Earlier this week, my close friends the Remchos ended up with an extra spot on their South Sister permit, so I joined them for the hike. We camped at Devil's Lake the night before to allow for an early start up the mountain. The Remchos wanted to rise at 4, and hit the trail around 4:30. We'd eat breakfast on the way up. This would not have been my first choice for a starting time, but as I'd never started the hike up South Sister in the dark before I that it would be fun.
Four in the morning came soon enough and we headed up the trail by the light of our headlamps. The morning wasn't very cool, so it was clear we'd have a hot day ahead of us. Hiking through the trees on the way to the Moraine Lake junction I was glad that I didn't smell any smoke. Driving up Highway 58 the day before, there was heavy smoke starting a few miles west of Oakridge. The Hardesty Mountain parking lot was
blocked off and we could see one fire as we drove through Oakridge.
After about an hour of walking we reached the Moraine Lake junction, put our lights away, and grabbed a bite to eat before continuing up the trail. We got our first views of South Sister as landscape slowly brightened in the soft morning light.
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| South Sister catching the first few rays of sun |
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| Smoky haze below Mt. Bachelor |
The next mile was easy walking on smooth rolling trail. We moved quickly through this section and got a few nice views of Broken Top and Moraine Lake. Soon the trail started to climb again although the footing was still pretty good. We had passed one tent above Moraine Lake, but had not seen anyone so far. It was nice to have the mountain to ourselves.
The last half mile up to the lake at the foot of Lewis Glacier is a bit slower because the trail is steeper and there are a couple sections of loose scree. In here we were passed by a couple of people, and when we reached the lake we could see them making their was up the ridge to the top. We stopped briefly at the lake, but as everyone still had plenty of water we didn't spend too much time there.
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| Not much snow left on Lewis Glacier |
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| Olivia and Vince almost to the summit rim |
From the lake to the top it is probably a mile, but it gets pretty slow. The trail is consistently steep, but the bigger issue is the footing because the terrain is very loose. The red scree on the upper portion of the mountain often gives way under foot causing you to lose all your momentum.
We made slow and steady progress through this last section and soon we were closing in on the top. We reached the summit rim about 5 hours after we started and took a quick break to get a drink of water before traversing around the rim to the summit. There was not much snow left at the snowfield on top.
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Oof. Not much snow left on top
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| Teardrop Pool |
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| Carver Lake |
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| Broken Top |
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| Middle Sister and North Sister |
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| Olivia and Vince on top |
Once we reached the top, we stopped to take in the views and eat a quick snack. As we got up from our snack, I suggested that we continued around the rim to complete a full counterclockwise loop of the top. Making a loop of the summit is a bit slower because the trail is much less defined on the west side of the rim. But there are some great views of to the north and west through you would get otherwise. The Remchos were up for it, so we headed around the west side of the rim.
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| Vince climbing through the rocks |
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| Teardrop Pool |
The traverse around the rim didn't take too long, and soon we reached the main trail where we began the descent. Actually, we overshot the main trail a little bit so we ended up taking a steeper, less defined trail for a short spell before we tied back into the main trail. The descent through the scree is always a bit slow because its easy to slip and lose your balance if you try to go too fast.
After sliding down through the scree, the footing becomes a bit better for the last quarter mile before the lake. When we reached the lake, no one was in need of water so we continued without much delay. At this point the day was starting to heat up and there was a steady stream of hikers heading up the mountain.
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| Back down through the scree |
Leaving the lake there is only another half mile of loose footing before the trail becomes pretty smooth and the walking pretty easy. The last bit of loose terrain didn't take too long and soon we were striding out on the plateau above Moraine Lake. There was no wind down here and the day we getting pretty warm, so we were looking forward to the shade of the trees just past the Moraine Lake junction. Once we headed into the trees, there's not much too see and not far to go so we finished up the hike pretty quickly.
South Sister did not disappoint this trip. The wind on top was very mild so there was no need to put on extra layers on top. The views on the way up and at the summit were terrific. We were able to see all the way to Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens although the views to the south were a bit more limited because of the smoke. And I had excellent company all day long. Thanks Remchos! Hopefully we will be able to do it again some time.
