DonnV Posted July 7, 2003 Posted July 7, 2003 While maybe not as appealing as some of the linkups that can be done up north, this is about the best one can do down in Oregon, and I had been wanting to do this for a couple of years. My wife and I drove up the recently opened Mackenzie Pass road Thursday afternoon and camped at the Obsidian trailhead. I headed up the trail by headlamp at 3 AM. I was high enough by sunrise to enjoy the spectacular view of the sun hitting the lineup of Washington, 3F Jack, Jefferson, Hood and Adams. I started with 2 liters of water and planned to grab one more liter on the way up. I kept seeing streams, so kept hiking up. Started daydreaming, I guess, and realized a bit later that I had missed my chance and was now far above any flowing water. Snow was pretty hard fairly low. I threw on crampons at about 6500'. Another half hour higher, as I trudged up the snow, I heard a voice from the rocks on the left say, "Hey, do you want any water?" A guy had bivied there and had carried up several liters more than he could possibly use. I gratefully filled up, chatted a bit, then continued on my way, glad to have been rescued from my inattention. The North Sister is the only one of the three summits that has anything very technical, so it was nice to get that out of the way early. I ditched a bit of gear at the base of the S ridge and headed up. The route is mostly dry right now, but the steep traverse to the base of the Bowling Alley is still very hard snow and provided excellent cramponing. The Bowling Alley itself has a bit of remnant water ice, but I was able to climb up and down easy 4th class on the right side. I was carrying a 30m rope for a possible rap. Not only did I not need to rap, but I found two fixed ropes already there, iced in a bit so very likely from last season. I only spent a couple minutes on top. It was hard not to just hang out and enjoy the views, but a long way to go yet. Saw no one else on the route. The trip down was slow and tedious, followed by a fairly quick walk over to the base of the Middle. The North ridge is a short walkup. Saw 4 people there. Again only spent a few minutes on top before starting down the SE Ridge. This is a fairly decent and direct descent route. A bit of snow, some solid blocky 3rd class downclimbing, more snow, with lots of boot glissading down to Chambers Lakes between the Middle and South peaks. This is where you need to spend some time just hiking for a while. The North and Middle are very close together, but the gap between the Middle and South goes on a ways, or seems to at this point in a long day. I was fortunately able to find some meltwater and refill without having to drop even further to one of the lakes for water. The North ridge of the South Sister starts off feeling like a pretty good way to finish the traverse. It's all pumice, but actually fairly good footing and the rock is a multitude of wild colors (or maybe I was just really tired). The ridge is really just a hike for most of the route. Unfortunately, about halfway up the footing starts getting looser, just as one gets more and more tired. It turns into a real trudge and my pace slowed quite a bit. Just below the summit the ridge is blocked by a buttress that seems to be made out of hardened mud and loose rock. Out came the axe and crampons and helmet one last time for the 5 or 10 minutes it takes to walk around it on steep snow to the right. The last few minutes are a slog to the top. This is the one summit where I hung out for a while. I was definitely feeling the fatigue, and it was very nice to look back at the other two peaks now that all the work was done. Oddly enough, there was no one at all on top of the South, although there had clearly been many there earlier, and I did pass many people coming up on my way down. I fortunately just caught a nice quiet window. There was still enough snow low on the south trail to allow for a fairly quick descent. I never thought I would say that the trip down the South Sister trail was pleasant, but I enjoyed every step of it this time since it marked the easy, last leg of a very hard day. Crampons on and off about 7 or 8 times. Six liters of water. Left Obsidian trailhead at 3 AM. Top of North at 8 AM. Top of Middle at 10:30 AM. Top of South at 2:30 PM. Devils Lake trailhead at 5:15. Wife had a gin and tonic in my hand at 5:16. No real climbing challenges, but a great workout on an absolutely gorgeous day. Quote
retired Posted July 7, 2003 Posted July 7, 2003 Congratulations, took me back about 20 years when I did it with my buddy stu stuller, can still remember his calves looking like gallon jugs pumping up the south sister (lets you know who was in front), a long day indeed. Quote
gapertimmy Posted July 7, 2003 Posted July 7, 2003 (edited) nice job! there is currently a climber missing on north sister, his wife last saw him while he was descending the bowling alley area on saturday Search under way for overdue hiker in North Sister area Partner used other climbers' cell phone to report Portland man missing By Barney Lerten, Bend.com (barney@bend.com) Originally Posted July 6, 2003 at 1:49 pm Last Update July 6, 2003 at 1:54 pm Reference Code: AR-10338 July 6 - Deschutes and Lane County searchers and mountain rescue teams were busy looking Sunday for a missing hiker from Portland who became separated from his partner while descending from an attempted climb of the North Sister a day earlier. Authorities had not released the name of the 55-year-old man, pending notification of his family. The female partner borrowed a cell phone from another party to contact authorities late Saturday afternoon after becoming separated from the man while coming down the 10,085-foot peak, said Lane County sheriff’s Deputy John Miller, the agency’s search and rescue coordinator. The missing hiker was equipped with “clothing appropriate for the activity – shorts and a T-shirt – but had fleece and shell gear with him, and down gear,” Miller said. “He’s a fairly avid outdoorsman, familiar with a map and compass,” which he also had with him, Miller said, but he had not climbed the North Sister before. A National Guard Blackhawk helicopter out of Salem was involved in the initial stages of the search late Saturday and one was due on scene Sunday afternoon, Miller said. There were about 17 searchers in teams from Eugene Mountain Rescue and Deschutes Mountain Rescue working four areas at higher elevations, along with a team on horseback, working on We have a positive mindset that it’ll end good, until we get clues that lead us in another direction. John Miller Lane County Search and Rescue coordinator the Pacific Crest Trail from the north, in the Lava Lake area. Searchers were focusing their efforts on the west face of the North Sister and the Collier Glacier area, Miller said. “Quite frankly, we haven’t even got to his tent yet, to see if he got back down and is waiting for his partner,” the search coordinator said. “We have a positive mindset that it’ll end good, until we get clues that lead us in another direction.” That would be in sharp, happy contrast to a more than 2-year-old unsolved mystery in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area involving a still-missing climber. Corwin Charles Osborn of Bellevue, Wash., was 45 when he disappeared in June 2001 while hiking from the Devils Lake Trailhead, with plans to solo climb one or perhaps all of the Three Sisters. The athletic, experienced climber was dropped off on the morning of June 17 by his father, planning to meet him at the Lava Camp Trailhead on state Highway 242 later that day. He never turned up, and a massive air and ground search turned up no sign of the missing man. Edited July 7, 2003 by gapertimmy Quote
DonnV Posted July 8, 2003 Author Posted July 8, 2003 Sad news. Someone on the Middle Sister asked me about the route on the North peak. I remember telling him that you had to really watch your footing and be suspicious of every hold you use. Test everything. You really can't afford to fall anywhere on the last traverse or up the Bowling Alley to the top. Very nasty fall line. ]http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=58944] Rescue crews wait to recover body of dead climber BEND - Authorities are still trying to find a safe way to recover the body of a climber who fell nearly 600 feet on the North Sister. Dr. Bruce Shively, 55, a cardiologist and an associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, fell Saturday while climbing with a friend. On Sunday, a helicopter rescue team came within 100 feet of the body, but the mission was called off because it was too dangerous. "We were able to observe enough and for long enough to know that he is deceased," said John Miller of the Lane County Sheriff's Department. Miller said the search and rescue crew would try to make another recovery attempt in the coming days. The fall happened on the second day of a multi-day climb up the North Sister. Shively and his partner, whose name has not been released, turned back and began their descent before reaching the summit, according to Al Hornish of Deschutes County Search and Rescue. At nearly 9800 feet, Shively separated from his partner to scout out a safe path for descent, according to officials. After descending several hundred feet down the loose rock face, Shively shouted to his partner that it was safe for her to descend. She could not see him, but could hear him, according to reports. She then attempted to descend the mountain and re-establish voice contact. She did not hear from him again. Quote
wayne Posted July 14, 2003 Posted July 14, 2003 Nice work Donn and friend! That one I have yet to do myself. I am thinking of going the other direction for the hell of it .Does that sound fun at all? Quote
DonnV Posted July 15, 2003 Author Posted July 15, 2003 Wayne, There would be no technical problems going south to north, except for about 200' or so of sorta technical ground to descend near the top of the North Ridge of the South Sister. The reason I would not want to go that direction is that you'd be going up and down the South Ridge of the North Sister at the end of a tiring day, and that's not a place where you can make any mistakes (the guy who fell and died there last Saturday was not the first). I was glad to do that when I was fresh, and was glad to be on relatively trivial terrain heading up the South Sister as the fatigue set in. But then again, I'm old. Quote
iain Posted July 15, 2003 Posted July 15, 2003 Here's a winter traverse to try: In via Pole Creek, pack skis, up Early Morning Couloir Traversing descent down West Face Right, ski to Collier when comfortable Up N. Ridge of Middle, ski down South Ridge Up N. Ridge of South, ski down to Green L's Up NW Ridge of BT, ski down 11:00 couloir Out via Dutchman's Beers at Bend Brewing, vicodan/percocet as needed Quote
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