Three Brothers and Three Sisters

 It had been an idea for decades. This summer, we made it a reality, somewhat on a whim.  When we were teens, Dave and I used to talk about climbing 1, 2, or all 3 of the Sisters mountains (Faith, Hope, and Charity).  In our boy scout days, we backpacked in the Three Sisters Wilderness, but always hiked around the volcanos, but never up them.  We weren't 100% sure how long of a trek it would be, or how we'd hold up, but we decided to take advantage of us all being in Oregon, and the perfect weather window.  Dave and I located 2 Eagle Scouts to for the crew.  Three Rasca brothers (myself, Dave, Joe, and Kenny, a brother of another mother.  The idea was to pack light, carrying mostly high calorie foods and warm clothes for the summits and when the sun was down.  We pumped/filtered water from the glacial melt every chance got.   It was a chilly start at 34 degrees at 4am, but warmed up fairly quickly as we climbed.  It took about 21 hours from the north side traverse start at Pole Creek, heading south to Green Lakes, near Mount Bachelor. We were able to summit all three peaks, with an exception for the lat 100 feet of the North Sister, as it required ropes and harnesses for the vertical climb. We summited the last peak, South Sister in the dark, and then the final 6 miles and a 5000 foot
descent to the car, arriving at about 1:00am.  

It was an adventure of a lifetime, and we all agree that we probably would not do it again now that we have it checked off the bucket list. 

Before the trek, we had to stop off at Ken's cabin.  The music chosen for the video is the same music we listened to when we were teens as we drove up the cabin in Ken's dad's 4-door Chevy Celebrity.  We used to joke that if you looked up the word, 'car' in the encyclopedia, there would be a picture of Ken's dad's car.  The swimming hole at the cabin is where we agreed that, in the summer time, boys turn into fish, and finding a prime skipping rock is like winning the lottery.