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Todd and I met at the trailhead of the recently opened Cascade Lakes Highway and started skinning the 4 miles into Green Lakes at about noon. We had planned on meeting Buell and riding the South Sister on Monday, and riding Broken Top on Tuesday. Due to a variety of factors, we only rode South Sister, but had a great trip.

Todd crossing Fall Creek.........


About 3:30 or so we found Buell and made camp. Dinner followed after discussing plans for the next morning's assault.

South Sister from camp showing the riding for the next day....


Broken Top from Camp..............


Camp.....


We awoke at 4:00 on Monday morning and started climbing at 4:30. The snow was set up pretty hard, and crampons and axes were mandatory in the steeper sections. We hooked up with the south side route at about 8:00 and continued on up to the summit.
Buell and Todd climbing a steeper pitch.........


Matt and the Lewis Glacier......


The summit photo showing the North and Middle Sisters, Mt Jefferson, and others in the distance.....


The view looking down the Prouty Glacier looked promising, but after further inspection by Buell, we headed down towards Green Lakes riding an easterly aspect.

Looking down the Prouty from the summit.....


After waiting around with others on the summit for the snow to to soften, we started decending at about 11:00. We took slightly different lines going down, so we I didn't get any good riding pictures. The ride down was great spring corn, and some of my favorite terrain to date. I descended down the Clark Glacier, then traversed over past the lower Lewis Glacier and dropped into the main bowl above Green Lakes. Buell headed down towards the Hodgecrest and dropped into the main bowl above the lakes.

Here's Buell with the main bowl in the background which we rode - you can't really see our tracks, they're very faint and in the middle of the bowl (not to the left).....


Back at camp, we made the decision to head out and not ride Broken Top. Buell had already put some big lines up on BT, and had to leave. Neither Todd or I were feeling well (bronchitisish crap) so we broke camp.

Todd on the 4 mile skin out.....


The snowpack is still pretty heavy along Fall Creek.....


After 2.5 hours of skinning downhill in "ski" mode on the splitboards, we finally made it to the car.

Photos from the road - Broken Top and Mt Bachelor.....



Overall, a great time and can't wait to go back.

Great trip!

Matt on the way to the summit


My turns on the way back to camp. After riding in the area the previous two days, I was a little concerned about the snow being too soft in this big east facing gully. Turned out, it was a solid freeze overnight and this was just perfect corn all the way down!


Matt riding

Good stuff! Coverage looks $$$!

yo Buell, what lines did you hit in Broken Top?

Hey Tap, I started with the Crater Bowl from the rim, SW bowl from the top of the snow (I climbed up to the top of the S ridge then back down to the snow), and West face from about 100 feet down from the top of the snow (it was getting too soft and I had to go). It was a really great day.

I am looking at Middle Sister from Pole Creek this weekend. If you or anyone else is interested, let me know.

Here's a few more pics of from the trip showing the coverage along the creek and near the lake...............







And one of our turns coming off the steep lava flow.......

I want to ski south sis very much.

Other TR's made me wonder why.

This one reinforces the need to hit up that hill.

Nice photos to boot.