June 21, 2004, South Sister, Southside

Day 4, the final day of Jonathan and Ben's too short PNW Volcano trip, we skied South Sister in Central Oregon. The snow was continuous enough for skinning about a 1/2 mile up Hells Creek drainage. Above the drainage the snow was already starting to soften even though it was only around 9am. Jonathan skinned all the way to the top with a short portage over bare rock on the ridge west of the Lewis Glacier while Ben bootpacked a few hundred vertical feet below the ridge of the Lewis Glacier and I started bootpacking about mid-way up the ridge. A lot of the summer trail on the ridge is exposed so it may be most efficient to bring light tennis shoes.

The skiing on the upper portion was very good however lower down the snow was very saturated. We skied down from the summit and traversed west (skier's right) of the Clark glacier down a short ramp that leads to the plateaus of Moraine Lakes.

South sister once above Hells Creek drainage:


I'm pleased to note that South Sister has more snow on it then it did this same time of year in '02, though there seemed to be less snow in Hells Creek drainage then in '02.

More photos can be seen here.


Day's stats:
Vert climbed: 4908'
Vert skied: 4600'
Miles hiked+skinned+skied: 8

And total trip stats:
Vert climbed: 18,484'
Vert skied: 14,000'
Miles hiked+skinned+skied: 31.8