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Topped out NORTH SISTER!


TRoth

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Hey Guys. Me and my partner just topped out North Sister on Thursday at 3pm. We put in at Obsidian TH off of McKenzie pass. We hopped on the rock scree moraine at the South end of North sister. Then we ran the south west traverse. There was still snow blocking most of the scree paths. It turned these sections into technical pitches (14 shorties). Placed many pickets, a few screws, cams, nuts, etc. Went up through the bowling alley to the top. The lower YELLOW webbing- (my blue chordalette) and brown chordalette anchor will allow a 30m rappel straight west over the edge to the upper snow glacier ledge. It uses ALLLLLLLLLL 60m rope!!!!!!! We had a blast, and were pretty wiped when we were off.

 

LOTS OF SNOW IN THE AREA. NORTH IS MOSTLY BARE, upper glacier is soft and rotten already expect crampon-picket use. Middle's NW route looks nice!

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good to see a report on North. Helluva mnt! congrats on finally topping out.

 

i see you went for trying to hit the quasi-moat at the top of the 'terrible traverse' - last fall it was a 6ft deep protected passage that was very nice. It definitely puts you on the steepest aspect--what'd you do to get down from when it ended? just downclimb the snow?

 

objective question: I don't really have experience placing rock pro, almost all the snow looked somewhat rotten (like maybe it got rained on recently?). How was your feeling about placing any of that pro? Was it more mental or do you think a lot of it would have held a fall? Not a crit, just, it is by far the most crumbled mountain I've been up..have a real love hate thing with it.

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Yeah, I had been to the big arete after the snow field twice. I had never turned that corner before into the bowling alley. When I turned the corner (which was a pain in the ass down climbing rotten snow)I ended up traversing north to a red and green sling I had seen. That was the scariest time. I had two sketchy moves with no gear. I made it to the slings, looked over the edge and said "fuck that!!!" I turned around and looked south and up the gulley. I saw the rap anchors at the top, straight east in the bowling alley. maybe 5.6 climbing with poor to no protection. 1 slinging horn is there.

We summited, and rappeled over the edge back on to the glacier below, without going through the bowling alley. USE LOWER ANCHOR with 60 m Rope.

 

So ya, Once we were both on the glacier and about to pull the rope, we stomped out a big ditch on top. this was my belayers spot. no pro, but if I took a fall on the glacier, he could jump behind the ditch and glacier to brace me. Im pretty confident in my skills and feet so I wasnt too worried. a #2 cam comes in handy, a nut set is nice. The rock weakness is..... not the best for placing gear. you have to keep a constant eye out and be vigilant.

 

bring 3 long MSR coyote pickets for the snow sections. need a hammer or ice tool hammer

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