Mon, Sep 8, 2014
|
With: | Bob Sumner |
North Sister is one of the hardest of Oregon's major climbing objectives, having earned a reputation as the "Mean Sister" or "The Beast", while her milder sisters are far friendlier. The trio are located in the Three Sisters Wilderness in Central Oregon west of Bend. I had been to the area on several occasions in the past, but had not succeeded in reaching North Sister. I had gotten an email from Bob Sumner back in August asking if I might be interested in a late summer climbing trip to North Sister. Having failed at it on two previous attempts, it had never been too far from my mind these past few years. Adam and I had agreed on the last attempt that the snow conditions were too uncertain in June considering the long drive, and that September would probably be a better time. So it seemed a fortuitous opportunity. Sumner, meanwhile, had had four failed attempts and was perhaps even more eager than myself to make things right. My September plans tend to fall around my daughter's volleyball and son's cross-country schedules, so it was only a small three day window that I offered to Bob at the last minute. Luckily he has a schedule more flexible than my own and we quickly made plans to meet up in the small town of Sisters, Oregon.
I was at our meeting place early and went about tidying up the van from the
previous day's warm-up hikes when Bob's headlights announced his arrival in
the parking lot well before our 6a time. Carpooling together in his more
backroads-friendly SUV, we used up most of that extra time exploring an
incorrect branch of the Pole Creek Rd we were driving to the trailhead. It was
not expected to be an overly long day, so the loss of 15-20min was fairly
inconsequential. We arrived at the Pole Creek TH and were on our way around
6:30a after filling out the self-issue day use permit found there.
This was Bob's
third visit and my first to this trailhead. I had used the Obsidian TH on the
west side on the two previous attempts, not realizing that this one was both
shorter and open earlier in the season. I left it to Bob to pick our route as it
seemed he had looked into it extensively. He had sent me a number of emails
detailing the route with pictures and such, though I admit to having only given
them a hasty perusal. I was happy to just trust him on this one which wasn't
really taking much of a chance. After all, if the guy could get a book published
on climbing the NV County highpoints, he could probably get us to North Sister.
The trailhead and surrounding terrain had burned a few years earlier,
leaving a stark landscape for the first several miles where we passed through a
forest of charred snags as
sunrise came upon us. We got our
first view of North Sister after an hour and a half, rising above the
greener trees found closer to the base of our objective. Our route was up the
SE Ridge which had the advantage
of being completely snow-free and relatively easy. As it turns out, even the
more popular approach on the edge of the Hayden Glacier was snow-free, or
mostly so, and it would not be necessary to use either axe or crampons for
either route. The SE Ridge (also called the SE Spur as it eventually joins the
South Ridge) is surprisingly easy in the
lower portion where one is
treated to a glorious view of the colorful
East Face and
East Ridge during the climb. Lingering smoke obscurred
distant views which was a real shame as the views on a
clear day can be stunning.
We kept up a steady pace, taking infrequent and short breaks
to give Bob a
chance to catch his breath. He would apologize for being slow, blaming smoke,
age and other convenient factors, but in reality his pace was nearly as fast as
my own and I had no complaints at all. The
upper portion of the SE
Ridge was more challenging, a series of pinnacles to be
navigated around on rock that was terribly
fragmented and loose. A use trail appears along much of the ridge
taking some of the guesswork with it, but we still found ourselves on chossy
class 3 terrain that took some patience and care to work through (seems we
missed the use trail that had moved to the south side of the ridge at this
point). Near the top of the ridge Bob called for me to halt and had some
seemingly bad news to share. A late-season snowfield just below us was larger
than Bob had remembered on his previous effort. He was convinced we were
going to find the West Slopes snowed over and of course we had left our snow
gear at home. He began to berate himself for not driving over McKenzie Pass the
day before to check on the snow conditions. He was "100% certain" that we were
screwed, shaking his head in dejected regret. I listened to him for a minute or
so but was unconvinced. Yeah, we might be screwed, but it seemed far from
certain in my view. I suggested the larger snowfield could just be the result of
a bigger snow year (Oregon is not experiencing the drought of its southern
neighbor), but the steep West Slopes would likely still melt out by this time.
In any event, we weren't going to turn around now without at least checking on
conditions.
Four hours from the trailhead we finally reached the junction with
the South Ridge, only about a third of a mile to the summit and the
beginning of the most challenging sections.
A ducked use trail is found leading up the South Ridge and where our routes
joined it was obvious the South Ridge was more popular than the one we'd taken.
Back on familiar ground from my last venture to North Sister, I followed the
ducked route as it weaved among the gendarmes on the upper portion of the ridge,
mostly on the
west side.
Looking around, I noted not a single patch of snow.
I paused to wait for Sumner who was out of sight
somewhere, only to hear his voice and then see him pop his head up higher than
I expected. He had followed the ridge more directly, following a thinner trail
that led over sketchier ground on the
east side
of the ridge. Convincing him
that my route was well-traveled, we soon joined forces and continued on the
more obvious trail on the west side, climbing back up and around one gendarme
on the east side before making our way to the start of the "Terrible Traverse."
Just before reaching it we spied
another climber
making his way in our direction
along the use trail. He was limping slowly, having just twisted his ankle
returning across the traverse. His older partner was behind him. They had
encountered snow and with only one set of crampons had individually gone the
remaining distance to the summit. His partner was somewhere in the Bowling Alley
while he got a head start on the return. Not knowing the extent of his injury,
we let him know we had a Spot device
which could be used to call for SAR, but he reckoned he could probably hobble
out on his own, and should at least go through some pain to try. Leaving him,
we rounded the next turn to see what the fuss was
about, but our introduction had not been encouraging.
This is the where the mountain earns its nasty reputation. Most of the time this
traverse is covered in steep snow up to 45 degrees. Conditions are often ripe
for avalanche, either the fresh powder type or more likely, soft springtime
sloughing avalanches. It can also be ice hard. When it melts off it is said to
be a 30 degree slope of very disagreeable talus. The first thing we noticed was
- snow. Yes, there was still snow.
Right at the start was a tongue of snow extending up and down for some 200ft.
It was an obstacle, but not the impasse that
Sumner had feared. It was too hard to cross the 30ft of width directly. Waiting
for it to soften had no appeal - that could take hours. Our new friend had said
that his partner had scouted the bottom of the snowfield and thought it could
be gotten around by dropping about 150ft. While we were standing there
considering our options, a thunderous roar could be heard across the way and
out of sight - the other climber was in the Bowling Alley and had just let a
huge rockfall go - this was not making us feel any better about the situation.
After more consideration, I decided to go up and see if I couldn't sneak around
the top of the snowfield where it abuts the cliff face some 50-60ft above us.
This proved workable, but sketchy, which I reported to Bob. After I skirted the
top and started back down through steep, loose talus to the regular route, Bob
came up to have a look himself. He didn't like the short bit of sketchiness I
had reported and I had to tell him honestly that the crappy downclimb I was
then engaged in was actually worse. He then decided to check out the longer
route around the bottom of the snowfield. Meanwhile, I was very gingerly trying
to lose ground to get back to the route when the older partner came around the
corner after exiting the Bowling Alley. I had to stop and let him pass under
me lest I should knock rocks upon him. I finally got back to the regular route
around the same time he was pausing to put on crampons, while Bob
looked on. My lightweight
pair of aluminum crampons would have done nicely in my backpack, I thought.
While Bob was making his way around the more tiring, but safer route around the
base of
the snowfield, I scouted out the entrance to the Bowling Alley,
noting
a ramp
leading from the traverse right to the base of it. Back together, we
went up the ramp to the infamous Bowling Alley together.
This section has probably the worst reputation of the route. It can be ugly
indeed with snow or ice. Without either, it is far tamer. The
lower half is
mid-angle loose stuff, but mostly small talus and pebbles to knock down, not
large boulders. We managed up and down without knocking
down anything of consequence which made me think our friend's partner
was perhaps a little
less careful when he let go his barrage. As the alley turns to the right, or
south, it gets steeper and goes to
class 3-4.
Two sets of rappel slings can be
seen near the top. I went first and found the rock quality much better than the
lower half and the holds surprisingly good and plentiful. I went up without a
hitch, reaching the lower rappel sling in a few minutes. Behind me,
Bob hesitated on the steeper section.
I offered to toss down the rope to him if he
liked, and though he didn't really want to have to bother with it, in
the end he decided it would be more prudent.
Out came the rope which I first flaked before coiling and tossing to him. I
belayed him off the rappel slings for the forty or so feet of the
steep section.After this, things get decidedly easier. While Bob
continued up easier terrain to the last
south-facing headwall leading
to the summit, I reconfigured the rope for rappeling before leaving it and
starting up after him. This last
class 3 section is easier
than we had expected and far easier than it looks. A series of
well-placed ledges
makes it a cinch and only fifteen minutes after pulling the rope from my
pack we were at the highpoint. I smiled as I found myself unable to restrain
from reminding Bob about his 100% certainty in our being screwed. He was
already backtracking, claiming that he was 100% certain we'd find snow, which
we did. It was a good laugh. We had succeeded after half a dozen misses between
us and we reveled in our top-of-the-world view. It was disappointing that the
smoke was so prevalent in the area, obscuring the far views which we knew would
be spectacular. We
ate lunch
in the warm sunshine, in no particular hurry to
leave which pleasant conditions.
There are three summits to North Sister, the middle one being the highest,
designated as Prouty Pinnacle, or Peak (depending on which guidebook you're
reading). The south summit
is considered part of Prouty and often called South
Horn - we would pay it a visit before descending back down the Bowling Alley.
The
north summit
is Glisan Pinnacle, or Peak and is a more formidable bonus. We
noted a fixed rope was left dangling down a scary class 4ish chute towards
the saddle between the two. Bob had reached that saddle on a previous attempt
from the north, but without the help of the rope had gotten no further. Neither
of us were in any mood to continue over to Glisan, happy if we managed to
extract ourselves without twisting an ankle, or worse.
After about 20min at the summit, lunch consumed, I began to fidget and get a
bit chilled. Bob picked up the hint as I strapped my pack on, and in a
another minute we were on our way back. After
Bob rappeled the upper section of
the Bowling Alley (the 50m rope just serving to get him to down with only a few
feet to spare), I pulled the rope up, coiled it and returned it to the pack
before downclimbing the route. Rappels always seem to scare me as I dislike
trusting my life to hardware and I felt better doing this one as a downclimb,
trusting to my boots and choice of holds. Back at the traverse we both took the
safer route around the bottom of the snowfield before returning to the southern
end where we regrouped and started the easier portion along the
use trail back down the South Ridge.
For a change of pace we decided to descend the South Ridge
route rather than
return on the SE Ridge, which proved to be easier and faster. There was almost
1,000ft of steep, sandy descending from the
lower portion of the
South Ridge to the northern edge of the
Hayden Glacier.
The sand was mixed with gravel and other unpleasantries
that made it necessary to use some caution on
the descent,
but for the most
part it was both swift and fun. It would have been horrible had we attempted to
ascend
that face, but I believe the regular route avoids it by
continuing along
the edge of the glacier to the saddle between Middle and North Sisters. We
picked up a
use trail
for much of the remaining descent back to the main trail,
though not before losing it more than once. We caught up with the other two
climbers in the open, sparsely forested terrain about half a mile above the
trail. They were going slowly but steadily and would likely make their way back
to the Pole Creek TH before dark, or shortly afterwards. We found our way back
to the
maintained trail
not long before 3p and a little over an hour later were
back at
Pole Creek. Success! At 9.5hrs, the outing went off with only the
smallest of hitches and were both elated. We celebrated back is Sisters over
dinner that Bob kindly treated me to. We briefly considered teaming up for
something easier the next day but Bob was feeling like cashing in while he was
ahead (and his legs tired) and driving home, and headed off to Bend to get a
good night's sleep in a motel first. I headed south a few hours to sleep near
the top of Odell Butte that night - I still wanted to get a few more Oregon
peaks in before heading back to San Jose the next day...
Late summer is undoubtedly the easiest time to climb North Sister. The traverse is hardly terrible - there's actually a use trail running across it. Without snow it is little more than class 2-3. The Bowling Alley is fairly easy too. I wouldn't consider using a rope on here, but others are not so comfortable with exposure. I might bring axe/crampons though just in case there is snow - would certainly save some time and what I thought was the hardest part of the day.
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: North Sister
This page last updated: Tue Apr 23 12:43:07 2019
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