Twin Sisters Traverse

By:  Sam
April 9, 2012


The second challenge posed by South Twin, was the south face. In an older Scurlock photo and on google earth, the face looked white and skiable, but we still didn’t know what we’d find, and with the face roasting in the sun we were beginning to worry about wet slides.


A look back at North Twin and our line.


Two stoked skiers, and the rest of our traverse visible in the background.


We dropped our packs and hiked down to the roll-over hoping for the best.


What we found was a small rimey choke followed by an open face of smooth slushy snow.


Allen ski-cut a small patch that entrained a not-insignificant amount of snow and cleaned out a good hard bed surface for us to ski safely down on.


From this point on, the views were amazing, but the scale was hard to wrap our heads around. The peaks behind Allen, are comparatively tiny, but their severity seems to add to their stature.


Satisfied with our progress so far, we stopped for a water break.


Style is not our strong suit.


We set off hoping to get through two more potentially problematic passes before making camp. (Extra points for alliteration?)

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Read about the author:   Sam

Related Stuff:

  1. TR: Twin Sisters Range Traverse
  2. TR: North Face of North Twin
  3. TR: Spearhead Traverse in a Day
  4. Spearhead Traverse Variation
  5. TR: The North Shore of Hiking: A Presidential Range Traverse
  6. North Face of North Twin

14 Comments

  1. Adrian
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 1:27 am  
    1

    Wow, looks like a great ski. Sure is some beautiful country around those parts.

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  2. Skidmarks
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 7:24 am  
    2

    At first glance I thought you were talking about Twin Mountain NH!!
    Great report guys.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. bushman
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 8:37 am  
    3

    Damn! I’m out of breath just reading the notes below each frame; what a workout. inspires mere mortals to climb for snow next week. nice report guys.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  4. jake L.
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 8:53 am  
    4

    A great adventure with great company, that’s what it’s all about! Splendid write up Sam, looking forward to the next instalment.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  5. Ullr
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 6:53 pm  
    5

    AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  6. christian
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 7:21 pm  
    6

    SICK TRIP! how much vert did that work out to roughly?
    got yourself a houdini i see. one of my favorites, ever.

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  7. Sam
    wrote on April 10th, 2012 at 10:40 pm  
    7

    It was 11100ft of gain over 30 miles. Yeah, the houdini is awesome, I bought it for trail running (I’ve been running a ton recently), but I’ve really grown to like it for skiing as well. I didn’t even bring a shell on this trip.

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  8. powhounddd
    wrote on April 11th, 2012 at 8:59 pm  
    8

    Great TR, glad it worked out! The mountains there are really something, real nice pics. Oh and, just for fun: “We pushed off, praying to press past a pair of potentially problematic passes prior to parking our parkas.” would have been 2x Extra points for abusive alliteration ;)

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • bushman
      wrote on April 11th, 2012 at 9:31 pm  
      9

      avoid alliteration. always

  9. Peter
    wrote on April 12th, 2012 at 10:49 pm  
    10

    f.f.s this is awesome, thanks guys. So beautiful, I want to be in those mountains so badly!

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Sam
      wrote on April 13th, 2012 at 3:10 am  
      11

      6 hour flight + 6 miles of hiking gets you to snow! glad you liked the photos

  10. Roger Strong
    wrote on April 16th, 2012 at 1:42 am  
    12

    Absolutely stunning traverse and thanks for sharing Sam and Allen…great getting to hang with you both in the desert this weekend!

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  11. savant
    wrote on April 16th, 2012 at 11:48 am  
    13

    Thanks for the time and effort put into writing this TR. As the Boston marathon trickles by with 80 -85 temps for the day this was a nice diversion

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  12. ml242
    wrote on April 16th, 2012 at 5:45 pm  
    14

    Must have been hard to leave so much great skiing hanging there to make it across the traverse. Looking forward to the next installation.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
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