Current conditions on South Sister - south side?

[Julian]

Hey everyone,

 

I was supposed to take a group up South Sister a few weeks ago and had good info with regards to the snow conditions, but a few of them had to reschedule and so we are planning to go up this weekend. Has anyone been in that area recently (within the past week or so)? I'm mainly interested to know how deep the snow is both on the approach and on the south ridge, and if axes and pons would be advisable. Thanks

[fettster]

Check out this July 3 TR:

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7968134

 

[Kevin_Matlock]

Update as of 7/12:

Jon (dinomyte) and I bivied on the summit Sat night. Light winds, lows in the 40s, and summit alcohol made this some good times. A few bivi sights on the eastern rim are free of snow.

 

You will be on the snow for a good portion of the time down low. The trail is wide open (dirt) from about 8500' on up. Morrain lake is just now starting to show some liquid H2O but basically the area is still VERY snowy; pretty freaking amazing for this time of year.

 

There are a couple of spots that might be sketch if the snow is hard, so an axe might make ya feel better on the descent. But there are so many lines possible that you could likely avoid any of the steeper traverses. If the snow is soft there is little reason to take any tech gear at all.

 

On the approach from Devil's lake, its best to just drop down into the ravine which still had tons of snow. We saw the trail up slope on our right so we got out of the ravine... this didn't help much. Better to just ride out the ravine to the terminus.

 

Edited July 14, 2008 by Kevin_Matlock