Little Sister and Cinderella: the mock-guide finale

For the final climbing day of AAI’s AMTL 2, the roles flipped: Joel — who had spent two weeks instructing us — became the client, and I became the guide. Objective: the north face of Little Sister in the Twin Sisters Range, then a traverse to Cinderella, as a subsection of the larger Green Creek horseshoe. The Twin Sisters are a geological oddity — one of the largest exposed olivine massifs anywhere — and the rock climbs like rough-cast iron: featured, grippy, and hungry for skin.

The rust-orange summit pyramid of Little Sister rising above a glacier snowfield under blue sky — Little Sister's north face from the glacier — the route takes the rib right of centre, five pitches to the summit.

In

Aimed to leave camp at 4:30; managed 4:45. An hour and a half on rock and heather to the snowline, crampons on, another hour and a quarter to the glacier, then roped travel to the moat at the base of the north face. Climbing by 10:00.

Two climbers with trekking poles crossing rust-coloured slabs, Mount Baker's glaciated massif behind — The approach, with Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) for company.

A climber standing on the glacier below the rust-orange face, ice axe planted in the snow — Below the moat, sorting the transition from snow to rock.

Five pitches of olivine

The first belay decision was the day’s most consequential: pitch 1 (~25 m) went straight up the rib we’d gained across the moat, specifically to clear out from under a bank of hanging snow up-route — anchor at the first solid stance, belay Joel up, minimise the minutes anyone spent in the runnel. Pitch 2 (~30 m) finished the rib to where it flattens into the main face. Pitch 3 was the money pitch: ~50 m of steady, solid, generously protected climbing, stopped five metres shy of rope’s end at an adequate ledge. Pitch 4 (~30 m) topped out the wall from a gendarme stance, and pitch 5 (~30 m) crossed a small rock saddle onto the true summit wall and up to the rock-pile on top. Summited at noon, an hour ahead of the guide-plan I’d sketched.

Looking down from a belay stance onto the glacier far below, a rope running to a climber on a ledge — Looking back down the face from the top of pitch 3.

A climber standing on rust-orange summit blocks against white cloud — Summit of Little Sister, 2,016 m.

View from the summit down a cloud gap to the green forested valley of Green Creek far below — Two kilometres of relief in one frame — Green Creek through the cloud gap.

Down, across

The descent off Little Sister is a fourth-class gully system on the southwest face — managed as a mix of simul-scrambling and short-roping, with hip belays and the odd placement at three steps where the exposure warranted it. Half an hour of care brought us to snow; a glissade and a walk gained the saddle between Little Sister and Cinderella.

A climber in red seen from behind, downclimbing blocky orange rock — The southwest gully — short-roped where it steepens.

At the saddle we spent half an hour coordinating with another AAI party climbing Little Sister by the west ridge, offering to relocate their snow gear so they could descend our line rather than reverse the exposed ridge. They eventually declined — their climb, their call — and we set off for Cinderella.

A rust-orange rock pyramid above a snowfield, a climber in red at its base — Cinderella from the saddle.

Snow still hung on parts of Cinderella’s north face, so we kept to the ridge: a fourth-class section short-roped, then a fifth-class traverse pitch to the true summit, and a reversal of that pitch back to the rappel station we’d scoped on the way up.

The anchor worth rebuilding

Closer inspection of that station was the day’s best teaching moment: two micronuts in cracks — going nowhere, but not confidence-inspiring either. We left one of AAI’s nuts (Joel’s discretion) and, together with a cordelette we’d recovered from a horn on the Little Sister descent, built a proper equalised three-piece. Joel rappelled first — his idea to use the moat in the gully below as an anchor: some digging with the axe, the rope rigged behind the accumulated snow, and the second rappel cleared the bergschrund clean.

Sun-cupped glacier surface in raking light, an abstract field of scalloped snow — Suncups on the Sisters Glacier.

From below the bergschrund we re-roped for glacier travel, waited a few minutes to rejoin the other party, and descended together into the evening.

Three small figures crossing a broad flat glacier under a wide cloudy sky — Out with company.

A thin crescent moon in deep blue sky above a dark ridgeline — Camp, later.

What the day was actually testing

Not the 5.6 — the decisions. Where the belays went and why; how long we lingered under hanging snow (as little as possible); when the rope came out on the descent and when it stayed away; whether an in-place anchor got weighted on faith or rebuilt on evidence; how two parties negotiated shared terrain. Thirteen hours of the job being mostly judgment, with some climbing attached — which is, I’m told and increasingly believe, the correct ratio.

Thanks to Joel for two weeks of patient instruction, and for playing the client with enough mischief to make the rehearsal honest.

From logbook entry 2026-06-17-twin-sisters–little-sister-cinderella-traverse · grades and timings as recorded on the day.