Hey all,

My wife are heading out on a two night trip through the Three Sisters Wilderness. We want to start from Green Lakes Trailhead and end at Pole Creek Trailhead, and bag a peak (South or Middle) sometime between the two. We have people to pick us up in the Pole Creek side.

I thought the Green Lakes trail went pretty much directly north, but pulling up my map, I see it heads northeast to Soap Creek :/ (So that's the trail I've been passing all this time!). I had hoped for us to camp at Chambers Lakes and summit Middle from the south, but now I see that would be a lot of backtracking from Green Lakes to Soap Creek and back up to Chambers. So now I'm wondering about summiting South from Green Lakes and descending from the north to Chambers lakes... but I don't know that route at all.

Any suggestions? Are there any climbers trails from Green Lakes to Chambers Lakes that I don't know about?

Another idea: I don't see a route description for the North side of South Sister. Jeff Thomas says there's a tricky spot getting around a gendarme. I don't know what his definition of "tricky" is.

Anyone descended the North ridge of South Sister to Chambers Lakes?

The north face of South Sister has a section (a few hundred feet below the summit), where unless you are very comfortable with extreme exposure, you will need protection. I climbed it last October and we crossed that section on rope. Two 60 meter rope lengths to cross it. I was with a friend who has climbed North Sister many times and compares the exposure to that on the "Terrible Traverse" on North Sister. Perhaps following the trail past Green Lakes and at the first trail junction head northwest cross country to Camp Lake. From the junction to Camp Lake is 2.4 miles (as the crow flies). The south ridge of Middle Sister from Camp Lake is not too bad. Then you can follow the trail from Camp Lake out to Pole Creek.