Broken Top

12.5 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain •

An almost-summit.

A couple of friends and I set out from the Green Lakes TH around 5:30am on what turned out to be a gorgeous day in Central Oregon. The first 4.5 miles were relatively flat as we made our way up Fall Creek, then turning East at the lakes toward an unofficial climber's trail (unofficial in the sense that it wasn't on my Geo-Graphics map) that led up to a saddle on the Northwest Ridge. The hike up to the ridge was a mix of scree and icy snow

From the saddle we picked our way up the mostly third-class rock (with some fourth-class spots) on the ridge until we hit the 15-foot crux of basalt at about 9043'. At this point we discussed our options because this clearly was steeper and more exposed than what we were used to. Testing the holds, I moved up a little bit along a crack that runs along the left side of the nose and felt okay about it. However, with no protection and the considerable fall one would experience if they slipped, we agreed that lunch on the ridge was a better idea.

Even without the summit, I would recommend this to anyone who finds themselves in the Green Lakes area and enjoys a good scramble.