Mermorial Day Shasta Trip Report
Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:30 amMy buddy Anthony and I climbed Shasta this past weekend. It was his first 14er and he summited on his first try. This was my 3rd time on the mountain-the first 2 attempts resulting in failure for various reasons not within my control: one trip a party member became ill with severe AMS and I had to solo-escort him and all his gear down, the other--a solo trip because my partner flaked last minute-- I was turned back by t-storms at Helen Lake right at the end of the season when the last of the snow had melted out. Defeated by Mother Nature, I had to wait 7 months for another shot.
This year the snow-pack was at 150% and we had a beautiful 2 days with clear skies and light winds. It hadn't occurred to us, until we started seeing cars lined down Everett Memorial WELL before the parking lot, that Memorial Day would turn Mt. Shasta into Disney Land. We took Green Butte Ridge and cut over towards the top of Avy Gultch to avoid the circus; I counted at least 60 people heading up the Gulch for the Summit. Some shit for brains teenager with no sense of self-preservation rode an inner tube down a super low-angle slope on Green Butte from about 11k ft with snow shoes on his feet--probably hit 50 miles an hour all the way to 50/50 before he cheese grated and didn't move for about 5 minutes.
I've climbed several peaks in the High Sierra and done a lot of more technical ice/rock/mixed stuff at lower altitude, but it felt good to finally climb Shasta after several failures.
The specs are people
welcome to mountaineering Anthony. hahaha
This year the snow-pack was at 150% and we had a beautiful 2 days with clear skies and light winds. It hadn't occurred to us, until we started seeing cars lined down Everett Memorial WELL before the parking lot, that Memorial Day would turn Mt. Shasta into Disney Land. We took Green Butte Ridge and cut over towards the top of Avy Gultch to avoid the circus; I counted at least 60 people heading up the Gulch for the Summit. Some shit for brains teenager with no sense of self-preservation rode an inner tube down a super low-angle slope on Green Butte from about 11k ft with snow shoes on his feet--probably hit 50 miles an hour all the way to 50/50 before he cheese grated and didn't move for about 5 minutes.
I've climbed several peaks in the High Sierra and done a lot of more technical ice/rock/mixed stuff at lower altitude, but it felt good to finally climb Shasta after several failures.
The specs are people
welcome to mountaineering Anthony. hahaha
