South Sister – Page 3 – Not Your Average Engineer

August 22, 2011July 1, 2020

The Glacial Lake and the Final Assault for the South Sister Summit

We arrived at the glacial lake below the summit of South Sister after slogging up through several snow fields and lots of loose, talus and scree.

There sure is a lot of snow left on the mountain for the middle of August.

In retrospect, I should have put on sun screen and sunglasses at this point.

Looking south toward Mount Bachelor. Broken Top is peaking around the side of the ridge on the left. I think that’s Tammy’s arm on the right side of the photo.

Looking up at South Sister. It doesn’t look like there is too much farther to go but I can tell you that it is quite a distance to the top from here. It’s rather deceiving.

Ascending up the mountain past the glacial lake.

The glacier is on the move. The crevasse ended up going down to bedrock.

Looking southwest. This is a pretty steep mountain.

There were lots of dogs on the way to the top. Our group had two dachshunds along for the adventure.

One happy puppy on the way to the summit.

The final ridge is in view!

August 22, 2011July 1, 2020

South Sister Ascent to the Glacial Lake

Sunday morning we headed out from the trail head at Devils Lake with the goal of reaching the summit of South Sister by about noon. We started our ascent at 7:30am. Sometime the night previous, Adam, Jen, and Tammy joined our encampment. All of us struck up the trail together. Even before we got to the first plateau, we were encountering snow in the ravines and gullies.

Our objective is sighted.

Moraine Lake and Mount Bachelor in the background.

Walking up the superhighway of a trail toward the summit. It’s almost absurd how many people climb South Sister on a nice day.

Getting closer but still so far away.

Coming off up the plain and now starting to ascend the south flank of South Sister.

Click through the image above to see the panorama in a larger size.

Lots of snow fields. We crossed about four or so snow fields during the ascent.

Above treeline. Broken Top is just visible on the left and Mount Bachelor is on the right.

Lots of snow for this late in the year. Click on the image above to go to a larger version of the panorama.

August 22, 2011July 1, 2020

Devils Lake at Night

Last Saturday, Dmitri and I went out to Devils Lake to spend the night in preparation for our South Sister summit attempt. Click through the image above for the full panorama effect.

We setup our camp in the woods across the road from the trail head. The main campground was already full and we didn’t feel like being around so many people anyway.

There was a creek just below our camp.

I don’t think anyone will be camping in the lake.

Dmitri drinking a beerski.

A 360 degree panorama from the top of a lava flow near Devils Lake. Mount Bachelor is to the right of center with snow on the top. The fading rays of light on the far left side of the photo are in the direction of Devils Lake.

Dmitri and me up on the lava flow. I climbed up there wearing flipflops while Dmitri had proper shoes. It’s impressive that I didn’t slice my feet open on those rocks.

My bivy sack setup. The air was very dry at Devils Lake. No condensation on the inside this time. I used some sticks to prop up the tie-down ropes a bit. That seemed to help, too.