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I've had the South Sister on my mind the past several weeks. After an amazing first few weeks of May the clouds and rain rolled into the state and seemed to stay a while. Being the weekend enthusiast that I am, I needed a Saturday or Sunday to pull off a trip down to Bend. This past Sunday finally provided the window. I drove to Bend on Saturday, had a few beers in town and then drove and camped at Devil's Lake Trailhead.

South Sister from the Trailhead


I was on the trail by 545am and had to maneuver through trees for the first 1.5 miles and about 1200 feet. Obviously, the least fun part of the trip.


Once out of the trees you came upon on almost gentle park like slope. Cool on the way up, not so great for riding back down. We did some walking on the way out...


It was a gentle incline until you get to about 8500 feet. Here's the summit...


Looking back down I could see the rest of the town of Bend on their way up. This is also when I noticed another snowboarder working his way through the throngs of skiers on the way up. I would stop every few hundred feet and look down and notice the snowboarder passing the skiers.


Here's Broken Top and that looks like a lot of fun...


Once on the summit the views were Epic. Here's the Middle, North, and Jefferson...


The snowboarder turned out to be local Bend Shredder, the Schralpinist. Dude can climb. We joined forces and got first tracks off the southern face of the summit. Not a very good pic of what we came off of...


Once off the steeps of the summit, the terrain mellows dramatically but still fun...


Here's the Schralpinist...


All in all a fun freaking day. Got back to the car a little after 1pm. Would have been sooner but I didn't dodge every tree well!

I would like to thank the Portland based Splitters for welcoming me into their crew. It's been a great year. Probably one of my best seasons of snowboarding. It's time to wind down the riding season. Well, maybe.

Looks like you got it prime time. Thanks for the pics ... I was wondering what things looked like this past weekend.

Hoping to get South, Middle, and Broken Top this coming weekend.

Sickness imitationfunk! Showing those smelly 2 plankers how its done!

Way to represent! Winding down, but not stopping. We've still got plenty of snow to carry us through the lean part of the year.

hey man thank you for being part of the crew.

seems like were gonna have some nice smooth snow still here for a while.

winding down is what august is for!

Sick! I'm heading there tomorrow afternoon and it's nice to see conditions are prime! Hoping that mid-week there won't be the whole town of Bend there......that's always been my experience on the weekends just after the road opens, but if you get there early or mid-week it's not as bad! Thanks for the report!

yeah man, the snow is good. the mountain was holding some powder up top. when i got back to the road i was shocked to see the amount of cars parked on the road.

chronic & chris: i meant social activities are starting to fill up my calendar. i won't be able head to the mountain every weekend. like this weekend...trading in the split for the air guitar!

snow dome! snow dome! snow dome! snow dome!

Nice to meet up with you man. We really hit it perfectly. Fun to shred first in front of countless french fry pizza types. Farm this mother@&$?ers!!! Haha!

Nice, looks like a great time. Thanks for posting! Like any popular outdoor activity location in Central OR anymore, the mountains are always a lot busier on the weekends. I drove passed the Devils Lake TH yesterday about noon and there wasn't a single car there.

2nded. Thanks y'all! What a fuckin year. And there's still more to be had.

Nice trip Mark! The rest of us are going to take on the sloppy seconds there this weekend, and add Broken Top as well.

Way to stay after it Funk!

I'm no betting man, but I bet that Sally > Bowie was heat fire last night!