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June 23, 2006
My Mt. Shasta Ascent
Smack! It felt like a 100 mile an hour pitch that hit me square in the thigh. I looked up the slope to see other ice rocks and debris rolling in my direction. I was in a game of Frogger!
This is the story of my recent solo ascent of Mt. Shasta. I decided to head up to Shasta at the last minute on Tuesday afternoon. I hit the road by 8pm and I was at the Bunny Flats parking lot by 12:30. I organized my pack and signed the appropriate summit permits before spreading out my sleeping bag in the back of my truck for a couple hours rest.
The parking lot had a decent number of cars. Not sure how many other were also sleeping but I did see a few people's headlamps vigoursly moving around getting ready in the dark. A few climbers heading out at 12:30 just after I arrived. I briefly thought about doing the same, but opted for a little rest first.
I woke at 3:30 to my phone alarm and ate a banana and drank some Gatorade before hitting the trail. It wasn’t very cold out and the moon was only about 1/3 full bit still lit the trail pretty well. I was the only one as far as I can tell that was heading out. No lights in front and none in back. I had never been to Shasta before so heading up a trail in the darkness not knowing what was in front of me, trail conditions, landmarks anything at all was a bit weird. I could however make out the glowing white silhouette of Mt.. Shasta in front of me as I climbed out of the Bunny Flats canyon.
At about 7am I reached Helen Lake. This is one of the locations climbers camp when making a summit attempt. Looking up the slope in front of me I saw what looked like a snow slope dotted with rocks, upon close inspection they were actually climbers! There must have been about 20 climbers all along the length of the slope. I began climbing still with my trekking poles but about an hour up became too steep to continue. I switched out my poles for my ice axe and put on my crampons then pushed on.
I passed a climber here and there. Groups of two or three mostly. Howdy! I think I said Howdy about 4 dozen times that day. About half 3/4 of the way up the main Avalanche Gulch from Helen Lake to Red Banks I stopped at a rock outcropping where a groups of about 6 others were resting as well. Turns out they were all from northern California and the Marin Sonoma areas as well. After a bit of chit chat I continued on. This is where the falling debris really started top get bad. I couldn’t tell if it was from the high winds or if climbers up ahead were dislodging ice and rock. Luckily I had my helmet on as I took a few decent rocks in the noggin. But the one that really left a mark literally came out of nowhere, no sound no warning and then SMACK! Square on my right thigh. Wow it smarted! Smarted like a slap or a punch. Nothing that would force me to stop or drop to the ground, but stung enough that I had to drop to one kneee to shake it off.. After swearing a bit, I pressed on, now keeping my head up slope most of the time. Once in a while I would see a piece of gear go flying by. Bottle parka, stuff sack, etc…
I reached an area called Red Banks and I rounded it to the right and then traversed to the base of Misery Hill. Up an over Misery hill which was like two slope segments, after climbing both you think (or at least wish) you were at the top. Once over Misery it was a flat crossing over I guess what was once the cone to the last climb up a small switch back to a collection of jagged rock spires and finally the summit! I reached the summit just before 11am PST where I signed the log book and another climber offered to take my photo. After he left I was the only one on the summit. I soaked it in for a minute or two and then started back.
Now I was looking forward to the descent because I was planning to glissade down the long steep slopes. Welp I tried that but as soon as I sat in one of the already established glissading chutes apparently from the previous days climbers I was off like a rocket! Way too fast to maintain control. So I scrambled to my feet again and put my crampons back on and painfully made my way back down to Helen Lake Camp. Once down I removed the crampons again and was able to glissade the rolling hills down to the camp at Horse Camp. At about 1pm the snow was very slushy and mash potato like it was tough to walk on. I was back at my car at 2pm.
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Posted by adoti at June 23, 2006 01:36 AM
