Home > Trip Reports > May 9-10, 2015, South Sister

May 9-10, 2015, South Sister

5/9/15
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Posted by garrettww on 5/11/15 8:05am
Since moving to Portland last summer, skiing in the Sisters range has been high on my tick list. Cascade Lakes Highway past Mt. Bachelor recently opened up, and the weekend forecast looked prime for a corn harvest.

We parked at Devil€™s Lake trailhead where there was patchy snow by the highway. The trail was fairly dry at first, but continuous skinnable snow was found less than a mile in. My girlfriend and her cocker spaniel made their way up with me for an overnight trip, but weren€™t up for a summit bid. Little dogs don€™t do so well with post-holing, and I wasn't too excited about carrying an extra 15lbs to the top of South Sister.  On the way up we crossed paths with at least 20 other people, most of which were on skis or snowboards. 

Due to a late start, I crested the summit crater at 4pm and enjoyed a glorious windless hour up there all to myself. I feared that I was a bit late in the day for anything but sloppy slush on the way down. But as it turns out, skiing conditions were superb from just below the crater rim all the way down to 7000€™ where we had made camp.

We had a perfect evening in the alpine with an awesome sunset, little wind, and a hearty meal. Mother€™s day morning was leisurely, though a bit overcast. We watched a few skiers headed up while we had coffee and breakfast, then made our way back down to the car.  Overall it was a pretty perfect weekend.


South Sister pano from around 6800'



Detail of upper south slopes of South Sister.



Broken Top was looking like an awesome ski objective.



Upper slopes of South Sister - Lewis Glacier on right.



Looking back south. Spark Lake seen at the base of Bachelor.



Another view of Broken Top.



The other two Sisters looked so close you could touch them. Mt. Washington and Jefferson seen in the distance.


nice shots! glad you got out on the nice weather window. Too bad we didn't find out how a cocker would fare on the upper mountain... but probably a good call.

Nice report and photos. That's Three Fingered Jack by the way in the last shot, as Mount Washington is almost completely hidden behind Middle Sister except for the long ridges visible down low. See http://caltopo.com/view#ll=44.1039,-121.7697&e=6&t=,usi&z=6&c=-4.46,-6.04

Caltopo is the best tool I currently know of for checking the view from any location, better than http://www.peakfinder.org/, although that has a nice inexpensive mobile app which works even without cell service.


Looks rad! Definitely gonna have to check it out sometime!

Nice catch, Amar! I often use Caltopo for creating .pdf map images for printing, but hadn't noticed the "check out the view" feature. That's a handy tool. 

I also like to use aerial photos and see the relationship and shape of the peaks. Steph Abegg (often with the aerial help of John Scurlock) produces some of my favorite labeled shots, such as the one below. However, I still could have made the same mistake by studying that photo since the perspective from the plane differs from the actual perspective seen standing on the summit of South Sister - which Caltopo approximates really well.


Great report, thanks!!

I won't be down there next until early June--figure the snow pack will hold?

Also, since I've never seen the trailhead, how's the security for your car and possible breakins?  Is the parking right at the highway and visible, or is it back a bit and kinda dodgy?

Thanks!

You can park right on the side of the road at the trail or in the lot for Devil's Lake, which is off the road and will probably have people camping nearby by that time. It's a short walk to campsites on the lake, pretty much car camping. TH break-in risk in the area is pretty low in general.

Which route did you take from the Devils lake campground? Moraine lake or Green Lake? I am trying to figure out where the snow line is on the Moraine lake route. How far will I be carrying my skis before I can put them to use?

Thanks!

author=EricW link=topic=34260.msg141544#msg141544 date=1432240460]
Which route did you take from the Devils lake campground? Moraine lake or Green Lake? I am trying to figure out where the snow line is on the Moraine lake route. How far will I be carrying my skis before I can put them to use?

Thanks!


We went the usual summer trail which heads towards moraine lake, though we didn't actually take the side trail over to moraine lake. Snow line was around 6,000' but that was two weeks ago.

author=EricW link=topic=34260.msg141544#msg141544 date=1432240460]
Which route did you take from the Devils lake campground? Moraine lake or Green Lake? I am trying to figure out where the snow line is on the Moraine lake route. How far will I be carrying my skis before I can put them to use?

Thanks!


We went into Green Lakes over Memorial day weekend.  Patchy snow starts around 6,000 feet, continuous snow is now found above 6,500 feet.  There are some great bare areas to camp in the normal spots around the lake and easy access to running water.  Access to the east side of South Sister required getting our feet wet to cross the creek, but was very direct otherwise, and there is also easy access to skin up to the west bowls on Broken Top from camp.  The snow quickly turned to glop on Sunday so we didn't go as far as we wanted to, but was better Monday, but we had to cut it short for the hike out and drive home.  Probably good corn up there this week if it stays sunny.

We also went up to Green Lakes for Memorial Day weekend. Found some nice bare ground to camp on. Tried getting to the east side of South Sister the first evening but didn't want to remove my boots to cross the creek (lazy I know) so we headed up Broken Top for an evening mashed potato harvest. The next day we continued on past Green Lakes and off trailed it to the saddle between South Sister and Broken Top. Was eyeing two sets of tracks and went and added a third set of tracks and followed them down a buttery snow gully a ways before heading back up and skiing back to the tent.

Took a mini evening tour into a Northwest bowl on Broken Top for some really nice re-consolidating corn turns before heading back to camp for the night.

Amazing area to set up a base camp and sample various snow fields, bowls, gullies...

Didn't see anyone the second day accept a lone backpacker or the third day (until the way out) other than two guys who summited via the Prouty Glacier up above us. Wonderful area to have all to yourself.

Pic 1: Heavy but smooth turns on lower South Sister
Pic 2: Heading up along the bowl

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