[TR] North Sister / Middle Sister - SE ridge / N ridge 8/22/2015

[dinomyte]

Trip: North Sister / Middle Sister - SE ridge / N ridge

 

Date: 8/22/2015

 

Trip Report:

Okay, I've not posted a trip report for a long time because I've been way too busy with work and have not done anything exciting enough to post. But over this last weekend I did something that I deemed worthy of a trip report. I was over in Central Oregon working and on Friday was able to hit the pole Creek trailhead for a little hike starting Saturday morning. I had thought about the three sisters marathon, but it never really given it serious thought. I thought I would just take off and see how far I got. I hit the trail at about 6 AM and made pretty good time through the burn. I actually thought it was pretty neat to be able to see the hills so far in advance. I wouldn't wish for a burn, but I've always thought the first few miles out of the pole Creek trailhead was a little boring. 

 

I cruised along and actually went further than I intended to before turning off the trail and bushwhacking. In fact, I went all the way to the trail that leads between middle and North sisters rather than starting earlier. After following this trail for a while I had to turn and climb pretty much straight up the scree slope in order to gain the Southeast Ridge. At that point I saw climbing group way ahead of me, and figured that I would run into them later. 

 

The hike up the Ridge was pretty uneventful. It was really smoky. Visibility was poor. There was a nice breeze.

 

Before long I found myself at the beginning of the traverse where I caught up to the climbing party that I'd seen ahead of me.  They were gearing up with harnesses and rope.  I chatted with them for a minute and it turned out that they were a group of Chemeketans out of Salem. They mentioned that there was a solo climber ahead of me and to be on the lookout for him in the bowling alley. I put on my lid, passed them and went across the traverse which was dry and in really good condition. On the other side I ran into Lou from Minnesota who was the solo climber they had mentioned. We got up into the bowling alley. Brian, the Chemeketans climb leader, offered us some great beta. He offered that once in the bowling alley we should hang to the far right of the alley up a very exposed but fairly solid arete.  He said that he had discovered this route on his fourth or fifth climb up north sister and it offered some of the most solid rock in the entire bowling alley. We followed Brian's advice and indeed the rock was very solid. We climbed up and to the right to a point at which one could look down over the traverse itself, and then we went left up to the rock that climbers typically rap off of.

 

The only other time that I summitted North sister, my buddy Kevin led us up the far left hand side of the bowling alley, setting protection along that wall. This route along the right side of the bowling alley was much much more solid than the left side.

 

Lou and I very quickly found ourselves up above the rap rock where we walked up the ramp to the summit.  It was right about noon at this time. While Lou was taking pictures I walked back down to the rap rock to see how the climbing group behind us was doing. Brian had assembled his team at the bottom of the bowling alley in that safe area over to the climbers left. He did mention his intent to climb the same route that we had and then to rap back down after dropping rope, and assisting his team with prussiking up the rope. We were going to wait until he got up and then rapped back down and then we would down climb. However, he led his entire team except for one person at the same route that we climbed.  And, he did not need to rap back down to assist the last climber as that last climber prussiked up the rope with no difficulty. His team got up to the point that I was at the rap rock and made their way up to the summit. At that time I asked Brian whether he would mind, since his rope was in place, if Lou and I (who both brought our harnesses)were to utilize that rope to rap back down much more quickly and and safer than down climbing. Brian very nicely allowed us to do so. So we rapped down the bowling alley and utilized the fixed rope that Brian's team had left across the traverse and were out of there in no time.

 

It turned out that Lou was also thinking about three sisters marathon, so I asked him if he  would mind some company as he descended north sister and climbed the North ridge of Middle  sister. He said he would love some. So we made our way down the slope from North sister, dropped off the right side down the scree slope and found ourselves at the snowfield. We took out our ice axes but it did not really require crampons. Lou satdown before getting on the snowfield because he actually had some Aluminum crampons and he wanted to put on to try. I walked on across the snowfield find our route.

 

I went ahead little ways across the snowfield and onto a rock band above it, and then I saw some tracks leading across another snowfield that I suspected were going in the correct direction. I followed them for a ways going slowly to wait for Lou. After 15 or 20 minutes I saw Lou heading up the rocks towards Prouty point. I gave him a yell that I'd seen tracks over in my direction and assumed that that was the correct direction to go. He said he was going to just climb a little bit more to take a look and see if his direction was the correct route. I went on and found myself looking at the North ridge of middle sister. From my vantage point it looked very steep and difficult. But things often look that way before you get on to them. I looked back and saw Lou at the top of Prouty point, where he obviously saw that he would have to climb all the way back down the way that he came and circle around to my location. At that point I decided that I didn't want to wait too much longer for him and was just going to climb the ridge on my own. So I set off of the North ridge of middle sister which looked much much easier as I got onto it. 

 

There was an awful lot of scree but it wasn't too long until I was at the top of middle sister with two other couples that come up from camp late. I sat down for a few minutes for a snack and some water at which point a person came up in North ridge from the direction that I had come. I asked him if he passed Lou and he said that he had. It ended up that his name was Christian, and he worked in sisters. He had come up the snowfield between North and middle sister to gain the North ridge and had passed Lou a ways down on the scree slope.

 

By this time it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I knew that making it up south sister would be a bit far-fetched.  I told my wife that I would be home in Portland that evening and I didn't want to be climbing all night. So, Christian and I decided to bail out together. We went down the scree descent trail from middle sister to Camp Lake where we stopped briefly to empty out our boots of all the rocks that we had accumulated. We had a little snack at the lake. And then we headed down the trail back to Pole Creek where we arrived at about 9 o'clock.

 

I made it to sisters in time to get some gas at an open gas station, and then Christian and I hit three Creeks brewing for a couple of beers. Then, I hit the road and made it back to Portland at about 1 AM. I'm not sure how many miles or feet of elevation I gained, but all in all it was a very good day. If I ever set my sights on the three sisters marathon, I'm certainly going to start out around midnight or so which I assume is what most people do. It's certainly doable, but would take a little gutting it out.

 

If anyone is interested in photos, I can probably come up with a few.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Take plenty of water. I went through 3 liters by the time we got most way down middle. Filled up from the melting snowfield.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2015 by dinomyte

[luvshaker]

Thanks for the beta,

Nice work!

[aforster]

Sounds like fun! My favorite part is how you "hit the pole Creek trailhead for a little hike" and just by accident happened to bring a helmet and ice axe :-)