May 24 Middle Sister

My wife nicole and I headed down to bend for the long weekend, hoping to avoid what I thought would be a wet wknd in the WA mtns. On Sunday we climbed middle sister. Leaving from the Pole creek TH, we carried skis about 5 miles to the flats at 6800'. We met a group descending who had beem stymied by whiteout and rotten snow the previous day. They recommended an early start... but we were tied to a daytrip and just hoped for better conditions. From the flats it was simple to find consistent snow for skinning right up to the middle sister-9312' col. Climbing to the top was a bit spicy since we had neglected ice axe or crampons. A solid boot pack allowed for fairly safe travel to the summit. Turns were fairly overcooked up high. But improved on the lateral moraine of the Hayden glacier. Skiied well all the way down to our shoes where we then trudged out to the TH. We then enjoyed a nice TH dinner since this was the first trip we'd taken the new sprinter rig on... apres  ski was Indian food and van conversion planning. At the moment it's just a mattress on the floor.

Long hike, but such a beautiful area and gorgeous summit. I figure it should corn back up a bit more in the next few days of sun... it was borderline heavy at times, but we never ran into the ball bearing rotten snow the other party reported on south aspects.