Party: Cambry, Josh, Andrew

Plan was to attempt the full circuit in one day with bail out points if time ran out. Met Cambry & Andrew at the TH friday afternoon and started out on the Elbow Lake trail with the nooksack crossing possible on downed trees & cables. Soon left trail for the climbers trail to the creek but found it not too rough and had berries to feast on. Found some bivy sites after a quick ford of the creek. Josh arrived after dark as we were eating dinner. Enjoyed views of Baker and starry skies.

Very warm, clear night. Up early for a quick bfast and scrambled up towards the Green Creek arete. Formed 2 rope teams and simul-climbed in a few pitches, swapping leads. Starting moves were tricky. I led the 5.6 move pitch after which we soon reached the top of the 1000 ft climb. We rounded an unnamed tower and scrambled upwards on grippy rock in rapidly increasing temps. I started to feel the heat and welcomed a break for water refilling at a pool that had formed in the rock after a recent rainfall.

We soon reached the Sisters glacier and hopped on with no need for rope or crampons. Crossing the glacier we had good views of the South Sister's ridgeline - our target. Intense heat on the snow but no real crevasse danger. Reached the rock with no moat issues and scrambled until we reached the base of the ridge climb where we took a nice break in some rare shade.

Did not rope up as the route up is supposed to be low fifth class. Found ourselves on slightly more than that, with exposure. Cambry eventually reached a spot for an anchor and lowered rope to Andrew and Josh below us to finish the pitch safely. We found a somewhat easier route on the way back down that was probably the easier way.

Scrambled the rest of the way on better rock to the summit and enjoyed panormaic views while we snacked on lunch. It was late enough that we all agreed it would be best to turn around to reach camp with daylight rather than continue on as we had just reached the halfway point.

Downclimbed the ridge and got back onto the glacier. Had good views of Baker on the way back. Mostly downhill xc back to the top of the arete rap anchor. Some funky raps mixed with downclimbing got us back to the top of a loose gully. After a lot of careful descending on loose rock, finally reached the creek and cooled off. Enjoyed relaxing dinner back at camp and had no problem sleeping.

Chill breakfast and hike back the next morning.

Fun facts

• 5.6 lead in approach shoes - what am i, a guide?

• First simul-climb experience

• Hard for me to deal with 90+ heat - don't like

• Beautiful, remote area - will def. return