Middle Sister, Hayden Glacier, North Ridge

Activity Notes

This will be a 1-day smash and grab summit push.  The idea is to go light and efficient. Layers breaks will be 60sec maximum, and rest breaks will be 3 - 4min maximum.  Keep snacks, water, and clothing layers within easy reach.  We will keep an easy pace everyone can handle, but you MUST keep moving all day long.  This will be probably 15 miles of travel all together so be prepared for a long day.

You'll only need helmet, ice axe, crampons, harness, helmet, and prussiks with locking carabiner for technical gear.  You will need to pack your 10 essentials, clothing to keep yourself warm and dry, food, and 3 liters of water.  The idea is to keep you pack weight as light as safely possible.  

So far the weather looks promising it will be very hot near the trailhead.  I expect the snow to soften up considerably in the afternoon so you may want to pack snowshoes with you or else risk postholing.  At least put them in the car with you.  Watch the weather.

There will be glacier travel, but reports show the crevasses aren't open so we will stay on top of the ridges to travel safely over Hayden without needing to rope up.  There is a steep snow section on the North ridge I will set a fixed line up so you can prussik up and down safely.  Everyone will prussik rappel down.

I highly recommend driving up after work Friday night and car camping at the trailhead.  The plan is to leave at 4am sharp.  If you plan to drive from Portland Saturday morning, you will need to leave by 12:30am.  My plan will also to car camp Saturday night too and drive home Sunday morning after a good nights rest.  There is a restroom at the Pole Creek trailhead although the USFS webpage says its closed for some reason.

Let me know if the links don't work below:

Directions from MMC

Carpool signup sheet

Prospectus Link

NOAA Weather Link

Map Link

GPX tracks

KML tracks