Trip Report

Trailhead stoke was high. Our initial hike in was fast, reaching the first lava ridge in an hour and camp at Arrowhead Lake in under three. Along the way we encountered some filthy PCT thru hikers. Richard, a former member of that peripatetic tribe, served as liaison. The cold water at Obsidian Spring was a boon under the hot sun. Most of the camp sites at Arrowhead Lake were closed for rehabilitation. After setting up camp and eating dinner, evening activities included swimming and and staring over cliffs at a fiery sunset.

Alarms were set for 4am the next morning. We were hiking just after 5am towards North Sister along a climbers' trail. We crossed the edge of the Collier Glacier on hard névé and descended to the notch between North and Middle Sisters, looking for the easiest way up the imposing scree field above us. Gaining the ridge through that mess was just as unpleasant as it had looked from below, but once on the (comparatively) solid rock above, we were moving well again. After some route-finding challenges weaving through notches and gendarmes, we reached the edge of a small snowfield along the so-called "Terrible Traverse" shortly before noon. Alex had a two or three foot slip just before leading the traverse. Though short, it was enough for an errant picket to lacerate his armpit. Dalen (and later Marge and Mike) assisted with cleaning and dressing the wound; lots of gauze and duct tape was necessary before a stable dressing was in place. On the traverse itself, hard snow made for loudly driven pickets.

The rock quality made a charming irony of the mountain's former name, Faith.

By 1pm, five of us stood on the summit of North Sister (one climber decided to stay lower on the ridge). It was clear we did not have time to bag Middle Sister as well. To do so we would have needed to camp higher, make better route finding choices, and perhaps start earlier. Our descent back to camp took half the time of the way up, for a total of 12 hours camp to camp. We were back to the parking lot 2.5 hours later.

Those of us that had previously done the approach from Pole Creek TH felt that the Obsidian TH approach had nicer scenery and better camping but worse scree low on the ridge. Everyone climbed well and brought excellent shared treats.