Broken Top // Climbing Oregon's Volcanoes

Summer weather is in full force in the Central Cascades quite early this year. We drove down to Bend looking for a fun, airy climb on exposed rock and that’s exactly what we found on Broken Top—in addition to slogging through spring snow for miles of the approach. The snow still buried the trailhead (5.4k ft), forcing us to park along the highway. I began to regret not bringing my skis. The approach was a gentle 4.5 mi over mostly consolidated snow through old growth forest following Fall Creek and its series of waterfalls. As the trees thinned out, we entered a scenic basin in the heart of the wilderness and setup a basecamp at the still-frozen Green Lake around 6.5k ft. From basecamp, we donned our summit packs and climbed up a progressively steepening snowfield until we gained the melted out NW Ridge of Broken Top. The scramble up the spine of the ridge was class 2 and 3 over loose and rotten rock until we reached the base of the summit block at 9k ft. The sounds of dinner plates falling and shattering on the scree fields below was a constant. From here the climbing and exposure escalated, but luckily so did the rock quality. We traversed right, following a thin crack along a tight ledge to the base of a low class 5 gulley. Although only 15 ft, the gulley was the crux of the climb as a fall here would be fatal. Atop the gulley, we followed a series of ledges and catwalks leading us up, over, and around the eroded rim of the ancient volcanic crater to the base of the final pitch. This rock was the most solid we had encountered yet, and it was a delightful 20 ft class 5 scramble up the pinnacle with the crater opening up far below. We enjoyed a round of summit beers and absorbed the grand view of the Three Sisters before rigging a rappel and abseiling down to the base of the crux. A short while later, we were back at basecamp cooking dinner and watching the light show as the sun set on the mountains around us. Feel free to message me with any questions or comments below! IG: @RadishUprooted 6.3.23-6.4.23 14 mi, 4.5k vert CHAPTERS 0:00 The Route 0:54 The Approach 3:16 The Northwest Ridge 6:30 The Summit 8:08 The Descent 10:24 The Trip Report