On Thursday, May 20, I headed down to Mt. Shasta along with five other climbers. Kent and Steve drove, and Amy, Adam, John and I were the passengers. It took us about nine hours to make our way from Steve's house in Des Moines to the lovely town of Mt. Shasta just south of the mountain. We stopped a few times on the way down to get gas, eat lunch, and check out the northface outlet just south of Portland.
On Thursday night, all of us met up for dinner at a local italian restaurant. Although I knew most of our group of 17 climbers, there were still a few new faces to meet. After a few beers at the local beer place called The Goat, we were off to bed in preparation for breakfast and gear check early the next morning.After a nice breakfast and a last look at the mountain before the clouds rolled in, we converged on the Fifth Season to meet our guides, separate into smaller groups, and do a final gear check and group gear dispersal. My group consisted of five climbers -- Amy, Denise, Bob, John, and myself, along with our two guides, Kevin and Andrew. Then, it was a short car ride to the Bunny Flat trailhead, elevation 6900 feet. By this time, it was snowing. Not the b
est of conditions, but better than rain!
est of conditions, but better than rain!We started hiking a bit before noon. We arrived at Horse Camp a bit more than an hour later. Horse camp is at an elevation of about 8000 feet and surrounded by trees. There is also a cabin owned by the Sierra Club that is open to everyone. Horse Camp was completely covered with snow, and the cabin was still buried almost up to the roof.
We set up our tents (in the process disocovering that one of our two tents was missing two poles), and then did "snow school," practicing self arrest, rope walking, and general climbing skil
ls. The wind and snow continued, and eventually we went back to our tents to escape the weather and warm up. We braved the elements for dinner, then walked over to the cabin to hang out with the rest of our Climb to Fight Breast Cancer teammates. I also hooked up with a friend of mine from last year's Kilimanjaro climb. Dean lives in San Francisco, and when he heard I was climbing Shasta, he decided to climb it with a friend of his on the same schedule as our climb. It was a nice treat.
ls. The wind and snow continued, and eventually we went back to our tents to escape the weather and warm up. We braved the elements for dinner, then walked over to the cabin to hang out with the rest of our Climb to Fight Breast Cancer teammates. I also hooked up with a friend of mine from last year's Kilimanjaro climb. Dean lives in San Francisco, and when he heard I was climbing Shasta, he decided to climb it with a friend of his on the same schedule as our climb. It was a nice treat.
Day 2 started out with sun, although it was mighty cold. We took our time climbing to our high camp at Lake Helen, 10,400 feet. We didn't see any lake at the camp, just lots of snow. High camp is located at the base of a 2000 foot slope which is the ramp to the summit. It can get very windy. The night before we were there, the rangers said that gusts reached 70 mph.
Because of the concern for wind, we dug way into the snow to create high walls around the tents. It was a good thing we did. The digging kept us warm as we were doing it, and kept us from being blown away that night.
Right before dinner, the snow started and the temperatures plummeted. At one point, ther
e was a complete whiteout. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was snowing hard. We quickly ate dinner and crawled into our tents to warm up. Fingers and toes were crossed in hopes that the weather would improve so we would be able to make our summit bid early the next morning.
We were supposed to wake up at 2:30 or 3 am to head for the summit at 5. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Our guides elected not to wake us up until 5. They told us that it was really cold. If we wanted to head up, wear. Couldn't say whether we'd be able to summit, but we would get as high as we could.
e was a complete whiteout. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was snowing hard. We quickly ate dinner and crawled into our tents to warm up. Fingers and toes were crossed in hopes that the weather would improve so we would be able to make our summit bid early the next morning.We were supposed to wake up at 2:30 or 3 am to head for the summit at 5. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Our guides elected not to wake us up until 5. They told us that it was really cold. If we wanted to head up, wear. Couldn't say whether we'd be able to summit, but we would get as high as we could.
We put on our warm clothes, dug out our boots and packs from the 2 feet of new snow that had come into our rainfly during the night, and got ready to climb. As we were doing this, the wind picked up once again. I knew what was coming. The guides came back around and said we weren't climbing. We were bummed, but understood the reas
on for the call.
As we headed back down to our cars, the weather looked beautiful. As we moved below Helen Lake, the wind subsided. It looked so innocuous. But we made the right call. Temperatures were -1, wind was 20-30 mph, and wind chill was -26. Although I wanted to summit, I wanted to be safe and have fun. We all did have fun, and we all w
on for the call.
ere safe. The mountain will be there next year. I look forward to challenging myself again next year, and hopefully the weather will be with us. One positive aspect from the shorter hike on Sunday was that we had more time to hang out at the Goat for post climb celebrations. Much fun was had by all at the Goat. Beer, burgers, and tshirts were the big ticket items that afternoon and evening. Small tshirts.
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