Let us start by stepping back a few months, I had overhead a couple co-workers talking about an annual "climb" of the South Sister (her name is Charity by the way). Since I have always enjoyed hiking and what-not I spoke up and asked if I could come on this years trip? I was told sure, just be ready, stragglers would be left behind.
Fast forward to last Monday, I see said co-worker in the hallway and ask what are the plans for the trip. I was planning on heading out Friday afternoon and meeting them at the trail head. Much to my disappointment, I was told just to get going when I was ready and we'd see each other on the mountain. He'd planned on hitting the trail around 7am. I quickly realized that unless I was climbing slow or he was going fast, the only time our path would cross would be as one ascended and the other descended. I told myself not to worry, there would be plenty of people on the trail to make friends with, so on-ward and up-ward.
The only time I had seen The Sisters, was from in-town in Bend and driving over McKenzie Pass. My mental image of the mountain, was not such a mountain, more a large hill. Even though the elevation is that of the third largest in Oregon at 10,358' (Hood 11,249' and Jefferson 10,497') I still didn't really comprehend it's size. That was until I drove over the top of Mount Bachelor to catch this first glimpse, from near where I would be starting my trek.
My first reaction was that I was not prepared to hike this mountain and that I was in store for a world of hurt. After the initial shock and awe wore off I proceeded to find a campsite at the nearby Devils Lake campground. After a bit of panic and a lot of searching, I found one of the last two remaining campsites that would not garner me a fine if a ranger strolled by. The site was worth the effort.
As with all trips, after unpacking I discovered I was missing something, hiking socks. So I ate my KFC in haste, washed it down with a cold beer, and got in my car for a 20mi drive back to Bend to buy some socks. Disaster adverted, I came back to camp, enjoyed a nice campfire, and hit the sack for an early start in the morning.
5:45 I awoke (15 mins later than I planned), cleared camp, ate a quick bite and hit the trail as fast as I could. Having not made the trail until a little before 7a I decided that I need to hike fast, I didn't want to hike the standard 5-6 hrs up and 3-4 hrs down. After the first mile there is little relief from the sun so I needed to get off the summit before it got real hot. So at a pace that set a pretty good sweat I started to climb. The first section is all forested and pretty steep, it is roughly 1 mile in length and a little over a 1200' of climbing. 45 minutes later I popped out of the forest and realized I had a long day ahead of me.
The first on-trail view of the mountain was a real gut checker, did I really have the stamina to get to the summit? Not only was it a long ways up, but it seemed a long ways away from where I was. After another half mile of hiking and not much elevation I was rewarded with a view of Mount Bachelor and Moraine Lake.
As I trucked on, I knew I was hiking at a good pace and making good time, ask anyone that has hiked with me, making good time and staying out in front of the "Boy Scouts" are very important to me. Today the boy scouts were the hoards of people on the trial behind me. About an hour and a half into the hike the trail pitched up again, this time for good.
As I really started to climb, I kept cognoscente of the ever ticking clock that is the sun and put the camera away. Somewhere around the 8000' elevation I took my next break for a quick bite to eat and a quick click of the Camera. Not having an altimeter or gps unit I relied on my previous study of the topo map and felt good about my progress. It seemed I was on track to hit the summit in less than 5 hours.
From here, the trail when from difficult to strenuous, not only was it steep but it was like hiking on quicksand. Every step you took would slide back down in an avalanche of shale and pumice sand. I could no longer see the summit, but I knew I was getting closer.
A thousand vertical feet later I knew I was just over 9000' and only 1300' from the summit. The sun was starting to shine, but it was only 10a, i was doing great. If I pushed hard I would make a four hour summit, which would put me on top and on my way down before the sun began to bake the slope.
After a false summit and a slog through some serious shale, I crossed the summit plateau (which is a crater that his been filled in with snow) and was rewarded with incredible views and the hardest earned, best tasting PBJ sandwich of my life.
Broken Top
Posing in front of the other two sisters.
The views were amazing, the descent was miserable. It took me 3 hours to cover the 6 mile, 5000' descent, only one hour less than it took to climb it.
Next year I have a few summits on the list: Mount Hood, Mount St Helens, and Mount Adams. I am hoping to make at least one if not two of those...
