North Twin Sister Beta?!

[rockgirl77]

Has anyone recently climbed North Twin Sister?

If so, any beta? Thanks!

[Blake]

As of May 7, conditions are pretty good on the route. Just did it today. One can push or ride their bike from the parking spot all the way to the start of the ridge climb at 4,100 feet. The ridge is essentially free of snow and ice. The north face descent is covered in snow -- pretty soft and easy to downclimb and plunge step in at present. Not very deep coverage, however, so not clear how long the descent route will stay good.

 

 

 

 

Current conditions would likely be similar with less snow.

[PeterC]

I climbed the W ridge of N. Twin on Sat. Good basic info at

Definitely bring a bike for the approach. The logging roads were in much better shape than I remember them - a good mtn biker could probably do the whole thing w/out any walking. We stashed our bikes at Daily Prairie, but I think it would have been better to ride or walk them up to the base of the trail because riding down this section would have saved some time. Hardly any snow on the W ridge at all, but we did wander onto snow on the N. side of the ridge towards the top. I'd bring an ice axe. The first 100ft or so of the descent was relatively steep, the snowpack was too thin for nice step-kicking, and there was actually some water ice (!) here and there, so this part of the descent took longer than on previous trips. Nothing worth bringing crampons for though. The N. Face was knee-deep oatmeal on Saturday, but the coverage was still good enough that it would have been a nice ski descent in cooler weather. It took us ~7hrs car-to-car. This is one of my favorite scrambles. Definitely get on it!

Edited May 16, 2005 by PeterC

[Bill_Simpkins]

The mining trucks start up around 2:45 am on weekdays.

There are two trucks and each one departs the mine every 15 minutes so they don't have to pass each other.

if you are crafty and a lawbreaker, one could drive up follow one of the trucks about a minute or two behind and make the turnoff saving 3 miles of logging road slogging. They close the gates in the late afternoon, so you'll need to make that or you will have a long walk home or a long nights wait.

Or you could just ride your bike.

The Blue Mountain Road is a fun alternative. I usually switch betwen that and the Middle Fork every other time to avoid boredom. It is a little longer, but a little mellower. A bit more bike friendly. Sometimes you can hitch a ride on the BMR with someone that is working back there.