|
Broken Top, just East of South Sister, is an amazingly crumbly peak. Without snow cover, the only recommended
route is the NW Ridge. In spring, however, the crater routes can be good snow climbs.
|
Broken Top in early July as seen from around 8,800' on South Sister (photo credit: Jörg Rollbühler) |
|||||||||||
Party: Dietrich and Paul Belitz
Route: NW Ridge with Summit Pinnacle Variation
Equipment: 50m half rope, a small rack of stoppers and Camalots #0.5 - #3
Time: 2 1/2 hrs from Green Lakes to Summit; 9 hrs roundtrip from Green Lakes Trailhead
Comments: Roundtrip time includes descending the entire NW ridge.
Trip report:
Paul had never been on Broken Top, and I wanted to do the Summit Pinnacle Variation, so we
set out on a Sunday morning from Greenlakes Trailhead. Monique headed to the big spring at
the west end of Green Lakes to do drawings for watercolors.
We left the trailhead at 8:30am, and hiked to Green Lakes in a brisk 1 hr 20 mins. After
a stop for a second breakfast we hiked up the ridge and arrived at the base of the summit
pinnacle shortly before noon. The variation Jeff Thomas writes about shares the first step
with the standard route, but then goes up left directly to the summit rather than doing the
circuitous traverse. It's about 50 vertical feet of easy fifth class. The rock is perfect
(believe it or not!) and protects well, and the moves are very nice. Not knowing what to
expect, I had brought a set of stoppers and a few Camalots, but I used only one small stopper
and two Camalots. The summit was covered
with flying ants, a phenomenon we had observed earlier this time of year on Mt. Washington,
so we did not stay very long. At the base of the pinnacle we met a party we had passed on
the way up, and Paul gave them a belay up the step and showed them the way to the summit.
After belaying them back down we ran down the ridge to the notch, worked our way back up
on the other side, and then descended the pumice ridge until we could drop down to the
hidden member of the Green Lakes family, where we found Monique.
By then thunderstorms had started forming, and on the hike back it even rained off and on.
This was just fine with us, as parts of the ridge had been unbearably hot, and the rain
made the trail less dusty. Just over nine hours after we had left the car we were back at
the trailhead.
Broken Top is always enjoyable, but the summit variation makes it even more so.
Party: Dietrich and Monique Belitz
Route: NW Ridge
Equipment: None
Time: 2 1/2 hrs from Green Lakes to Summit; 10 hrs roundtrip from Green Lakes Trailhead
Comments: Roundtrip time includes descending the entire NW ridge.
Trip report:
Both the Jefferson Wilderness and the Washington Wilderness were closed due to fires, so the
Three Sisters area was the most obvious objective for a day trip. We settled on Broken Top,
which Monique had not summited yet.
We left home at 4:30am and started from Green Lakes trailhead shortly before 7am. It was only
36 degrees at the trailhead, and a cold wind was blowing down the watershed. Broken Top had a
strange cloud cover, probably a result of lots of smoke in the atmosphere. A fresh burn had
just occurred south of Odell Butte (we actually saw open flames in some snags as we drove
north on Cascades Lakes Highway in the morning twilight), and the Booth Fire was raging to
the north. We hiked to Green Lakes in 1 hr 45 minutes, and had breakfast. When we started
again at 9am, the smoke-induced clouds started to burn off. We gained the notch in the NW
Ridge at 10am, and continued up the ridge. While hiking up the ridge we could see the Booth
Fire to the North, which produced an amazing amount of smoke. We reached the foot of the summit
block shortly after 11am. I was hiking in sneakers, Monique in boots, but we had brought rock
shoes for the summit pinnacle, so we changed shoes here. The 10-foot technical section on the
summit block was much easier and shorter than I remembered; after that it's just an exposed
scramble to the summit. We admired the view for about 45 minutes, and then started down. We
had not brought a rope, so we were just extra careful downclimbing the 10-foot step. After
reaching the notch we decided to do a complete descent of the NW Ridge, rather than going
straight back down to Green Lakes. So we scrambled back up a bit, gained the intermediate
summit on the ridge, and then followed scree and pumice slopes to the NW. We had never been
on that part of the ridge, and Broken Top looked unfamiliar from there. We finally cut left
and went down steep scree slopes to the northernmost of the Green Lakes. It turns out that
this lake is fed by a full-size creek that comes straight out of a steep blocky hillside.
I would guess that the water flow of this "spring" is at least as much as that of the famed
Mouth of the Metolius. It was extremely impressive. After filtering some water we hiked back
along Green Lakes, and then down Fall Creek to the trailhead. It was a very nice trip, but I
felt it was not quite enough of a workout. Monique disagreed on the latter point, though.
Photo Gallery:
Click the pictures to see a higher resolution image
Fall Creek early in the morning
Damn, we forgot to bring the dog!
Paul in the notch of the NW Ridge
Dietrich starting up the summit pinnacle
Dietrich belaying near the summit
Paul on the summit
Broken Top's summit ridge
Dietrich downclimbing from the summit
The NW Ridge from the pumice slopes of the lower NW Ridge
The huge spring that feeds Green Lakes
Green Lakes living up to their name
The weather is closing in
Date: August 24, 2003
