south sister

For the past two years, Sibila and I have talked about organizing a girls' South Sister climb. South Sister is one of a group of three volcanoes (the Three Sisters, appropriately) just 20 miles west of Bend. At 10,358', it's the third highest peak in Oregon and, though considered dormant, has recently shown "swelling" in the past few years which geologists speculate is caused by seismic activity at its core. So, we figured we'd better climb it before it erupts, right?

When the opportunity finally presented itself last weekend, our group consisted of merely three: myself, Sibila, and Leah. The weather forecast looked good, and we hit the trail at 6:30 am, planning to summit well before noon. What we encountered at the top could only be described as nasty: windy, cold, and sleeting, with visibility of about 20 yards. This video was taken at the saddle, approximately one hour from the summit. And it just got nastier from there...

Needless to say, we didn't enjoy 360 views or a picnic lunch in the sun once we arrived. Still, it was well worth the effort and felt good to push my physical limits again...it's been 8 years since my last Colorado 14'er. Anyway, here we are at the summit crater, which given the weather may as well have been a frozen lake somewhere in Antarctica:

Had it been a clear day, we would have seen this, instead:

Oh well. Maybe we'll get a view when we climb Middle Sister NEXT summer...