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| Mt. Shasta from Weed, CA |
If you have ever driven on I-5 from Oregon to California, it is hard to miss seeing Mt. Shasta. It is already impressive at 14,179 feet, and being so close to I-5 makes it all the more amazing. I was familiar with Shasta because I saw it every summer growing up when my family took an annual roadtrip from Olympia to central California to visit my grandparents. I always enjoyed seeing this huge volcano off to the east and the wonderful scenery which includes crossing Shasta Lake before descending to Redding and the rest of the northern California valley.
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| Climb leader, Amy Brose Mendenhall |
This climb was led by Mazama climb leader Amy Brose Mendenhall. It was not a Glacier Snake climb, but I still had high expectations that it would be fun climb. I had climbed with Gary and another Amy previously, and had hiked with Noelle, so I knew it would be a solid group. The climb was scheduled for four days, but two of those days are travel days. I was not too sure what to expect in terms of what the climb would actually be like. I knew from the prospectus that the climb would have 7,200 feet of elevation gain over two days with our camp being about halfway up the mountain. I did have a little beta about this climb. Opa Snake had said in an e-mail two weeks prior:
"We were able on Sunday to get to the top of Shasta and put 12 of 12 up there in what can only be described as pretty adverse conditions – hail, snow, 20mph sustained and very little snow left on that mountain."
Amy told us prior to leaving town that we were going to have very warm weather, a snow pack that is below normal for this time of year, and light winds, but no rain or snow expected.
My carpool group left Portland around 11:30 on a Thursday morning and arrived in Weed, California at 6:30pm. We were delayed by stops at Goodwill stores in both Eugene and Grants Pass as there was urgent need by one of our climbers to purchase a swimsuit as we had been promised a pool and a hot tub at the motel in Weed. Of course, once we got to the motel, we were informed that the pool and hot tub were out of service for renovation, and our suggested option by the clerk was to go jump in Lake Siskiyou. We decided to get dinner instead at a Thai restaurant which turned out to be pretty underwhelming and I think we would have been better off jumping in the lake. We returned back to the motel and the other two cars arrived. We distributed our group gear then the eight of us, split into two motel rooms, packed up and then went to bed.
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| At the Bunny Flat trailhead pre-climb |
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to the Bunny Flat trailhead. Amy told us the night before that normally the major hazards on this climb are rockfall, weather, and altitude. But, since it was going to be so warm, heat would be a major factor. Amy told us that she would be taking the entire trip up to our campout spot and the climb the following day slowly. She reminded us to keep hydrated and to take plenty of breaks on both days. She also told us that since we had heavy packs to get to camp, that we should not burn outselves out on the first day.
We arrived at Bunny Flat, elevation 6,900 feet, at around 9:00am. We filled out our backcountry and climb permits, adjusted our packs, locked up the cars, and then started our climb around 9:30. It was 94 degrees in Weed the day before, and we knew that it would be hot again on this day. We knew we needed to keep a good enough pace to beat the afternoon heat, but still go slow enough where we would not overheat.
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| Natural spring at Horse Camp |
The first part of our climb was a 1.8 mile hike up to Horse Camp at 7,900 feet. It was a easy hike up to our first stop. There is a shelter built by the Sierra Club in 1922 that is usually closed, but today there was a volunteer who had the shelter open. There were fresh natural springs to refill our water bottles, and solar compost toilets, the last chance to use the facilities without needing a "blue bag" as there are no other compost toilets above this point.
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| Group shot at Horse Camp |
After taking a nice break, we continued another half mile on a stone path before turning northeast onto Spring Hill eventually to 50/50 flat. We took breaks along the way and kept a slow pace as the weather warmed up quickly. We passed a number of climbers coming down who had made the entire trip from Bunny Flat to the summit and back in one day. The advantage of doing that is that you don't need to carry a large pack, but of course the disadvantage is a strenuous 7,200 feet of elevation gain to the top of a 14,000 foot mountain.
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| Heading up Spring Hill |
By the time we got to 50/50 flat at 9,400 feet, we were all pretty tired. The temperature was very warm and our energies were being depleted, but we made the final push and finally topped out at Helen Lake Camp at 10,400 feet around 3:00pm. We were surprised that we made such good time considering that we took a purposefully slow climb on a hot day. Once at camp, we set up our tents. Two of the tents were on rock and the other two were on snow. There were probably 20 other tents at camp, with most of those occupants planning to climb the next day. We melted snow and filtered water for drinking, and then around 5:00pm, we boiled our water for our dinner. We had a casual evening where we just hung out. The plan would be to get up at 2:00am and start our climb at 3:00am. We were all in bed at 8:00pm.
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| Camping on snow |
I can't say it was a very restful 6 hours of sleep. I kept dozing in and out of sleep, but I did manage about 2 1/2 hours of solid slumber. Since I usually go to bed around 11:00pm or later, going to bed at 8:00pm was tough even though I was tired. For some reason, I woke up on my own without an alarm clock around 1:30 am. I tried to get 30 more minutes of sleep, but it wasn't happening. Soon, the rest of the climbing team was getting up, so I did the same. I got dressed, put on my boots and crampons, ate some of my Dave's Killer Bread Sin Dawg for breakfast, and was ready to go when we all assembled just before 3. We left camp at 3:05 with Amy reminding us that we would keeping a slow but steady pace all the way up the mountain.
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| Our route up Avalanch Gulch |
Our first leg was to climb up to "The Heart" which is a large rock outcropping starting at 11,500 feet or so. As we climbed, one of climb members became very nauseous and though she tried to keep climb, she made the decision to around and return to camp before the climb would become to steep where another climber would have to go with her. The rest of us felt fine and continued climbing.
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| Through the chutes of Red Banks |
At "The Heart" we took a sharp turn to the east and headed up to "Red Banks" at 12,800 feet. "Red Banks" is a large stretch of rock that is much lighter in color than the rest of the mountain. At the base of "Red Banks," there is a steep chute which we needed to ascend before we would plateau out 13,200 feet. The 7 of us made our way up the chute and then at the top, we had our first views of Misery Hill. Misery Hill is an old volcanic cone that we would have to ascend before crossing another plateau to the summit block. We took a break before heading up Misery Hill, but once we started going, I had a really tough time. I was totally zapped. I don't know if it was the heat from the previous day, a lack of sleep, hydration issues, or the altitude. I wasn't sure if I could make it, but Amy kept that slow and steady pace as she had all morning, and we all made it to the top of the hill where we saw the summit block ahead of us.
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| Summit block of Mt. Shasta |
We crossed a snowfield and made a short ascent to the base of the summit block. We kick stepped our way until finally we reached the summit at 8:30am. We gave each other high fives and took some summit photos. There were probably 20 other people on the summit when we arrived. The winds were sustained from 15-25 miles per hour from the base of Misery Hill up to the summit, so we didn't stay long.
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| Group summit shot |
We headed back down the mountain. When we back to the chute through Red Banks, we downclimbed using self belays. Quite a few people were still coming up. We passed a guy and his girlfriend who were climbing up without ice axes and helmets and the girlfriend was complaining about the climb. I thought to myself that even if the two of them made it back down the mountain safely, I'm not sure that their relationship would last much longer.
Once below Red Banks, we were able to glissade down along the Heart. The glissades were fast because of the sleep slope of the route. Once below the Heart, we glissaded all the way down to camp and arrived there right at noon. Although we had initially planned to stay a second night at Helen Lake, it was early enough where we all knew we should just pack up right after lunch. At 2:00pm, we were all packed up and we continued down the mountain. We only had one glissade chute that petered out above 50/50 flat because the snow was so soft. We tried other glissade chutes with little or no luck. But, we still made good time down to Horse Camp and then after a break at Horse Camp, finished our hike out arriving back at the trailhead at 4:30pm. We ate some salty snacks, congratulated each other, packed up our cars, and drove off. Since it would be dangerous to drive 6 hours back to Portland after this climb due to all our lack of sleep, a decision was made to drive to Medford and stay overnight at a hotel. We arrived in Medford around 6:30pm. We checked in, took showers, and then had a nice casual dinner where Amy passed out our summit certificates We woke up the next day, had breakfast, and returned to Portland, arriving in the late afternoon.
Many thanks to our climb leader Amy, and our other climbers, Amy, Bianca, Noelle, Gary, Brian, and Bridget for a really fun time. It was a great climb!
All of my photos from the trip can be seen here:
Mt. Shasta photo album
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