This was the hardest thing I've ever done. By far.

The first day, we hiked to Moraine Lake and set up camp there, for an early summit the next morning. This part of the hike, carrying almost 40 pounds of backpaking gear, was already kind of difficult (around 2 miles and 1,500 feet elevation gain).

But summiting South Sister is no joke. We sill had another 4.5 miles and 3,500 more feet to climb. After the first 2.5-3 miles, I was feeling pretty confident. I was tired but nothing too terrible. Those last 2 miles though... The numbers don't tell the whole story. The "trail" is pretty loose and it's so steep, that the only way to measure this hike is by time. We spent somewhere between 1:30h and 2 hours on this part of the climb, and I can assure you every second spent there and every step taken was a huge effort.

Anyway, the whole thing was, of course, worth it. I didn't get to bring my film camera, but I took some photos and had the time and patience to record videos to put something together. The result is a below.