[NationalParkAddict]

This trip was a solo south sister sunrise climb, not my first time doing it, but this time there was fresh snow. Drove to bend on October 3rd, checked into my motel and got a good 2 hours of sleep. Woke up at 12:30AM, and I got to the trailhead and began hiking at 1:55 AM. The start of the trail was a different route, because they were doing trail work or something on the main route, I honestly don't know. The route route I had to take was a decent amount of a detour, but not that bad. Got to moraine lake at 2:40, it was so beautiful and quiet except for some wind, and there was enough Moonlight to see the mountain which was an unexpected treat. A bit difficult to find the route to Lewis Glacier in the dark and patchy snow, I definitely went off trail a few times but it wasn't too bad. Got to Lewis Glacier at 4:20 am and at this point it was getting pretty cold and windy. Was ahead of the pace I planned so I took a 20 minute break so I didn't get to the summit when it was dark. Starting at about 9000 elevation, basically all of the trail was ice/snow covered, and it was frozen solid with no boot pack, so it was pretty exhausting to kick every step in, so that part took longer then I expected it to. Once I got to the Crater rim, to my surprise there was absolutely no wind, which was shocking, because much of the trail had 20+MPH gusts. I took the east side of the Crater rim to get to the summit, which was very slick and steep, 1 bad step and it would've been a bad day... in the summer that part is fairly easy, but this time the trail was buried with ice and snow. Got to the summit at 6:40ish, so about 15 minutes before sunrise. The sun came up earlier than I thought it would, I guess Timeanddate doesn't account for elevation. Once there was sun it was the most beautiful views I've ever seen, and my first time being on a summit for sunrise, except some smaller local peaks. Here are some photos, btw ignore the date it says on the photos, I forgot to set it to the right time after my cameras battery died, so it thought it was February 2020.

Once I was leaving the summit, I noticed something that I thought could be something cool, and maybe even an ice cave, so I went to check it out. And to my surprise, it was an ice cave. I went about 30 feet into it, but after that there was water. It went on much further then where I stopped, I couldn't even see the end, it was a VERY long ice cave. It was about as safe as an ice cave can be, which still isn't safe, but the ice looked thick, and it was blue, so I made the right decision to go in. For some reason my stupid tired brain didn't take any photos, I regret that so much, I honestly don't know what I was thinking. You can see where the ice cave is in this photo, but you can't see any detail of it. Surprisingly the ice cave was the only place on the mountains with actual powder snow, it must've blown in there or something.

Going down the mountain was pretty easy, did some glissading but not much. Passed a handful of people throughout the trail who were going to summit. I guess I made their day easier by putting a boot pack in. There was an insane amount of yellow jackets on the trail, when I ate my lunch at moraine lake I got swarmed, and got 3 stings, it was a miracle that the one that went in my mouth didn't sting me. Those darn things... Overall a great trip, glad I made the drive down to bend to do it. If you ever wanna do a fall climb of south sister after some fresh snow, do it, don't be discouraged by the snow. Unless you start very early on the first clear day after it snows, there will be a bootpack for you and the trail will be completely doable. Cheers!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

What are yellowjackets still doing out so late in the year after an obvious freeze? Bastards! Sounds like a great trip.