Memorial Day Snowcamping

For Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Pole Creek trailhead and climbed up toward North Sister.  We've done this trip for the last few years so its always interesting to see when we will hit snow.  This year the snow was a little bit earlier than usual which was nice because we didn't have to carry the skis as far.

Climbing through the burn on the way in

After leaving the trail and putting on our skis we were able to follow track for quite a while leading up toward North Sister.  Unfortunately these track took us around the ridge we usually tent on instead of leading up to it.  Once we realized this we had to traverse across to the ridge and climb up to reach our tent site.

There was rain in the forecast so one we reached out tent site we tried to pitch the tent as quickly as possible to avoid setting up in the rain.  We could see clouds rolling across Middle Sister and it was obvious there was a bit of precipitation up there, but we didn't get any rain in the afternoon.

After pitching the tent we made dinner, melted some snow for water, and tucked the packs under the tent in case we did get some rain.  Right as we were getting into the tent a light snow started to fall.  It wasn't too much, but we were glad we had the tent set up so we could get inside and stay dry.

Thick clouds below South Sister

Looking up toward Middle Sister

The snow starts

The snow kept falling all night and by the morning we had 3 inches of fresh snow.  The snow was  easy enough to knock off before we got out, but the tent was getting a little drippy inside.  Three inches of wet snow sitting on the tent probably caused some water to start to leak through.  Still, this was pretty disappointing since we didn't have this tent for long and our old tent did much better in the rain and snow.

With the tent a little leaky and the wet snow still falling, we planned to ski a little ways up toward North Sister and then head out.  Typically we spend Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in the mountains, but this years the conditions were really not great.

As we started skiing up toward the base of North Sister, the clouds were really socked in.  Near the bottom there was still descent visibility, but the higher we climbed the harder it was to see.  I've really never seen any fog or clouds this thick so that was pretty cool.  On another note, the snow sucked.  It was really heavy and wet and occasionally our skis would start sticking.

Just starting out from the tent with Mom, Jacob, and Dad up ahead

Once we reached the top of the snowfield we decided to just follow our tracks down the mountain.  It was pretty hard to see so we just switchbacked across our track and made sure to stay together.  We've skied this slope many times, so I'd be surprised if we got lost getting back to the tent, but it was sure socked in up there.

Half snow half ski...or something like that, it was a little hard to tell

Mom and Jacob on the climb up

Fresh snow on the trees

The way the wind blew the snow on the trees was awesome

Looking toward the basin below North Sister.  We were hoping we might see that bottom, but that wasn't happening.

Just before we started down

After we got back to the tent, we packed up and headed out.  It had stopped snowing at this point, but the forecast was for more snow Sunday afternoon and Monday.  Plus, the tent was getting pretty wet and we couldn't see a thing.

Once we got the tent packed and the packs ready we took off for the car.  Mom and Dad started out walking in their ski boot while Jacob and I opted for skis.  The first mile or so is fairly steep and can be tough to ski with a full back.  Walking was probably just as fast as skis, but not nearly as fun...at least if you don't mind crashing a few times.

Soon enough the slope leveled off and we were all on skis.  This year we were able to ski a bit farther than in years past which was fun.  Plus Dad lead us straight to the trail on the way out.  All we had to do was take off our skis and start walking.  Usually we spend a bit of time searching of the trail as well.

We were all a little surprised to see how low the snow was on the way out.  There was still snow from Saturday night all the way to the car.  This snow was good because it had mostly all melted on the trail but it really kept the dust down.  The last few years, the final miles to the cars have been really dusty and usually pretty hot.  This year it wasn't hot at all and as we looked back up at North Sister we could see that it was still completely socked in.

Shooting stars in the snow

Looking back toward North Sister

We reached the car in the middle of the afternoon, loaded up our packs and headed back to Corvallis. It was a little disappointing not to spend the whole weekend up by the Sisters, but it with lousy weather and a leaky tent there wasn't a whole lot we could do.  All in all though, it was a fun trip.  It's always nice to get to spend some time in the mountains even if the weather doesn't really cooperate.