New Climber, Simple Mistake on Avalanche Gulch
UPDATE***
I finally finished the video of our climb. Hope you enjoy!
Mount Shasta Climb
For about the past 4 years, I have have felt a steady pull to the mountains, but have only recently made a commitment to get into climbing. This is quite a big commitment when you consider family, kids, job, money, travel, etc!
I decided that I wanted a taste of altitude, but also ensure that the route is appropriate for a new climber. (In this case, 2 new climbers), so I settled on Mount Shasta's Avalanche Gulch route due to a more reliable and predictable access than Adams.
After about 6 months of planning, I got on a flight last wednesday in Nashville, TN ----> West Coast Bound! I met my buddy Steve, also a novice climber, and we hit the road north towards Shasta.
We stopped into Shasta Base Camp to pick up our rental gear, and unfortunately received some conflicting information about route conditions and whether or not we would need snow shoes. (Please note, I in no way blame the guys at SBC - this was pure and simple a rookie mistake).
Given a late start (approximately noon) with no snowshoes and warm temperatures, many of you can probably predict what happened next. 6 straight hours of post-holing in calf to knee deep snow just to get almost to 50/50. This was the most exhausting thing I have ever done, not to mention discouraging to have worked so hard and made so little altitude gain. We finally set up camp at just under 9,000 feet and decided to rest for an early start. I have since been told that having to move through snow like that is extremely tough for anyone. Making camp was a fun, new experience and I probably went overboard anchoring the tent in anticipation of the 40kn winds expected that night.
The next morning, we were both still very tired from the ridiculous effort of the previous day, but crawled out of the tent around 6 AM and began the hike up on very firm snow into a cold wind.
I felt very strong and refreshed (and completely relieved that the previous days futile efforts weren't a direct reflection on my abilities) and I climbed 1500' feet in about 75 minutes, but my buddy was getting smaller and smaller in my "rearview". A few minutes later, a skier hiking up came past me. He asked if that was the rest of my "team" lower on the mountain, to which he commented "He's done, just so ya know".
At this point I was feeling very strong still, and wanted to continue a push for the summit, but unfortunately we were unable to communicate, so I sat down just under Helen and waited for him. By the time he got to me, he was completely exhausted and did not have a desire to continue, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I was sending him back down by himself.
Although his effort was great, we both could have done a better job of getting in climbing shape. At this point, it was going to be at least 7 hours roundtrip to the summit and probably more like 8 or 9, so I begrudgingly made the decision to head back to camp and pack up. We also wanted to get down before the snow got soft again. We glissaded back down to camp and practiced self arrest, which was one of the highlights of the trip.
Overall, this was a great experience, and I was completely blown away by the size of Shasta. It is so impressive in person, and absolutely incredible to look at.
I can't wait to go back, and apply these hard lessons I have learned to my next climb.
Oh, and for the record, Sterno "canned fuel" does NOT work well for heating or melting snow. I do not recommend it for anyone, even though I was told by multiple people it would work.
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