South Sister Climb

This is a repeat of the adventure I did a year ago. I was leading different friends up the mountain and hoping for a better sunrise shot.

We started from Devil's lake around noon and it took us just more than an hour to get to Moraine Lake. This time we we went down to the lake to find a designated campsite only to find out that all the designated spots were taken. Finally we did find a spot next to the post.

On the way to Moraine Lake

It was such a hot day, so as soon as everybody was done setting up the camp, we went to the lakeshore and hung out there and had fun in water.

Dinner by the beach

Starting out

We started out at midnight from camp. the weather was perfect - not too cold or windy. We were making good progress, so every now and then we would stop for a minute and turn off our headlamps and stare at the stars in complete silence. Going uphill, we did loose the trail a couple of times, but with the help of gps, we were able to get back on track.

We got to the summit with plenty of time to spare before the sunrise. There were about 4 tents at the summit, but other than that we were the first group. We hunkered down in one of the smaller   windbreak waiting for the sun to come up.

Group shot on the summit looking north towards Middle and North Sister

We probably spent more than an hour on the summit exploring around. One the way back down, we ran into 100s of other hiker going up. It was 9am and it was already getting very hot. Getting the climb out of the way in the cooler weather was probably the best thing to do.

Express way down