts. Can I get a ruling on that? I think I qualify, since I had no cover whatsoever, but the other 2/3s of our party is a tougher call. Now, you could argue that with a tent fly and footprint, it was hardly a bivy, but you’d be ignoring the fact that every 20 mins or so Chinook and/or Sierra would hear a NOISE and have to go investigate. Why, you ask, is this relevant to whether GaperT and B.F. Beckey were bivvying? Because the dogs were tied to the fly. Oh yes, the puppy porn: Chinook, Master of his own Domain Sierra, Energizer Dog Anyhew, after a couple false starts, we all finally passed out for the night, which had, in the meantime, become extraordinarily clear, beautiful, and “oh my god, it’s full of stars.” The morning dawned (as its prone to doing when it gets a good cup of java in it) superbly clear and crisp. Timmay and I saddled up our horses (Atomic and Triple-X, respectively), and rode them up towards South Sister’s SE side in search of Glory. We didn’t find her, but we did get some unreal morning light and amazing scenic views. Looking back at Bachy’s NW aspect The Approach up towards South Sister We headed across this valley and up to the pristine SE facing slope at the left skyline (in the pic above). From there, we were treated to more spectacular views, of Broken Top, Bachy, and the Summit bulk of South Sister from the SE. A couple quick bites to eat, and we dropped in to the stunning SE facing slope. The sky was amazingly blue, the corn incredibly white, and the GaperTim tremendously plab. Sweet turns! (Look hard, they’re there) After shredding that slope, we cut back skier’s right to gain the entrance to the gully we had climbed up, trounced down that as well, and were back at camp by 9:30am. We ditched the gear, fired up the stove, and some 30 minutes later, were grubbing on scrambled eggs with green peppers, tomatoes, onions, ham, and pepper jack cheese. Who says you can’t bivy (or whatever) in style? Wonderful evening, brilliant stars, perfect morning, smashing skiing, dyno-mite eats, great company. Killer 16 hour trip; I give it two thumbs up! A+ Quote
kurthicks Posted June 17, 2003 Posted June 17, 2003 Nice TR. I led a group of 6 that managed to find your super-secret meadow campsite on Sunday morning...the secret's out. It was quite a nice little spot down there. I bet that Becky was so glad to see us around 8am, because we got a heck of a rise out of the watchdogs. what a hoot. no more for her! We were also fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the plabfest in action when I spotted you two coming down SS. Did you guys make 2 runs that day? I got a photo of 2 people coming off the same area sometime that afternoon... the weather that day just !! you didn't happen to see us up on the W. Face of B-choss, did ya? Quote
gapertimmy Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 PLAB!!!!! Becky said that freakin chinook pulled the tent down when you guys walked by. Didn't see you up on BT... we must have been back in the trees by then. Great picts Ben, we want some prints of Sierra, she is hard to catch still. A side note, sierra is chubbin on a dead deer carcass that she found up there, nummers. Quote
nonanon Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 Here’s my tale of Plab-fest west. Sorry we missed you guys! Late Friday afternoon, after an hour of dicking around hauling the sled over downed trees and dirt we decided to ditch the pig. So, taking only what we could fit in our daypacks, we left the sled, the tent, the beer (sob!) and a ton of extra food and clothing and beat feet for Green Lakes with what light we had left. Crossing the Moraine Lake plateau without finding the trail, we headed off across the lava fields following a compass heading to Green Lakes. Just as it was getting almost too dark to see we spotted some open water and trees and after crossing a large creek that was fortunately snowbridged at the lake outlet we found a large patch of bare ground with a beautiful old fallen tree trunk to crash beside. Session! In the morning we started up a West-trending ridge of nuntucks thinking it was the most direct line to the top. But it cliffed-out in choss somewhere around 7400 and we had to backtrack to where we could ski down to a lower snow gully that connected a small choss ridge. The ridge led to the SE shoulder of the Sis and we traversed over to the obvious South side conga line where packed up skis and got in line. A thousand feet of stairstepping later and, cha cha cha, we were on the top. Session! Had some food, took some pictures. There were lots of Mounties up there. One guy was playing some weird head game with his climb leader, “Don’t look now but I brought BEER!” Oooh, you’re just sooo bad, Mister I-need-a-guide to climb the S. Sister. Whoops, my bad. Anyway, after another Session!, we decided to ski the fall line down to Moraine Lake and see if we couldn’t find that trail we’d been looking for the day before. The snow, while not optimal, wasn’t irredeemably awful (we’ve all seen worse) and we shredded the rad fantastic, leaving the Mounties in our dust (or slush as the case may be.) Maybe if we’d gotten up a few hours earlier the snow would’ve been better, but then again, it’d been a mighty warmish night. Once down at the lake we quickly found the trail and followed it all the way back to camp. Session! Later on, we both agreed that our direct line of the night before was the better way to go. Back in camp around five we partied ‘til the sun went down and partied some more after that. Green Lakes is a bit out of the way for a climb of S. Sis, imo, but what a beauty camping spot it is! Gorgeous lipstick sunset streaming over the mountain with a nearly full moon rising over Broken Top much later in the eve. The milky way and whatnot in the meantime. Many scenics, many sessions. Sunday, we crossed over the lava field and took a high (7200-8000) traverse back to a sweeeet treeline that dropped us off on the NE side of Moraine Lk. Then we followed Hells creek back to Devils Lake. We dropped our packs at the truck and climbed back up to retrieve the sled and the much missed beer. After a congratulatory beer or two we packed up the rig and drove home to P-town. A completely mellow trip, all in all, but it would’ve been fun to meet up the rest of you mystery Plabfesters. Maybe another time... This past weekend we did a fantastic run down the Wy’east face. Camped on a snowledge @ 8600’ and watched the now full moon come up. Colder temps and a nightlong katabatic wind kept the snow nicely styro-ed for the climb in the AM. We quickly cramponed the last 2k and hung out among the hot rocks on the ridge until around ten when the corn timer went off. Awesome run down. My first time. Love the rollover just out of the box! Snow was good all the way back to our high camp. Absolute crap below that. That trip goes on my “yearly” list from now on! Quote
gapertimmy Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 nonanon said: This past weekend we did a fantastic run down the Wy’east face. Camped on a snowledge @ 8600’ and watched the now full moon come up. Colder temps and a nightlong katabatic wind kept the snow nicely styro-ed for the climb in the AM. We quickly cramponed the last 2k and hung out among the hot rocks on the ridge until around ten when the corn timer went off. Awesome run down. My first time. Love the rollover just out of the box! Snow was good all the way back to our high camp. Absolute crap below that. That trip goes on my “yearly” list from now on! got any picts, sounds tasty! Quote
nonanon Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 Funny you should ask. Before I crashed, I put my camera in a bag with my camelback and some other crap. At some point during the night I must've rolled over onto to the valve cause I completely flooded my beloved olde Yashica. Fortunately, I was able to dry the thing out but I had to open the back, losing the film in the process. That route will be good for another couple of weeks at least. You should go! Quote
gapertimmy Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so tempting. too many lines, too little time. Quote
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