Team:
Robyn Smith
Rick Barry
Greg Tedrow
Cynde Stuart
Jane Morris
Jess Palacios
Mike Niemeyer
Short route description (From Robyn's Prospectus): "From the Pole Creek Trail head we will head up the Pole Creek Trail for 1.4 mi. to its junction with the Green Lakes Trail. Continuing straight and following this trail for about 0.6 mi. we will come to the junction with the Chambers Lakes trail at Soap Creek. After crossing Soap Creek we will continue straight following the signs for Chambers Lakes (the left fork continues on to Green Lakes) for about 1.8 mi to the climbers trail. This heads up to the right just past a small flat open area where the main trail turns to the south. This is about 1/3 mile before reaching Squaw Creek. We will be camping on the flat area north of Squaw Creek just above 6800 feet where we will have access to water.
The following morning, we will gain the SE ridge leading to the South Route. Once on the ridge, there is something of a climber's trail - when in doubt, generally pass obstacles on the left (south) side. Around 9,200' we will join the route up the South Ridge and the route will become a little more distinct and easier to follow. We will bypass 3 gendarmes (right, left, right) beginning at about 9600'. Next we’ll traverse below the prominent rock buttress on the steep scree. Then an easy, well-trodden traverse below the summit pinnacle and straight forward pinnacle climb up the right (south) side of the Bowling Alley - 4th class to about 5.4 depending on route choice. There is a well-established rappel "
Schedule:
Sat, Aug 16
8:00am - Depart Stayton Park & Ride
10:00 - Stop for a quick coffee in Sisters
12:00 - Arrive at the Pole Creek Trail head (5,000’)
1:00pm - Start approach hike
3:00 -Arrive at camp near Squaw Creek (6,800’)
Sun, Aug 17
3:00am - Rise and shine
4:00 -Start climb
6:00 - Arrive at “shelf” looking east, take 15 min break (8,600’)
8:00 - Cross the “terrible traverse”
10:00 - Arrive summit
10:30 - Depart summit
12:00 - Back across the “terrible traverse”
2:00pm - Arrive back at camp, take break then break down.
3:00 - Depart camp
5:00 - Arrive back at cars
6:00 - Rally in Sisters, catch a bite to eat & hand out summit certificates.
7:00 - Head home
9:00 - Back at Stayton Park n Ride
Emergency Contacts (911) or:
- Sisters Ranger District - PO Box 249 Sisters, OR 97759541-549-2111 or 541-549-7700 (located on the corner of Pine St. and Highway 20 in Sisters)
- Bend Ranger District, 541-388-5664;
- Deschutes County Sheriff (Search & Rescue) 541-388-6502;
- Deschutes County Road Department, 541-388-6581
Satellite waypoints:
Latitude:44.1575 Longitude:-121.7577 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/17/2008 15:48:12 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1575,-121.7577&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Latitude:44.1637 Longitude:-121.773 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/17/2008 14:09:29 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1637,-121.773&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Latitude:44.1664 Longitude:-121.7727 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/17/2008 08:43:51 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1664,-121.7727&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Latitude:44.1585 Longitude:-121.7618 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/17/2008 05:47:32 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1585,-121.7618&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Latitude:44.1526 Longitude:-121.7486 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/16/2008 16:39:14 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1526,-121.7486&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Latitude:44.1526 Longitude:-121.7486 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/16/2008 15:47:09 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1526,-121.7486&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Latitude:44.1875 Longitude:-121.6995 Nearest Location:not known Distance:not known Time:08/16/2008 12:04:14 (US/Pacific) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.1875,-121.6995&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Robyns trip report:
"The seven of us departed Pole Creek TH around 1:30pm in the heat of the day. It was lingering around 100 degrees in the valley that day and really wasn't that much cooler at 5,000 ft. We set up camp near Squaw Creek (6,800') around 400pm. We got ourselves prepared for our 400am departure, ate dinner and turned into our very warm tents/bivies. The evening remained very warm in temperature and there were intermittent clashes of thunder and lightening. We slept on top of our sleeping bags in our summer night wear. The alarms went off way too early for most of us at 300am. The sky was sprinkled in stars and the nearly full moon lit the entire landscape up. We headed up the SE Ridge promptly at 400am. Climbing North Sister this time of year is very similar to climbing a steep sand dune. One step forward, a half a step slid back. The ridge is very sandy then it starts to get more rocky then rocky with boulders and lava bombs but it all moves. We spent six grueling hours in a strangely warm environment climbing our way up the sliding landscape and around gendarmes until we reached our "terrible traverse". The traverse definitely lived up to it's name. We all were minding our p's and q's through that section and then on up the bowling alley which was actually fairly climber friendly this time around. We summitted around 1115am and were greeted by Scott Phillip's son, Matthew and a buddy who were attempting to do the Three Sister Marathon. Shortly after that, we met up with four Obsidians who we'd met in camp the night before. The skies were starting to look a little more threatening so we collaborated with those four and did a double rope rappel back down through the bowling alley all the way back to the terrible traverse. We had cleaned our fixed line across so had agreed to share the fixed line the Obsidians had in place to get back across in order to save some time. Just as we got to this point our first clapper of thunder was heard. We carefully hurried our way back across and back down the mountain to camp. Upon return to camp we filled our water bottles and broke down camp and headed for the cars. It was a long day as we returned to the cars at 725pm (Note, 1 hour and 40 mins from our Squaw Creek camp 5 miles away, we were booking!). Tired and hungry, we rallied at the Mexican restaurant in Sisters for a bite to eat and summit certificates before returning home. Team included: Leader: Robyn Smith, Leader Assist: Rick Barry, Assist: Jess Palacios and Mike Neimeyer, Greg Tedrow, Cynde Alt-Stuart and Jane Morris "
