Skiing Broken Top Mountain

Broken Top is one of five major Volcanoes in the Sisters area of Oregon. It's highest peak sits at 9,175 ft.  Most of the mountain has been eroded away by glaciers. Left behind is a breathtaking mountain with red colored lava pinnacles and super steep skiable faces. 

Jamie and I headed up to the Todd Lake trailhead and were skinning by 5am.  The snow was a little patchy down low, but we only had to portage our skis over the dirt a few times. 

The approach from Todd Lake to the Summit is about six miles each way.  The snow was frozen solid making the side hilling with skins a bit difficult.  Within a couple of hours we neared the tree line and got our first views of the summit and lines we wanted to ski.  

The original plan was to ski from somewhere near the summit on the Crook glacier. The highest summit on Broken Top is in the center.  As we got closer  to the mountain we began to see how rimed out the summit was and how an approach from the north would make summiting much more possible on the eroded volcanic rock.  We reached the tree line by around 7:30.  The snow was heating up super fast and we decided to head  up to the South Summit.  

We skinned up the south ridge on the left with hopes of skiing off the southwest summit onto the ramp with the exposure below.  By the time we reached the saddle and the final approach to the summit the east facing snow was totally rotten and roller balling, so that awesome ski descent was out.  

The views of the volcanic pinnacles are off the hook! There are so many incredible lines to ski.  

We reached the Southwest Summit around 11am, enjoyed the views, ate a snack and hurried down to catch the corn before it was gone.  

Jamie Callister

Michele Manning

The Three Sisters

We ended up skiing the Southwest Face.  The snow was perfect!

 Always special thanks to Jamie for coming with me and shooting the photos on these great adventures!

Also, special thanks to these great companies...
Black Diamond Equipment           Scarpa             Flylow