|
|
|
|
|
|
Turns All Year Trip Reports
(1) Viewing these pages constitutes your acceptance of the Terms of Use.
(2) Disclaimer: the accuracy of information here is unknown, use at your own risk.
(3) Trip Report monthly boards: only actual trip report starts a new thread.
(4) Keep it civil and constructive - that is the norm here. |
|
|
|
|
Author
|
Topic: July 19, 2008, Broken Hand (Read 1518 times)
|
DG
Member
Offline
Posts: 190
|
With a lazy central Oregon paddling trip planned with some non-skiing buddies for the weekend, I figured my ski season was finally done. But looking at the topos around our first night's camping destination (Three Creek Lake, south of Sisters, OR) gave me reason to reconsider.
Those steep slopes above the lake are above 7,000 feet, and they are northeast facing...mmmmm. If I were to go down there without skis, only to have to spend the day gazing up at snow-covered slopes - the horror! So with the decision clearly beyond my control, I was compelled to pull my gear out once again, and drove down early Saturday to see what I could find.
When I arrived at the Three Creek Lake, I saw to my dismay that all of the continuous routes off of Tam McArthur Rim had melted out. I had several hours to kill, though, so decided to haul my skis up to the top and if nothing else, sample some of the short remaining snow slopes. A quick bushwhack up from the end of the lake put me on top, where close views of Broken Top and the Three Sisters illuminated plenty of snow on their eastern faces, although I'm not sure how much of it is seasonal and how much is of glaciers.
I made a couple of very short laps near the top of the rim, but was still unsatisfied, so decided to set off west into the Three Sisters Wilderness to see if I could find a better run. After a traverse of a couple of hours over the mostly flat plateau, I made my way to the northern flank of Broken Hand, a subsidiary peak of Broken Top. To my joy, there were multiple runs remaining that descended from around Broken Hand down into the Snow Creek drainage. I dropped in from near the summit of Broken Hand (the top is melted out) and the snow was surprisingly firm for 2 pm, yielding plenty of fun turns down the rolling drops and a couple of nice steep sections. I followed the snow down as far as I could to a subalpine meadow, which made for a sweet lunch spot before the lengthy climb back up and over the rim.
With my snow appetite thus satisfied, I was able to relax and thoroughly enjoy the next couple of days of lolling around on an inflatable kayak and drinking cheap beer.
|
|
|
|
|
md2020
Member
Offline
Posts: 377
|
Nice. I've been kind of interested in that area. How early is the road up to Three Creek Lake usually open?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Mike Metz
|
|
|
DG
Member
Offline
Posts: 190
|
Good question. The campground host said that the access road to both campgrounds at the lake was blocked by snow as recently as last weekend (7/12), but not sure how far back it was. Guess maybe it's a short window of opportunity unless one is willing to hike on the road to get in there...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you to our sponsors!
|
Contact turns-all-year.com
Turns All Year Trip Reports ©2001-2010 Turns All Year LLC. All Rights Reserved
The opinions expressed in posts are those of the poster and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Trip Reports administrators or Turns All Year LLC
|
Turns All Year Trip Reports | Powered by SMF 1.0.6.
© 2001-2005, Lewis Media. All Rights Reserved.
|
Page created in 0.25 seconds with 20 queries.
|
BrokenHat.jpg
