Mount Shasta 2003

Detail
Tuesday Jun 10th, 2003
After getting gear at the Fifth Season, Wedge and I headed to the town of Weed to crash. We decided to stay at Weed instead of Mount Shasta city because we heard the price was better. The Sis-Q-Inn was $66 per night which seemed fine. The woman at the front desk spoke very rapidly and with a strange accent—she was nearly incomprehensible. After securing the room, we headed to Taco Bell for dinner.

The clock was set for 1:30am. I read a chapter of Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; then, I fell asleep around 7:30pm. Although I dozed a bit, I didn't sleep well. 11:30pm came rapidly and, being restless, I got up and went outside to check the conditions. It was a reasonably pleasant evening: cool and clear. I jumped into the shower to wake up, and we soon headed to the trailhead. We left the hotel at 12:10am.

Wednesday Jun 11th, 2003
Acquiring permits and donning gear took longer than I had expected. Wedge and I initiated our climb at 1:24am. Through hearsay, a ranger suggested leaving sometime between midnight and 2:00am; so, we were set.

The moonlight made the trail easy to follow without our headlamps. The temperature was cool—almost cold—but we received occasional blasts of warm air coming down from the mountain. The initial grade was pretty easy.

The moon set behind us in a blaze of orange at 3:00am. This left only meager starlight to illuminate the way. It was time to light our headlamps. An hour later we saw the first vestiges of twilight which dispelled our gloom. The first rays of sunlight hit the mountains behind us and to our right well before we reached Helen Lake. In fact, while resting at Helen Lake I was becoming cold and desired to press forth, but, once the rays of the sun hit me, I was content to stay put.

A half hour later, we commenced the steepest part of our journey. Wedge told me that there is nothing greater than 30 degrees inclination on the Avalanche Gulch trail, but this was hard to believe from what I saw. I found that using the tracks of previous climbers was the most efficient way to ascend, whereas Wedge preferred to climb on virgin snow. The weather was perfect: the sky was clear, the sun was bright, and there was little wind. Fortunately I slathered on the Bullfrog sunblock or I might have been severely sunburned. As it was, my arms were glowing red from exposure, and the hairs were stiff and white.

Every so often, a small rock would jettison from above and spin furiously down the hill. One rock was so close and so fast that I could hear it whine as it went by. Having one hit you would, to say the least, suck.

The journey was slow. I could take perhaps ten or twelve steps; then I needed to stop to catch my breath. In the distance I saw what deceptively appeared to be a rock ledge, ideal for a rest. This turned out to be the "Thumb." I was a few hundred feet away from Redbanks when Wedge called it quits. I had predetermined to turn back should Wedge turned back; so, I started the precarious descent to where he was.

From our vantage, descending on foot would be far difficult and dangerous. Glissading was on the agenda. Glissading is defined as a controlled slide. You sit on your butt, use your feet to steer, and use your ice axe as a brake. Several channels existed where prior person had gone down the mountain. Wedge, having just taken a mountaineering course, gave me a 5-minute synopsis. The steepness of the hill left me a bit wary; so, I let Wedge go first. I was about to put on my long underwear, but a group of five persons appeared above me who were coming down. Wedge was already half way to Helen Lake, so I decided to risk a cold bum. This turned out to be no risk at all—my butt was numb cold.

Glissading was enormously fun. Wedge and I partook on any available glissade channel. Perhaps on another journey I might try snowboarding.

Back at the car, I started feeling ill. I drank lots of water and ate a peanut butter sandwich, but the abrupt changes in altitude/pressure started taking its toll. Fortunately, Wedge drove back. The first stop was the Fifth Season to return gear; then we drove the long stretch back to Copco House.

Reaching Copco House, JD brought out his camera to document the end of our expedition. I gave him a fistful of fine snow that had lodged itself in my pack. I was too tired to take a shower, so I crashed hard. I felt worse when I woke up, but took a shower. Soon, I started feeling a bit better.

See some images of the trip.