Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Middle Sister

Last Friday night we made the drive to Obsidian Trailhead to climb Middle Sister on Saturday.  It was dark when we arrived so we pitched the tent and headed for bed.  The next morning was cold with a little frost on the car.  We made breakfast and left the tent up to air out for the day while we were climbing the mountain.

The first few miles are in the trees so we hiked quickly.  Plus, it was going to be a pretty long day so we didn't have time to doddle.  A few miles in we came across the remnants of last year's Rebel Fire.  We hadn't realized that it made it that close to the Three Sisters.

Soon we crossed a lava field and got our first view of the mountain.  The trail drops back below treeline after for another mile or two before climbing above the trees near Arrowhead Lake.  On the climb up to Arrowhead Lake, we had to crunch through some frost heaves on the trail.


The first view of Middle Sister

North Sister

Ice on the creek


Looking West


Above Arrowhead Lake, we got some great views of the Cascades to the west and some of the Cascade Volcanoes leading to the north.  Also, we got to see a little bit of fresh snow on top on North and Middle Sister.  We had a little bit of rain in the valley the previous week which was obviously snow up here.

Mom with North Sister on the horizon

Dad with some Cascade volcanoes poking out over the ridge



Mom with The Husband in the background


North Sister
Climbing up Middle Sister, we were surprised how little snow there was.  We had to hike along the rocks much longer than usual.  Soon enough we reached the snowfields and realized that we needed our microspikes to make the climb.  The snow as pretty hardpacked from the cold clear days and long fall nights.

Middle Sister


Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams all lined up

North Sister

Mom and Dad climbing up toward Middle

We needed microspikes to hike up the snow as it was pretty hard


Mom in front of North Sister


Middle Sister

Mom making her way through the rocks

Middle Sister


Almost to the saddle
After putting on the microspikes we had no problem walking up the snowfields and soon reached the saddle below Middle Sister.  There is one steep pitch on the ridge to the summit and it was in the shade so we knew that the snow and ice would be hard.  We weren't sure if we could make it past there, especially since the lower snowfields were much harder than usual, but since we were there we gave it a try.

Broken Top


Lookin up toward Middle Sister

Eastern Oregon

Ice - there were lots of ice chunks like this one


North Sister

Ice on the rocks

Here's where we turned back as it was getting pretty icy and tedious
As it was, the steep section was pretty icy and we decided to turn back.  We were able to negotiate the ice, but the going was very slow.  We made it about 1/3 of the way up the steep section before we decided to turn around and head back to the car.  Still, we were a long way up the mountain and had some great views.

Big crevasses this time of year

North Sister

Middle Sister

Mom and Dad beginning the descent down the snowfield




Middle Sister poking out over the ridge
Once we made it back to the saddle, the hike down the mountain was pretty quick.  The only slow section was picking our way through the lava below the snow an above treeline.  Once we hit treeline, there's a trail which lead to fast walking the rest of the way out.

Its a bummer it was too icy to tag the top and get a view of South Sister, but all in all it was a great hike.  We're pretty lucky to be able to get that far up the mountain in the middle of October.  Some years, I'm sure there would already be snow at the trailhead.

North Sister and Middle Sister



Frost heaves.  They were here in the morning and lasted all day

Mom with North and Middle in the background

Myself, North and Middle

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