Climbing South Sister, Oregon

Katie and I both had the day off Friday, so we drove South with our tent trailer to Cultus Lake campground on Thursday night. We woke up early Friday morning to hike to the top of South Sister (also known by the name "Charity"), Oregon's third tallest peak at 10,358 feet in elevation. The approximately 5.5 mile long South Sister Climber trail # 36 (11 miles round-trip) starts at Devils Lake off the Cascade Lakes Highway and climbs nearly 4,900 feet to the summit. Although the trail to South Sister is rated as difficult due to the elevation gain and long length, no technical climbing skills are needed. South Sister is the youngest volcano (stratovocano) of the Three Sisters with North Sister being the oldest.

Download route (one-way) in Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format for use with GPS units and mapping programs. Disclaimer.

I wanted to get a really early start, but Katie was not too fond of the idea, so we compromised. We woke up at 5 AM, ate a quick breakfast, drove to the trailhead at Devils Lake, and started hiking shortly after 6:30 AM. The trail begins by crossing a small creek that flows into Devils Lake. There is no bridge, but a small log made crossing fairly easy. Before long, the trail crosses the highway and immediately begins to climb. There were a few patches of snow on the sides of the trail as we began.

   

Shortly after hiking above 6,000 feet in elevation, we hit solid snow. The trail was gone, but there was a fairly well-defined boot trail through the snow in the correct direction. The terrain leveled out at Wickiup Flats and we had our first glimpse of South Sister.

   

As we continued climbing, we had great views of Mount Bachelor, which we planned to climb on Saturday. We could also see Broken Top.

   

We met several people on the trail and one gentleman was kind enough to snap a photo of Katie and I.

   

The views became increasingly splendid as we climbed higher towards the summit of South Sister.

   

   

The conditions were unusually snowy for considering it is almost August. Where wildflowers would normally be, there was still a couple feet of snow. The ridges, however, had melted out, creating a place for wildflowers to thrive in the short alpine growing season. Unfortunately that also meant there was scree for us to climb up. I had large dose of crumbly rock last weekend on North Sister and now Katie got to enjoy it first hand with me. Boy did she love (read:loathe) it!

   

   

I decided we should take a shortcut to the top, so instead of traversing to our left through more scree, we went straight, up kicking steps into the snow to the summit plateau. We made it to the summit in about 5 hours. Katie decided to rest instead of walking around the crater rim, so I scrambled off alone.

   

The views North around the rim are amazing. Middle and North Sister are right in front of you. Three Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood and Mount Adams can all be seen, even with the hazy skies caused by the nearby wildfires. Tear Drop Pool (the highest lake in Oregon) was still frozen under several feet of snow.

   

Before heading back we enjoyed lunch near the summit pinnacle while watching a couple people walk across the frozen summit plateau of South Sister. I was surprised how large and flat it actually is there.

   

On the way down, we enjoyed a few sitting glissades using our now trusty glissade diaper sleds\>. It made our descent quicker, not to mention loads of fun.

   

Prior to heading back into the trees, we passed Moraine Lake which we had missed on the way up due to the path we took. It was still partially frozen.

Including our hour long stop at the summit, our round-trip took about 9 hours. The weather was beautiful starting off at about 38°F and finishing just below 80°F at Devils Lake. It was challenging at times with the scree, but well worth the effort.