offroadfanatic Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) Trip: South Sister Winter Ascent - Cheating - South Side Regular Route Date: 1/27/2011 Trip Report: Left the car (parked at Dutchman Flat - Check overnight parking regulations beforehand) about noon Wednesday and snowshoe traveled for about half an hour. Got picked up by some snowmachinists who took us to the Devils Lake Trailhead. Snowshoed up to about 7200' and set up camp. Gorgeous clear night with light winds. Left the Camp at about 7:30 am to a hard crusty snow with just crampons on. (Took us a while to figure out the crampon situation as the crampons my partner had didn't fit his boots ) Crater ramp and about last 2000' of ascent was about 2" of snow above solid ice. Winds around 20mph. Summit at 11:30 am. Descend, took down camp reached the Devils lake TH at about 4:30. Caught a ride out after about an hours of snowshoeing back to the snow parking lot. Perfect conditions. Earlier start would've lended to a more stable descent. Lot's of snow balling underfoot. Un-roped travel was a bit sketchy at times due to that, but all manageable. Good trip. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=274714&id=500083502&l=b9900003ee Photos there. (I always have trouble with uploading photos. Sorry) I'll try to upload some when I get back to Cinci. Gear Notes: Snowshoes Crampons Mountaineerng Ice Axe (If you fly out from Cinci and only bring your AT boots, rent mountaineering boots instead of using them with snowshoes Approach Notes: Snow machines. Put your thumb out. They tend to stop. Nice. Edit: Added Parking Area Edited January 30, 2011 by offroadfanatic Quote
mattp Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 Nice! You flew out from Ohio and were lucky enough to climb to the summit of one of these Cascade monsters? In the middle of winter? Fantastic. BTW: There is nothing like standing on top of one of the volcano's, in my opinion. Yes, there are some more serious objectives out there and some "ticks" in the North Cascades might exceed South Sister in terms of badass, but on a good day you can see Shasta and Rainier from the summit of South Sister--pretty good spread, huh? Quote
offroadfanatic Posted January 30, 2011 Author Posted January 30, 2011 The view was incredible. You could almost pick out the Hogsback on Hood from the summit. Just an incredibly lucky break in the weather! Quote
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