On the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy my sister Rachele and I decided to hike up to the Summit of the South Sister mountain here in Central Oregon. There are three Sisters mountains, commonly known as the North, Middle and South Sister mountain. The North is known as "Faith", the Middle is known as "Hope", and the South is known as "Charity." The South sister is the youngest and tallest of the three at 10,363 feet (3,159 m).
By me saying that Rachele and I "decided" we were going to hike I mean that I begged and begged until she got tired of my begging and agreed to go without understanding what she was getting into. We left at 6am and started to climb at 7:30am. The hike is 6 miles up and therefore 6 miles down. Rachele loved it, and by loved it I mean I think she wanted to kill me 3 hours into the 7 hour hike. She really was a trooper and put up with my insane love of this specific hike. She only mentioned that we had gone far enough and should turn back about 5 times, roughly once every half an hour. The weather was really great, perfect actually until we got past the false summit and the wind kicked in. Then it turned super cold, windy and the snow became more intense. The climb after the false summit was mostly snow, ice, rocks, it was slippery and at points dangerously unstable. But we made it. After about 3.5 hours we were at the top over looking the beautiful Central Oregon. It was a struggle to get Rachele motivated enough to walk around the crater at the summit to see the view of the other sisters mountains, I literally had to drag her frozen self over there, I was not going to let her miss the view.
By me saying that Rachele and I "decided" we were going to hike I mean that I begged and begged until she got tired of my begging and agreed to go without understanding what she was getting into. We left at 6am and started to climb at 7:30am. The hike is 6 miles up and therefore 6 miles down. Rachele loved it, and by loved it I mean I think she wanted to kill me 3 hours into the 7 hour hike. She really was a trooper and put up with my insane love of this specific hike. She only mentioned that we had gone far enough and should turn back about 5 times, roughly once every half an hour. The weather was really great, perfect actually until we got past the false summit and the wind kicked in. Then it turned super cold, windy and the snow became more intense. The climb after the false summit was mostly snow, ice, rocks, it was slippery and at points dangerously unstable. But we made it. After about 3.5 hours we were at the top over looking the beautiful Central Oregon. It was a struggle to get Rachele motivated enough to walk around the crater at the summit to see the view of the other sisters mountains, I literally had to drag her frozen self over there, I was not going to let her miss the view.
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