South Sister Ski

Ski in

I went down to Bend to ski into and climb South Sister. I had thoughts of camping on the summit but camping at the base and going up lighter sounded more appealing. The road from Mt. Bachelor wasn't open yet so I brought my old cross country skis and tried remembering how to ski again.

The way in was half cleared so there was a fair amount of hiking on pavement but the skiing sections went really fast. I see why people skin instead of hike. I definitely need to get some good skis and practice. From the trailhead it was a fairly quick hike up to the flats and over to camp. I got misdirected a few times but made good time.

Climb

I woke up at 2am so I could get to the top by sunrise. It was uber cold, a little below 20, and all of my breath froze on the inside of the tent. I set up my camera to take some shots of the climb while I was going up to hopefully make a nice timelapse, then headed up at 3am. I got to the rim by 5am and over to the summit proper at 5:15. It was cold enough that my thermometer stopped displaying numbers properly, but the last number was 16. I stomped around waiting for the sun to creep up and once it hit the horizon I went back to camp as I was too cold.

Way out

After skiing the flats towards the trailhead it was mainly by hoof until I was in sight of Mt. Bachelor where I was able to ski a few miles to the car.

Panoramic Photos

Profile

Profile of climb

Photos

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