June 25, 2006, South Sister

Hit South Sister this past weekend.  We were pretty surprised at how patchy things are getting.  After the past couple days, it's gonna be slim pickings real soon.  As others have mentioned, it didn't get cold Saturday night.  Actually, it felt warmer at 5 a.m. sunday than it did at 10 p.m. saturday.  But still, there was a crust layer that was good for skinning.  We hit the trail at 6 (from camp on the flats above Moraine Lake), and hit the crater about 9:30/9:45.  We skinned until the lake at the base of Lewis Glacier and then booted up the dirt trail from there.  Threw the skis back on to skin across the crater and stopped for a 20-minute frisbee tossing session with someone whose name I forget (also from PDX).  Unbelievably nice on the summit (crater and true), no wind at all.  Skied the little corniced bowl in the summit crater, then headed down.  We had to carry skis a few times over patchy areas where snow ended, but overall got to ski down to the flats straight.  Sun cups are horrendous in some areas...

KJ


More pictures than you'd like to view can be seen here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jackson_km/album?.dir=3040&.src=ph
and/or
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hbasagic/album?.dir=aa2a&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hbasagic/my_photos

Ah, also of note is that there are a few open crevasses on the Clark Glacier.  Not sure if these are *real* crevasses or just snow separating because of the slope.  They were pretty wide and deep, though.