[TR] Three Sisters - North to South Traverse 9/6/2012

[rocky_joe]

Trip: Three Sisters - North to South Traverse

 

Date: 9/6/2012

 

Trip Report:

Completed the traverse yesterday with Ryan Ghelfi, a buddy from Shasta, in 9:01:25. After trying this route twice and having my ass handed to me both times it was a huge relief to get it done without incident, and even better to exceed my expectations. We went in to the day hoping for around 10 hours and to take the north ridge of south sister. We made an error gaining the SE ridge of North by missing the turn at the second creek and having to cut back a few minutes from sqaw creek. The only other route-finding decision of the route was whether to head up the north ridge or nw ridge on south. I'd not managed to find an "easy" route up the north ridge on my first attempt and didn't care to return there without having better beta, so we elected to take the nw. There is a nice-ish trail up the left side of the ridge that minimizes the soul-crushing scree climbing I found it to be last year. All in all, it was an excellent day out and loads of fun. We carried an axe with us, but never needed to use it as the terrible traverse is free of snow. It's prime season up there right now, y'all should go do it, cuz it's super fun.

Splits / Total

Pole Creek-> N. Sister 3:22:54 / 3:22:54

N. Sister -> Middle 1:27:49 / 4:50:43

Middle -> S. Sister 2:58:26 / 7:49:10

S. Sister-> Devil's Lake TH 1:12:15 / 9:01:25

 

Gear Notes:

2 liters water

Shot blocks, gu, salame, mozzarella, salt pills

Axe (unnecessary)

Poles

Approach shoes

[thdcdiver]

Congrats!

 

Which side of Middle Sister did you take up? Were there large crevasses to worry about? I'm new at this, but was thinking of venturing off that way this weekend.

[JohnGo]

Joe,

 

Way to send it, congrats!

Your split times are admirable, and beta on getting up south sister from the north is especially useful.

 

Any chance you could post a photo of south sister with a line drawn on it showing the route you took?

 

and I can vouch for their being zero snow to deal with on North Sister at this time. I climbed it on Sunday Sept 9, and there is one patch of snice you can literally step across, that's it. No crampies, ice axe, nor snow pro needed.

 

Thanks,

John

Edited September 15, 2012 by JohnGo