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After some planning, met JimW and Ecobrad at the Sister's Bakery at 5am. Euclid and Solo showed up a bit later, and we all headed out of town to the Pole Creek TH. The plan was to approach North Sister via Soap Creek and ride something on the Thayer Glacier headwall, though other opportunities existed as well, such as the Villard Glacier.

Gearing up in the TH:


Jim studying the map during the first splitboot stretch of the day:


Thayer Headwall:


Skinning towards the headwall:


We got up into the basin below the headwall a little too late unfortunately, as the chutes that come off the ridge and down through the choke of the headwall look awesome. Smooth up high, committing, and steep (maybe 45-50 degrees). As we skinned up the apron of the headwall, a small wet sluff poured off another chute and rockfall happened occasionally. Jim skinning towards the chute:


Jim and I were a bit higher than the other guys, and via radio, we started to voice our concern over the conditions. Opting to play it safe and bail on the headwall chute, we headed north towards this chute, that would also let us ride the Villard if we weren't comfortable with the south facing conditions:


Cool looking rocks:


Looking down my bootpack towards the other guys:


Jim:


Ecobrad, Euclid, and Solo:


The chute was about a thousand vert and around 40 degrees. It tops out on this narrow little ridge between the Thayer and Villard parts of the E face, with just enough room for us to sit and hang out for a while. The view to the north:


Dropping in, the run was sweet. Stable nice corn. Jim aired off the ridge into the chute:


And then my camera batteries died . . .

We rode down the apron and out as far as we could. We transitioned to split booting, and booted down about 200 vert that we could have ridden, then got fed up with it, and rode a little bit more through the trees. A 2.5 mile hike back down the trail brought us back to the vehicles and beer. I had great fun riding with you guys, and can't wait to see your pics.

n sis looks nice

thanks for the report

Nice one Boys. Good to see Jim and Eco out with the PNW crew. Hope you guys can meet us at Adams on the 4th

Nice one Kyle! I don't have too much to add- a few pics and some great memories of ridin with you guys. Glad to see you got to ride SouthSis too. I think solo and i will try her soon, hopefully with less wind. As for the North Sis:

In the forest -splitbootin' shot:


Our objective from a bit farther:



Here's the bowl between the moraine and the Thayer Glacier Headwall to provide some scale. That's Kyle and Jimw about a quarter mile ahead of me (which is where they always seemed to be...animals!):


The view East from our ridge looking out over the high desert of Central OR:


Looking down our descent to that giant bowl:



And finally, if you look really close you can see our tracks and the ridge Jim jumped just above halfway and to the right:


all in all a blast with representatives from all three pacific states. let's do it again soon!

bad ass, glad that you got some good weather.

Looks like it was beautiful out for you guys!

Looks awesome!

Tex -

I won't be able to make Adams on the fourth, but hopefully some of the other guys will. There should still be lots of snow up there

Here's a few more picts from our trip. We had a great time and, as always, all of the splitboard.comers were easy going and fun to hang out with.

My family was staying near Sisters for the week. A day or two before our split trip I went for a trail run to the top of Black Butte and got a sweet look at North Sister.


Some more cool looking rocks.


Here's what turned us off from the Thayer Glacier. The adjacent snowfield start to wet slide.


Because I took this picture of Jim's turns from the top


I missed his jump


And a few more pictures of my vacation.
Mtbing with Jim


The day after N. Sister I convinced my 5 year old that she wanted to climb to the top of Black Butte. She did it with only a little piggy backing.


and more of me just being a Dad.


sb.com representing


Thanks again for the trip guys.

What's with these Cali guys coming up here and then sending messages back via gang signs in pictures on the interweb?

LOL! That's actually funny....that, or we drank too much wine here.

We in da hood yo!