Last Saturday I headed off to Shasta again to give Clear Creek route a go. I’ve descended the route before but hadn’t made a proper ascent of it. Ian initially waived off joining me, much preferring snow to talus and scree, but ultimately couldn’t turn down joining up to knock another route off. It was also a bit of a momentous occasion, being his first dayhike of the peak (from the lowest trailhead too) and my last of the major routes on the mountain. So now I’m left to tick off countless variations of every route.
Clear Creek spring was nicely surrounded by flowers and grasses.
View of the route from the lower bit of the ridge at sunrise. Shastama Point is at the far left and Thumb Rock barely visible near the center. You can see the trail here is pretty decent.
Ian and the unnamed point next to Shastama.
Working our way up the use trail. The conditions were excellent, and we didn’t find it to be tedious at all.
Looking back down with Mud Creek Canyon on the right.
Shastarama Point and Mud Creek Glacier on the left, Thumb Rock and Konwakiton in the upper right.
Summit plateau and upper Whitney Glacier from near the summit. I tried an alternate and more direct route up the summit, but it didn’t go without getting solid fourth class with wickedly loose 80 pound rocks for handholds.
A couple of summit poses.
And a very quick scree descent. We took our sweet time coming down and I think it was still just under 3.5 hours from summit to car.
Me taking off…
Looking back at the route.
All in all it was a splendid day, much more enjoyable than I had anticipated based on fall accounts I have read. I was very pleased Ian was able to join. Also seems like most folks are taking this route now as opposed to Avalanche Gulch. If you pick the right locations I think Shasta is a great destination year round… this was also the 11th different month I’ve visited the summit (lacking only December now), and some of the best trips have been the September, October, and November outings.