12 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
xposted from cc.com
Date: 6/17/2012
Trip Report: figured I'd throw my hat in the TR contest: my usual suspects had other plans this weekend. So I ended up wrangling a plan with two folks via cc.com that I hadn't met before. One local and the other on an extended rock/snow/ski/paddling adventure of cali/bc/or/wa/ and now AK before school in the fall.
Based on the fact none of us knew each other we opted for something mellow and fun—South Sister dog route is just that. two of us skied and the other on slowshoes, but was entirely the opposite of slow. We started skinning right from the car. snow was firm but not crusty, just got slushier as the day went.
day started with cloud fuzz and drizzle but you could tell the deck was thin. It was totally clear in bend at 5am and there were hints of blue when we got to devils lake.
by the time we got to lewis tarn it was clearing, but the wind kicked up. stashed skis about 300ft higher or something. wind was really gusting but thats all, otherwise not even cold out. even more wind at the summit, but ok, not cold. nice not to have any haze tho, been a while since I had a haze free view:
i'm new to skiing in general, the snow kinda of sucked by the time we were going down, quite wet and grabby. still nice to ski. Having to don the skins for the flats before the trees on the way back to the car was less than thrilling. Though I had a ball on the final mile or two through the woods. the many canned micros fully chilled in the roadside snow were primo.
no pics of any skiing since my lines are nothing I want recorded right now. whistle
Gear Notes: foot deep snow atop beer by car will completely melt in 8hrs. fortunately locals put a rubber spider next to them to know they were found, but protected.
axe didnt use pons, but, depending on if it was crusty or you were going up earlier, traction may be needed.
Approach Notes: very straight forward. follow tracks and go uphill. top out on the flats then continue to the mnt.
park on side of road, plenty of room. probably a week left of skiing car to car.
