Sunday July 29, 2007

Mt Shasta summit (14100 feet tall volcanic mountain) The climb to Mt. Shasta was fun and very tough when we reached above 10000 feet level. There are no trails. You have to create your own path or rely on footprint on snow. We had initially planned to climb from Avalanche Gulch – John Muir Route (Regular Route) via Bunny Flat Trailhead but had to cancel because there were large number of rock falls after Helen Lake. After consulting with Rangers, we decided to climb the mountain from Clear Creek side. This is what the official website had to say when we climbed it and I quote "Clear Creek Trailhead: The route is in poor shape and involves 5000 ft. of scree scrambling. Crampons and an ice axe should be brought with you even if only for a short section above 13,200 ft. Carry and know how to use a map and compass to avoid getting lost. There is no trail to the summit - the official trail ends around 8500 ft. where the route begins. Water is running at the standard high camp (8500 ft.). Please make sure to camp at least 200 feet away from the springs/creek.". The date of our climb was 22nd July. Our group had nine people and six people managed to summit the peak. One of the group member lost its way down and had to be rescued next morning. The climb was started at 3.00 am (we had to get up at 2.00 am and it was painful). The first batch of two people summit the peak at 8.45 am and next batch of two people at 9.15 am. Sumanth and I didn't take the boulder route and decided to go over snow over the glacier table on the right. Molly and Ankur were the first to summit the peak and Molly finished the climb & descend by 12.00 noon which was remarkably fast. I was having little problem with crampon boots as they were hitting my toe on the way down and manged to come down from the mountain at 3.15 pm.

The base camp was established at 8250 feet and we waited for Nick and Ankur until 6.00 pm on 22nd July when we decided to come down to trailhead (3 miles from the base camp). It was 8.30 pm when we hit I-5 freeway and returned home at 2.00 am on 23rd July. The albums can be found here. I didn't carry my camera because of dust and chance of falling down.
(2007-07-29 11:08:22.0) Permalink