July 4,5 South Sister/Broken Top area
7/15/08
OR elsewhere
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Brenda and I spent a couple days camping and skiing around the Green Lakes area between Broken Top and South Sister over the holiday. Arrived at Devils Lake campground at around 1:00 AM Fri morning after a long drive from Seattle after work Thur. Pretty much set the tent up anywhere we could find, as it was very dark and snow patches in the area made it impossible to find the actual camp sites. Woke up early to overcast skies and a couple large group of climbers banging gear around, then quickly packed up and drove over to the nearby Green Lake TH.
We hit continuous snow at around 5700 and began skinning up to the Green Lakes area. Due to unfamiliarity with the area, we spent too much time screwing around with the wrong side of the creek, but finally found our way by sidehilling up along the Newberry Lava field with the rushing and breaking up creek below. Found an excellent camp with flat dry ground just before Green Lakes at 6500, and immediately settled down for a nap.
We took a late afternoon ski up to the bowl below the west face of Broken Top and skied some lines off the southwest ridge. Next day we headed up to the South Sister into the bowl above Green Lakes and below the Lewis Glacier. Excellent snow, but clouds and wind on the upper mountain kept us in the bowl. We skied back to camp by picking our way through the Newberry Lava field, which had plenty of coverage to make turns that was really a novelty.
Sunday morning was blue bird, with the snow freezing nicely overnight, but just our luck we had to head out early for some family commitments in the Eugene area.
We hit continuous snow at around 5700 and began skinning up to the Green Lakes area. Due to unfamiliarity with the area, we spent too much time screwing around with the wrong side of the creek, but finally found our way by sidehilling up along the Newberry Lava field with the rushing and breaking up creek below. Found an excellent camp with flat dry ground just before Green Lakes at 6500, and immediately settled down for a nap.
We took a late afternoon ski up to the bowl below the west face of Broken Top and skied some lines off the southwest ridge. Next day we headed up to the South Sister into the bowl above Green Lakes and below the Lewis Glacier. Excellent snow, but clouds and wind on the upper mountain kept us in the bowl. We skied back to camp by picking our way through the Newberry Lava field, which had plenty of coverage to make turns that was really a novelty.
Sunday morning was blue bird, with the snow freezing nicely overnight, but just our luck we had to head out early for some family commitments in the Eugene area.
Nice report and photos. How much longer do you expect South S. and Broken Top to be skiable?
There are several steeper strips up the west face of Broken Top that will last maybe a week longer, but lower in the bowl gets really bumpy. That bowl on South Sister is going to be good for a couple weeks or more I bet. It has good snow up to around 9K'. Not sure above that. It's going to get a bit harder to get through the lava though. I think mosquitos are coming in the next week or so too. We had absolutely none anywhere on the trip.
Thanks for the report - it still looks pretty good in there!
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