South Broken Jack: Summer 2026

Activity Notes

This multi-peak climb should fine us all in excellent shape from a busy summer of climbing. And we'll find out if that's the case. The three peaks total over 10,600' of elevation gain!

We will leave from the leader's house in NE PDX at 5:00pm on Thursday, September 17. We'll drive to Bend, have dinner, and then continue on to the Green Lakes trailhead, where we'll gear up and hike into Green Lakes to make camp, in the dark.

Friday, we'll climb South Sister. This starts by going west from Green Lakes to the right of a waterfall. This is the steepest part for the climb. We'll continue up and west until we reach Lewis Pond at the base of the Lewis Glacier. We'll go around the south end of the pond and the follow the trail north to the summit rim of South Sister. We'll cross the summit plateau and then up to the summit on the east edge of the plateau. We'll reverse course to return to camp.

Saturday, we'll climb Broken Top. This starts by hiking east through some trees and then gradually trending north to gain the NW Ridge. We'll hike up the NW Ridge until we reach the last prominence on our left. We'll leave unnecessary gear here and make for the summit pinnacle. I'll lead a short low-fifth class section, pull up and anchor the rope and set up a  belay for the rest for the team. Once the next climber arrives, they'll belay and I'll start setting up a fixed line to the summit along a ledge that hairpins at its southern end. If we can find a spot to rappel back to the start of the route, we'll do that. If not, we'll reverse course and rappel the low-fifth class pitch where we started. We'll then descend the NW Ridge to a point where we can access the west face if the mountain and then scree-ski as far as possible. We'll return and break camp, hike out, drive to Bend, have dinner and then drive to the PCT Santiam Pass trailhead, where we'll camp.

On Sunday, we'll climb Three Fingered Jack (see beta in the next section) and then return to PDX Sunday evening.