South
Sisters Climb
On the weekend of September 8th me and four other climbers ascended to the top of South Sisters. This was Trisha's first Summit and she did it with a 25lb pack!
* Summit Elevation: 10,358 feet
* Location: Oregon State next to Bend
* Last Eruption: over 2,000 years ago
We started the morning of Sept. 8th. Trisha and I had to pick up Adrian from the airport. He just came back from visiting his brother in Alaska. So we picked him up at the airport and 6am. Then we drove straight over Mt Hood and on our way to Bend. We ended up in the camp ground at about 11am.
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Stan and Noel getting their packs ready for the climb. |
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Adrian doing some last minute stretches, "Don't want to pull a hamy." |
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Here is the whole group ready to climb. From the left Noel (Stan's Girlfriend), Stan (Trisha's Dad), Adrian (Best Friend), Josh and Trisha. |
Here is the weight of everyone's pack; Josh-35 lbs, Trisha-25lbs, Adrian-30lbs, Noel-25lbs and Stan the mountain man hauled up the mountain a pack that weighed 50lbs. This guy brings everything including the kitchen sink. Once everyone was all pretty and had their packs ready to go we left the camp ground at 12pm. The first mile was through a forest up hill. Then we came out onto a path that was flat for two miles to the base of the climb.
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Off to the left of the climb is a lava field, Scientists think that it will be a new mountain in the future. |
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To the right we have a mountain called Broken Top and you can see how it got it's name. |
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Here is a picture of the trail leading up to the base of the mountain and that is South Sisters in the background. |
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Here we are taking a break, It's time to much down so cliff bars. So we can have energy for the hard climb. |
Then about half way up is another resting area with a lake. The water is coming directly off the glacier and is really cold. As you can see in the pictures their were some polar bears in the water.
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Stan telling Adrian that the water is nice and warm. |
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Stan swam out and stood on the rock for a picture. |
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Josh also decided to give into peer pressure and stand on the rock. |
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Adrian drying off from the freezing water and catching some rays. |
After the cold swim we were nice and refreshed and ready to tackle the last part of the climb. This was the toughest part because it was all lava rock and you took two steps and slid back one. The climb would have been to easy if we didn't have our packs. It made the hike more difficult and more of a workout.
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Josh and Trisha with the Summit and the background. |
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Stan and Noel with the Summit and the background. |
We made it to the top of the mountain at 7pm. So if you do not include the two breaks, it took us about 6 hours to climb six miles. We made it to the top just in time to get some pictures of the sunset and setup camp. Yes that is right we camped at the top of the mountain. We had the best weather and we stayed nice and warm in our tents.
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As the sun sets you can see the shadow of the mountain. And that is Broken Top in the background. |
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Trisha and Josh. |
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Stan and Noel. |
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Here is the whole group. |
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Here is a picture of our camp during the sunset with Adrian in the background. |
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Stan getting the stove to work so we can boil water. This is for our dehydrated dinners. And amazingly they were delicious. |
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Stan and Noel's camp, everyone is eagerly waiting the boiling water. |
After a good dinner, we hit the sack. The next morning we woke up just in time for the sunrise. And we walked around the top of the mountain. In the center of the mountain is a huge glacier and the highest lake in Oregon.
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Here is the beautiful sunrise that we were able to wake up to. |
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The next morning the mountain made a nice shadow again. |
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Here is the lake that we jumped into yesterday from the top. That is Mt. Bachelor in the background. |
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Trisha and Josh at the highest point on the mountain. |
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Here is the awesome view that we were able to see also. That is Middle Sisters, North Sisters, MT Jefferson, MT Adams you can barely see and the picture doesn't show it but we were able to see MT St Helens. |
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Josh and Trisha with a view. |
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Stan and Noel way on top waving at us. |
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This my favorite picture out of all of them. This is the highest lake in Oregon with the mountain's shadow in the back. |
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Here is the glacier that is on the top of the mountain. |
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Trisha and Josh on the glacier. |
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Josh back at camp, ready to call it a day. |
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Trisha with the glacier in the background. |
We were able to make it back to the bottom in 3.5 hours. Everybody made it safe and no animals were hurt in the making of this film.
For additional pictures please visit Adrian's South Sister Page.
