South Sister Summit

I decided to climb South Sister in couple of weeks after summiting Mt Saint Helens. I was so impressed by watching sunrise from the summit of Mt Saint Helens that I decide to do the same this time. Since summit route to South Sister is longer and more difficult, I decided with my group to hike in third of the way in the day before and get some rest before the summit push,

We hiked in from Devil's Lake TH for couple of miles to Moraine Lake. Since the lake was few hundred feet below the trail, we decided to find a secluded spot in the wood next to the summit trail. 

At 1 AM, we made a start for the summit. First mile was almost flat and left us wondering to what's going to come ahead. In the dark, we couldn't see much. We only had a faint trail to follow to the summit. We reached teardrop lake, 2000 feet below the summit. Temperature was dropping down and it was getting windier. We had a quick snack break and kept going upwards and onwards. Up till this point, we haven't seen any groups. We started discussing that are we the only crazy souls to do this, that can't be true! After few minutes, we saw few headlamps coming our way and it immediately gave us some sense of relief that we are not the only ones on the mountain.

We reached the summit half and hour before sunrise. Temperature was definitely below freezing. We took shelter in one of the windbreakers at the summit and waited for sunrise. It was cold. I was wearing everything that I carried up with me (Fleece, Down Jacket, Rain Jacket). I was still cold. I also carried my down quilt up to the summit just for the scenario that in case we get there earlier than sunrise, then we'd need something to keep us warm. It came in handy, as we sat in a huddle using the quilt as a comforter. 

Few minutes later, as the sun was coming up, I broke the huddle and walked around the summit ridge to get blood flowing through my body and get some warmth. Soon after, the entire sky was glowing warm orange with a nice glow on the snowfields visible on Middle Sister. I took few shots and enjoyed the summit view before heading down.

Contrary to hike up, we saw tons of people coming up as we were going down. We kept turning around to see our approach as we walked in the dark and had no perspective of how far we have climbed.

Overall, it was about 14 miles and 5800feet of cumulative elevation gain. Totally worth the sunrise view that we got at the top. 

Summit View from South Sister

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