Jay H
New member
Mt Shasta via Avalanche Gulch
Hi folks, originally this was the proposed beginning of this year's west coast exploration trip as organized by Guiness, except that a bunch of us went out early to hike Mt Whitney and also Boundary Peak. TMax and I got to Mt Shasta City one day early with plans to meet Guinness and Giggy at the Cold Creek Inn not far from the road to Bunny Flats. The extra day turned out to be a great idea because I was recovering from an illness or perhaps altitude sickness on Whitney which meant I was an unknown factor. I didn't hike up Boundary due to it and frankly, didn't know I would be abl to do Shasta but because Tmax and I had an extra day, we spent that day doing a dayhike from Bunny Flats (6980') and hiked past Horse Camp up to about 8500'. We were able to talk to some climbers coming down and also do some scouting of the route. There is a nice cold spring at Horse Camp which is owned and operated by the Sierra Club with some solar composting toilets there. Good beta for us to know.
This initial hike at least told me that I was feeling OK, about 80%, still had a moderate cough but none of the fatique I had on Whitney/BP. So, knowing I was good to go, we stopped by The Fifth Season to resupply, kill some time, oggle gear/maps, etc. Mt Shasta City seems to still be a very hippie kind of town, natural food stores, various granola kind of places, etc. etc. A neat city to wander around in and a nice little downtown area.
So, after meeting up with Giggy and Guinness at the inn, and a good dinner at a nearby restaurant, we prepare for a morning hike to Lake Helen (10,500'). The mtn can be climbed as a dayhike but most folks spend a 1/2 day at either 50/50 camp or better yet, Lake Helen, which is supposedly an actual lake in late summer. It would be all snow when we got there. We got a mid morning start, around 9amish for the gradual climb. The trail starts out as a dirt path until you get to Horse Camp (7800') and then you get to a rock causeway and first start to see any significant snow. Hikers can chose to hike up the west side of the gully itself passing through 50/50 camp or straight up the gully directly to Lake Helen. We chose to hike the rocks/scree as there was an already broken footpath there and it was off the soft snow.
Getting to Lake Helen, we set up tents, melt water, prepare dinner and for an early sleep for the midnight start. You're faced with about a 2300' climb right from Lake Helen to get to the Red Banks and the first ridge on Shasta. It's steep and fairly relentless and seems to go on forever. Not many places to stop and sit. In fact, at one point, while I was about 200' in front of Giggy and Tmax, I went to drink out of my Nalgene and the bottle slipped out of my hand, only to fall into a glissading chute I was following up. Instantly, it is rocketing down towards Tmax and Guy. I yell out, "Watch out for water bottle!" I watch the bottle careen at high speed down the chute.. Somehow, it managed to stop itself in a hole just below where Tmax was. (Fortunately, they weren't hiking up the chute itself. As an aside, on the way down, I saw people hiking up the chute and thought to myself. That is not a good way to climb because rocks can also get caught into the chute and the 40deg angle, they can pick up some serious speed and do serious damage if you're in the way.) Tmax spotted my fallen bottle and I think gave it to Giggy to carry up. I never knew all of this, I assumed my bottle is probably way back down at Helen Lake and I wasn't about to downclimb it to fetch it, knowing I still had another 32oz nalgene cantene filled to the brim and a 20oz Gatorade bottle. I figured I'd look for it on the way down. Climbing up the snow, it felt like it would never end. I'd get to the level of Heart Rock and it never seemed to get any higher! But eventually, I saw Thumb Rock which is this prominent rock at about 12'800 on the ridge. It becomes scree at this point and I took my crampons off and settled in to wait for Tmax and Giggy to come up. I was feeling good but tired at this point and I knew I was feeling much better than on Whitney. At least I knew I could make the summit in my condition!
On the top of Red Banks, Giggy gave me my water bottle back which was a surprise to me! We got some nice photos of the sunrise which was pretty. and we geared up, ready for the next section. From this viewpoint, you can pick out the short traverse to a 200' climb and then Misery Hill above that.
Misery Hill is this switchbacked scree hill that climbs 400' to the point where you have a good view of the summit. You're almost there! Another traverse across mixed snow/scree you hit the summit cone where you have this steep sidehill of rocks, ice, and snow til you crest the cone and then you just have a short rock scramble to get to the summit register. Small summit area, enough for a 1/2 dozen to meander comfortably, with a nice viewpoint from a small rock outcropping 50ft past the register. A very nice summit, and worth the almost herculian effort to get there.
Giggy shows up shortly after and he is looking ragged. I'm sitting there trying not to cough up a fit. Seemingly, once I stop moving, my coughing returns so I'm sounding a lot worse than I feel. Tmax shows up and we all sit there, sign the register, take our usual summit shots and enjoy the views. It's about 7am, after a midnight start to climb the ~4000ft from Helen Lake. We wouldn't spend much time at the summit, Giggy saying he was a little nauseus after all, this is his first big mtn from leaving Boston. Tmax and I had the opportunity to at least have done Whitney, and for Tmax, Boundary Peak.
The way down was fairly uneventful, down Misery Hill back over to the Red Banks. We did take a different chute down than on the way up, a much more steep chute. Tmax and I tried to glissade a bit but the snow was way to hard and lots of ice. Too dangerous for my liking so we downclimbed it back to Helen lake. A few hours of chillin and socializing with the other climbers on the mtn before packing up and leaving. Get back down to the ranger station and congratulations all around for a good climb.
Pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/552595657saUsji
Jay
Hi folks, originally this was the proposed beginning of this year's west coast exploration trip as organized by Guiness, except that a bunch of us went out early to hike Mt Whitney and also Boundary Peak. TMax and I got to Mt Shasta City one day early with plans to meet Guinness and Giggy at the Cold Creek Inn not far from the road to Bunny Flats. The extra day turned out to be a great idea because I was recovering from an illness or perhaps altitude sickness on Whitney which meant I was an unknown factor. I didn't hike up Boundary due to it and frankly, didn't know I would be abl to do Shasta but because Tmax and I had an extra day, we spent that day doing a dayhike from Bunny Flats (6980') and hiked past Horse Camp up to about 8500'. We were able to talk to some climbers coming down and also do some scouting of the route. There is a nice cold spring at Horse Camp which is owned and operated by the Sierra Club with some solar composting toilets there. Good beta for us to know.
This initial hike at least told me that I was feeling OK, about 80%, still had a moderate cough but none of the fatique I had on Whitney/BP. So, knowing I was good to go, we stopped by The Fifth Season to resupply, kill some time, oggle gear/maps, etc. Mt Shasta City seems to still be a very hippie kind of town, natural food stores, various granola kind of places, etc. etc. A neat city to wander around in and a nice little downtown area.
So, after meeting up with Giggy and Guinness at the inn, and a good dinner at a nearby restaurant, we prepare for a morning hike to Lake Helen (10,500'). The mtn can be climbed as a dayhike but most folks spend a 1/2 day at either 50/50 camp or better yet, Lake Helen, which is supposedly an actual lake in late summer. It would be all snow when we got there. We got a mid morning start, around 9amish for the gradual climb. The trail starts out as a dirt path until you get to Horse Camp (7800') and then you get to a rock causeway and first start to see any significant snow. Hikers can chose to hike up the west side of the gully itself passing through 50/50 camp or straight up the gully directly to Lake Helen. We chose to hike the rocks/scree as there was an already broken footpath there and it was off the soft snow.
Getting to Lake Helen, we set up tents, melt water, prepare dinner and for an early sleep for the midnight start. You're faced with about a 2300' climb right from Lake Helen to get to the Red Banks and the first ridge on Shasta. It's steep and fairly relentless and seems to go on forever. Not many places to stop and sit. In fact, at one point, while I was about 200' in front of Giggy and Tmax, I went to drink out of my Nalgene and the bottle slipped out of my hand, only to fall into a glissading chute I was following up. Instantly, it is rocketing down towards Tmax and Guy. I yell out, "Watch out for water bottle!" I watch the bottle careen at high speed down the chute.. Somehow, it managed to stop itself in a hole just below where Tmax was. (Fortunately, they weren't hiking up the chute itself. As an aside, on the way down, I saw people hiking up the chute and thought to myself. That is not a good way to climb because rocks can also get caught into the chute and the 40deg angle, they can pick up some serious speed and do serious damage if you're in the way.) Tmax spotted my fallen bottle and I think gave it to Giggy to carry up. I never knew all of this, I assumed my bottle is probably way back down at Helen Lake and I wasn't about to downclimb it to fetch it, knowing I still had another 32oz nalgene cantene filled to the brim and a 20oz Gatorade bottle. I figured I'd look for it on the way down. Climbing up the snow, it felt like it would never end. I'd get to the level of Heart Rock and it never seemed to get any higher! But eventually, I saw Thumb Rock which is this prominent rock at about 12'800 on the ridge. It becomes scree at this point and I took my crampons off and settled in to wait for Tmax and Giggy to come up. I was feeling good but tired at this point and I knew I was feeling much better than on Whitney. At least I knew I could make the summit in my condition!
On the top of Red Banks, Giggy gave me my water bottle back which was a surprise to me! We got some nice photos of the sunrise which was pretty. and we geared up, ready for the next section. From this viewpoint, you can pick out the short traverse to a 200' climb and then Misery Hill above that.
Misery Hill is this switchbacked scree hill that climbs 400' to the point where you have a good view of the summit. You're almost there! Another traverse across mixed snow/scree you hit the summit cone where you have this steep sidehill of rocks, ice, and snow til you crest the cone and then you just have a short rock scramble to get to the summit register. Small summit area, enough for a 1/2 dozen to meander comfortably, with a nice viewpoint from a small rock outcropping 50ft past the register. A very nice summit, and worth the almost herculian effort to get there.
Giggy shows up shortly after and he is looking ragged. I'm sitting there trying not to cough up a fit. Seemingly, once I stop moving, my coughing returns so I'm sounding a lot worse than I feel. Tmax shows up and we all sit there, sign the register, take our usual summit shots and enjoy the views. It's about 7am, after a midnight start to climb the ~4000ft from Helen Lake. We wouldn't spend much time at the summit, Giggy saying he was a little nauseus after all, this is his first big mtn from leaving Boston. Tmax and I had the opportunity to at least have done Whitney, and for Tmax, Boundary Peak.
The way down was fairly uneventful, down Misery Hill back over to the Red Banks. We did take a different chute down than on the way up, a much more steep chute. Tmax and I tried to glissade a bit but the snow was way to hard and lots of ice. Too dangerous for my liking so we downclimbed it back to Helen lake. A few hours of chillin and socializing with the other climbers on the mtn before packing up and leaving. Get back down to the ranger station and congratulations all around for a good climb.
Pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/552595657saUsji
Jay
Last edited:
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