Middle Sister – West Face / Renfrew Glacier
Haven’t done this route in 15 years. It was good to get back to it. Next to the SE Ridge route, this is my favorite. Deb and I left the Obsidian Trailhead (4780’) Thursday afternoon and set up camp at Arrowhead Lake (6885’). Friday morning, we left camp a bit late, but still had a lot of daylight to get to the summit and back. We followed a track I made back in 2011 and 2007. There’s a faint user trail up to the toe of the current Renfrew Glacier, which puts you on top of a gravel ridge that skirts the south edge of the glacier, then drops you down on to the main body of the glacier. There are a few options here, but we ended up heading south to the crux of this route, a wall of steep snow and ice. Glad we brought crampons, axe, and helmet. High consequence if one fell here. After getting through the crux, it’s basically a boulder and rock scramble to the top. There is a small amount of loose scree here and there, but nothing like the north ridge.
After a nice rest at the summit (10,047’), we descended the north ridge route…UGH! Anybody that has climbed or descended this route knows about the crux of this route. A steep 50’-70’ section that seems to hold ice and snow for most of the climbing season. This time was no different, except this time the conditions were worse than I’ve seen. Ice under thin snow with frozen ground under the ice. It was hard to trust your next step. Again, glad we have crampons and ice axe. Once we got down to the saddle, we turned west and had a beautiful walk down the Renfrew Glacier. After turning north, we decided to cross under what we call the Black Fin, and found a couple long fingers of snow that took us NW where we caught our morning’s route, back to camp. We’ll have dinner and enjoy a beautiful sunset before heading to the tent for another peaceful night.
Saturday morning, we slept in and took our time breaking down camp after breakfast. We had a nice hike back to the trailhead.
Another fun adventure weekend with my lovely wife, Deb.
A nice forest at the beginning of the Obsidian trail…
Then things get more interesting when we got to the lava flow…
…with a big view of tomorrow’s objective.
Getting closer to camp…Camp is at Arrowhead Lake, just up on top of the plateau ahead…
Camp is set up…
Evening view of North Sister (left) and Middle Sister (right)
North Sister…
Sunset after a long hike in…
An evening shot, from camp, of The Husband…
Next morning, starting out of camp…
Passing by what we have been calling the Black Fin…
Nice view of the Cascade volcano’s
Our route to the summit…
Lots of butterflies…
Starting up the ascent crux…
At the top of the crux. Really not bad with crampons and ice axe…
Nearing the rocks…
A view of the rest of the climb, a nice blocky stair step to the top…
30 to 35 degree slope…
At the summit, looking over at North Sister…
Looking down at Arrowhead Lake, where camp is…
From the summit, looking over at South Sister, Broken Top, and Mount Bachelor.
A view of the SE Ridge route up this mountain.
Posers…
Getting started down the North Ridge…
At the crux…
At the top of the Renfrew Glacier…
Our route down the Renfrew Glacier
Passing by the Black Fin…looks more lake a petrified ship (-:
Looking back at the north ridge crux…
Resting our tired feet…
Heading down the trail, back to the trailhead…
Our route…
One day earlier and we could have stumbled over each other in the Obsidian area.
I love the climb from that side