[TR] South Sister day ski via Dutchman Flat Lot

[wheelbreaker180]

Trip: South Sister Ski via Dutchman Flat Lot

 

Date: 4/9/2016

 

Trip Report:

South Sister from Dutchman Flat Sno-Park:

Elevation Gain: 6500 (my circuitous route)

Time: 11hrs, 55minutes

Distance: 24.1 miles

Starting time: 6am on 03/09/2016

 

Elevation Profile:

 

Wanted more adventure this weekend so packed up the truck and drove to Bend on Friday night. After the parking lot cleared (10PM) I was the only person left in the Dutchman Flat Sno-Park and turned in after some star gazing (pretty incredible) and Rainier Beer. Slept in the back of the truck and woke up at 530am. Packed my bag and left the car around 6am.

 

I put on my skins and started down the Cascade Lakes Scenic byway for around 6.3 miles before arriving at the Devil's Lake Trailhead for the South Sister Climbing Route. The ski in was nice as most of it was downhill (almost 1000' of elevation loss) and the morning snow was hard, crusty and fast. I took my skins off just when there started to be a nice downslope (around mile 1) and didn't put them back on until mile 5 as it was faster to skate across the flat portion of the road next to Spark Lake.

 

 

 

At around mile 6.3 I entered the woods at this sign (as the trailhead sign must have been buried in snow). It took me about 1.5 hours to get to this point from the trailhead.

 

 

This was too late and I ended up ascending the wrong ridge and had to make a few nasty traverses and boot packs in the soft spring snow. The descent route (which was down the correct climbing route is on the right and my ascent route is on the left in the attached pic.

 

 

After ascending thru the trees, I made it to a nice shaded area in the "Golf Course" and had a snack. The sky was blue and the sun wasn't too hot yet.

 

 

The rest of the ascent was pretty straight forward. the only note is that on the Lewis Glacier there are quite a few crevasses opening up right now and some nasty cracks between the rocks and the deep snow on the climber's right of the ridge. I would stay on the climber's left (Clark's Glacier) side of the ridge if I did it again.

 

I made it to the summit around 1245PM (later due to my roundabout route thru the woods) and stopped for a snack. The snowfield at the top is still nicely frozen. The conditions were nice enough to ski from the trailhead to the top without any major difficulties. There are a few steep traverses on the upper snowfields, but they all held very well. Also of note, the Summit is around 12 miles from the Dutchman Flat Parking lot.

 

 

The snow at the top of the descent was soft but fast, but below 8500', the snow became very slow and heavy. I put my skins back on and tromped back across the "Golf Course" and had another snack and took of my skins before entering the trees.

 

 

The ski thru the trees was really not bad (snow is really dirty with fallen organic material). I got back down to the Cascade Lakes Road - mile 17.5 (at where I should have entered) around put the skins on once again.

 

 

 

Just down the road there was an old burned snow machine

 

 

All in all it took me another 2.5 hours to skin out the 6.3 miles (around 950-1000' elevation gain) back to the parking lot. My climbing partner for the day was this little plastic dude my office mate's son told me to bring with me so here is an obligatory pic of us chillen by Sparks Lake

 

 

All in all it was a good, but very long and very hot (especially the skin out) day.

 

Gear Notes:

Skis, skins, poles, hat, sunglasses, ice-axe (did not use it), shovel, beacon, probe, multitool, SuuntoAmbit3, 4 liters of water (I used 3.5) and food.

 

Approach Notes:

Park and leave from Dutchman Flat Sno-park. Get there early to 1) leave before the sun and b) get a parking spot before all the snow-mobiles show up.

Edited April 11, 2016 by wheelbreaker180

[ScaredSilly]

Nice little ski tour!!

[luvshaker]

Cool TR.

 

What boots up are you using?

[wheelbreaker180]

Thanks, was a great day.

 

I ski the Dalbello Sherpa 5/5 boots. I have been skiing them for 3 years and they a have been incredible both on the hill and the backcountry. Not as light as some of the touring specific boots, but they ski much better.

[wheelbreaker180]

Thanks!