Broken Top is in the Three Sisters Wilderness of Central Oregon. Broken Top is a committed alpine climb - it cannot be considered a hike as there is no 'trail' to the top.
It's recommended you prepare carefully, reading guidebooks and climbing websites, and making sure you have the necessary skills, experience and equipment and team. You will need to be able to handle wilderness route finding, high angle snow ascent and descent, rock climbing, and challenging terrain. Adequate physical conditioning is critical to ensure success and safety. Each of your party members needs to prepare in kind.
You might start towards Broken Top on the four mile Green Lakes Trail that is about 25 miles west of Bend on the Cascade Lakes Highway. Our party camped in one of the designated campsites - #19 - that happens to be the start of the climbers trail to the saddle accessing the northwest ridge. The northwest ridge leads you to a 15 foot vertical rock band requiring fifth class skills - many people protect on this pitch and rappel down it as we did. This vertical rock leads to an exposed, narrow catwalk about 30 meters long with foot placements perhaps four to eight inches wide. And finally a fourth class scramble to top of the summit pinnacle.
The area just before the final fourth class scramble is in the AZ and has more room for antennas, but we were alone on the summit and set up our wire antenna there by throwing the end off the top of the pinnacle and made 15 20m CW QSOs and eight 2m FM contacts between two operators. We were not able to take photos of the most challenging parts of the climb - you can find some additional photos and more information on the climb here: www.summitpost.org/broken-top/150574.
