Last fall we were able to make a weekend trip to the Three Sisters Wilderness on the east side of the Oregon Cascades.
We were attempting to make what for us rookie mountaineers would have been an accomplishment: 2 Sisters in a day. We decided the Middle first would give us the most options. We left on Friday night, hiking about 7 miles from the Pole Creek Trailhead to somewhere near the base of the Middle. We left camp at 7 am, foolishly stashed our gear amongst the maze of stunted pines and glacial drainages, and followed our eyes to the summit.
At the saddle of the North and Middle (center right above) we confirmed our suspicions that the south ridge route to the North's summit would be more unprotected vertical scrambling up loose garbage than we were ready for.
Nah.
Instead:
We arrived at the summit about 9:30, totally exhilarated.
We observed the rain shadow that defines Oregon.
We descended down the north side of the Middle, hoping to also summit the South from the north.
This route turned out to be slightly more treacherous than we'd hoped.
It was good we turned backed because we needed the last few remaining hours of daylight to find our backpacks cached near our morning's campsite. Good times.
