John Godino, a climb leader and instructor with Mazamas, a Portland-based mountaineering organization, climbing North Sister. Godino said the primary concern with North Sister is the loose rock that characterizes the environment.  

After Joel Tranby, a 21-year-old Bend man, fell to his death while climbing North Sister earlier this month, climbers familiar with the area said the mountain can be difficult to climb and far more dangerous than other mountains in the area, especially for beginners.

“That’s the most difficult of the Sisters and most difficult of the mountains in Central Oregon,” said David Potter, the owner of Smith Rock Climbing Guides and someone who has climbed the North Sister over 20 times.

Potter said he’d suggest having some technical climbing experience before attempting to climb North Sister, and that it is common for people to die on the mountain.

The first time Potter climbed it in the ’90s, he was stopped by a ranger on his way to the mountain who informed him that somebody had died hours earlier.

North Sister, located about 55 miles northwest of Bend, is the oldest and most eroded of the three volcanic peaks that make up the Three Sisters, which include South and Middle sisters. It rises a little over 10,000 feet above Central Oregon.

On July 17, Tranby and his girlfriend, Fiona Curley, were near the summit of the North Sister in the Willamette National Forest when tragedy struck.

Tranby fell hundreds of feet into a ravine where he was severely injured before falling a second time. The second fall is what likely killed Tranby, and authorities in Lane County have called off their recovery efforts to search for Tranby’s body, citing dangerous conditions.

Potter said there are some unique features to North Sister that make it especially treacherous compared to other mountains, and it requires knowledge of how to climb in multiple types of conditions.

A lot of the mountain is also covered in a loose assortment of crumbling rocks, or scree, that make it very difficult to maintain good footing, Potter said.

“I would say it is mostly dangerous because it is so accessible from Bend and the conditions can change so quickly that you really have to be prepared with either ice, or snow or rock. So you really have to know what you are doing in all three of those,” Potter said.

Potter likened the difference between climbing North Sister and the other two sisters with the difference between walking up Misery Ridge and actually climbing Smith Rock.

“I think a lot of it with North Sister is because you are so close to the top when it gets technically hard. So it is so tempting to go for the summit and maybe without the right gear, because you are vertically 300 feet from the top. So, people do something dangerous just to get to the top real quick,” Potter said.

John Godino, a climb leader and instructor with Mazamas, a Portland-based mountaineering organization who has climbed North Sister seven times, said the primary concern with North Sister is the loose rock that characterizes the environment, making it very difficult to climb.

“Any handhold looking thing that you think you want to grab onto is guilty until proven innocent,” Godino said.

Godino said he has seen climbers kick boulders loose triggering rock avalanches.

“Fortunately, nobody was below them when this happened,” he said. “That is a pretty common thing to happen up there. You have to be especially mindful when there are people around you or below you.”

Godino said many of the rocks he saw tumbling down the mountain were the size of microwave ovens.

Bill McLoughlin, a climbing instructor and climb leader with Mazama, said he has climbed North Sister five times, summiting it twice.

“I have a reasonable familiarity with the south side route, and I haven’t tried any other route. And honestly, there are other routes on the east side, but I wouldn’t do them. They are potentially death routes as far as most people are concerned,” McLoughlin said.

McLoughlin said one of the problems is how eroded and messy North Sister is. In fact, the mountain is deceiving and seems to constantly shift under one’s feet, he said.

“North Sister is hard to climb because it is falling apart. So you never know if the rocks are going to be there when you come back. Like on your way out. If it were more stable rock, lots of more people would climb it,” McLoughlin said. “It is just a big pile of crap. Really dangerous. And a lot of people like it, but for more people, it’s one and done, and they are never going back.”

McLoughlin said pretty much anybody can ascend South and Middle sisters without actually having to climb, but that is not the case when it comes to North Sister.

“There are just too many things that go wrong on North Sister. The casual person, somebody who is just delving into it, shouldn’t do it,” McLoughlin said.

Greg Scott, the president of the Mazamas board of directors, said there are two primary features on North Sister that tend to be most dangerous: The Terrible Traverse and the Bowling Alley, which got its name from the regular barrage of falling rocks it has become known for.

“North Sister is characterized by a lot of loose unstable terrain and rock fall, especially at this time of year. I think calling it a pile of kitty litter would be a common phrase that would come out of a climber’s mouth,” Scott said. “I climbed it once, and I had a great time on it. It is definitely a little sketchy, and I think I had a lot of trepidation going and climbing it the first time.”

Scott said he can confidently say North Sister is the least climbed mountain out of the three peaks given the level of difficulty and potential danger.

“This one is known to be particularly risky because of the unpredictable nature,” Scott said.