A Tale of Two Sisters and Shots of Bailey

No, not the two sisters I met downtown last night... two of the 10,000 ft volcanoes outside of town here, and nearby Mt. Bailey. The spring/summer corn harvest is ON, and we've been taking full advantage.

The first, and probably most challenging of the three was Middle Sister.








Friends Jackie, Stacey and I started at Pole Creek outside of Sisters, hauling fairly heavy packs 4 miles in to about treeline.














We camped out at the foot of the Hayden glacier, which would be our route up the mtn the next morning. Things were looking grim after the half block of cheddar got air-lifted by a ravenous raven, only to find the shredded wrapper a few hundred yards away 30 minutes later.


However, sunset that evening over the Cascades more than made up for it.















With a shotgun start at 4:30am, we began making our way up.


Sunrise on the glacier... que linda.


We followed this ridgeline up to the saddle between Middle and North Sister.















At the saddle, we ditched the skins and got ready to really start going up.



On the summit by about 8:30am!!


Here's the view north from the top. That's Mt. Hood in the distance. We could even see mt Adams and mt St. Helens past that, but they don't show in this pict.



Next up, South Sister. They had just opened the road to access South Sister from the south, still a 12 mile roundtrip slog to the summit.



Despite a chance of afternoon showers, my buddy Jody and I decided to go for it on the summer solstice.




It was crazy windy up top...




Ominous skies were looming to the south.


But we made it back to the car just before the rain hit. :)


Friends Pete, Alicia, Jen and I made a quick run up on Bachelor on a bright sunny day.




It was little Cooper's first time skiing... what a trooper!!



Finally, Alex and I made our second attempt at Mt. Bailey... after getting weathered out once earlier this season.





The wildflowers were out in full bloom on the southeast ridge.






















Bailey overlooks Mt. Thielson and Diamond Lake.




The dayz are getting shorter again, and we're still surfing these mountains!!!




Nice litte dip in Diamond Lake to top the day off.