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| Darren9 | Adventurous Route  Date Climbed: May 27, 2009 | |
| In a training climb for Rainier, my two companions and I climbed this route late May, takinmg three days total. We 4x4ed in to the Bolam/Whitney trailhead on the first day and ascended to the glacier. The "trail" up to the Whitney Glacier is unsigned, braided, and confusing. It begins following a washed out creek but quickly disintegrates from there. It was difficult to get to the toe of the glacier at about 10,000 ft - we ended up having to bushwhack through the trees, over a lots of lava rock, and worst of all, lots of manzanita. Even on the way down having some understanding of the way to go, we discovered there really is no one continuous pathway to follow, at least that we could find - only a series of half used paths, animals trails and guesses. If you take this route, be prepared with excellent map and compass skills as you will be traveling off-trail most of the time following significant features and using compass bearings. Make your own decisions where you need to go and stick to it. Still, that being said, if you just keep going you will get there eventually. Allocate about 6 hours both ways to and from high camp. We camped just at the lower part of the glacier in the moraines in the ablation zone around 10K and were grateful for the snow on the route that helped all the way up and down. Surprisingly, there was a pool of meltwater at our site. The route itself was in great shape, no yawning crevasses to skirt this time of year, but plenty of evidence that they are there. We climbed essentially in the center of the glacier the whole way and had no problems. We left camp at 6 am and summitted before noon. Interesting side note, on another moraine close by we found a piece of crumpled aluminum, painted white and green, that must have been from an airplane or a helicopter crash. This is an adventurous route, probably the best glacier / "big mountain" experience on Shasta. The scenery is superb and you can expect some solitude. | |
| Posted Jun 8, 2009 1:47 am | ||
| MtnLdr | High Winds!!! Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2000 | |
| Lost two tentfulls of gear, but otherwise a great trip (afterwards.) Marines insist on taking everything but the kitchen sink, so packs probably weighed in at around 70-80 pounds to base camp. Had alot of fun diving into crevasses. Would love to go back some day! | |
| Posted Nov 17, 2007 11:16 am | ||
| Sam Page | Summit rockfall Date Climbed: Jun 10, 2002 | |
| I climbed this with the CMC. We camped for two nights on the moraine. Our official team leader was struck by rockfall just below the summit block and was helicoptered away. This meant that the four of us who remained had to divy up her gear for the slog back. | |
| Posted Jul 10, 2006 10:19 pm | ||
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California Cascades
