I spent Memorial Day weekend down in Mount Shasta California with my family and my good friend and his wife. The trip included a successful summit of Mt Shasta, great eating, a little bit of sight seeing, and plenty of relaxation.
Unfortunately, the trip began pretty rough with a 24hr sickness my wife suffered. I came home early from work on Wednesday to take care of the kids while she rested. I came into the house to 3 little girls sitting around a couple cartons of ice cream! The baby gate to the pantry was torn down and there was a stool in there for someone to reach a high shelf to pull down some bags and coffee filters. Coffee filters were placed everywhere in the house. They wreaked havoc elsewhere in the house and I'll stop to keep this brief. Wow! I regret not taking a few pictures to laugh about when they're older! I also discovered that we had booked the vacation rental home for Thursday through Monday (booked in early April) and we were planning on leaving on Friday morning! Not sure how I goofed on the dates, but we ended up leaving at 11pm on Wednesday and drove all night and arrived in town at 7:30am to eat breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Mount Shasta. It actually was a pleasant surprise to go on vacation a day early. My productivity at work wasn't too great anyways with my excitement of the vacation :) Anyways, we ate a hearty breakfast at the diner and then drove up to Bunny Flats to scope out the trailhead and pickup the climbing fee envelopes. We drove back down and went to see if the house was ready. We arrived at the house too soon and went back into town to kill some more time. Then I noticed a clanging noise under the car. Discovered that a rear shock was broke! Fortunately there was a Les Schwab in town and we were able to get it fixed free of charge (warranty repair).
The woes of the beginning of the trip were now OVER. We checked into the house at 1pm and were amazed. The description on the Internet didn't do justice to this place. We had rented a two bedroom fully furnished home with a nice deck looking directly at Mount Shasta. The house was on a 3 acre farm with goats & chickens and a little creek flowing through it. The animals kept the kids entertained. The goats were fun and never seemed to stop eating whatever weeds you stuck through the fence. We enjoyed all the fresh eggs we could eat.
Thursday was very sunny, but unusually cold and the mountain was the only thing hiding behind some clouds. The next day the mountain was perfectly clear and Preston and I were very excited to get on the trail.
Here's the details of the climb...
5/25/13: We left Bunny Flats trailhead at 8 AM (Elev. 6,950ft). We climbed up to Helen Lake (Elev 10,450ft) and arrived at 11:30am. Preston and I were fully rested that morning and climbed at 1,000ft/hr which is a pretty good pace. We setup camp and started boiling snow to refill our water and to cook our Mountain House meals (Chicken and Rice...mmmm). Considering our fast pace to basecamp and our high energy levels, we considered going for the summit that afternoon and descending all the way to the car by headlamp.
We decided to take a 2hr nap and decide on the summit at that point. We awoke at 2pm and consulted the ranger and he advised us not to. He said clouds were rolling in and would stay thru the evening. He told us that a perfect weather window was coming in the late evening thru 11 am the next day. Sure enough, the clouds came in that afternoon so we just milled around camp until about 6pm. One of the other parties was descending to base camp that day and discovered a mouse had pooped all over their cooking pots and he was still around under their tent. After about 10 minutes, we got the mouse to run away from the tent and he met his fate. We tossed his body down the moraine to discourage other mice from entering camp (haha). After hearing the ranger talk about "leave no trace" for the 5th time and his passion for packing out poop, we decided it was time to get horizontal and rest up for the summit climb.
5/26/13
We awoke at 1 am to beautiful clear skies and a full moon. The temp was 20 deg. with no wind. I had cell service, so I made a video to send to my wife. Breakfast consisted of a muffin, candy bar, and some Sante Fe spicy trailmix. My clothing layers were long johns, Mt Hardwear soft shell pants, white Columbia shirt, black first ascent hoodie, Acts 2:38 fleece ;) , REI Shuksan hard shell, Mountain Hardear gloves and a Buff (great product from REI).
A guy named Greg asked to climb with us because his other climbing partners were sick from the altitude. We agreed and had a moment of prayer before our departure. We left base camp at 2:15 am. We climbed quickly to 11,800 ft and realized I was missing a glove (DOH!!). I told the guys to take a quick break while I went to see where I dropped my glove. I used my GPS to stay on my tracks and ended up descending 450 ft and found my glove. I huffed it back up and threw my backpack on and we kept climbing. No break for me due to my carelessness. We continued to climb up avalanche gulch and stayed to the right of the Heart. Directly above the right side of the heart was a chimney that was currently the main route and recommended by the ranger. We ascended to the top of the chimney and the little hill to 13,200 ft. This leg of the journey was the steepest part of the whole climb. The temps dropped to 10 deg and winds increased to 30 MPH. I stopped and put on more layers (all of them!). I had a balaclava on the hoodie, mt hardwear beanie, and covered my face with my buff. Then I put on my Mountain Hardwear parka and took off my helmet because the rockfall danger was gone. That was the coldest climbing conditions I've been in. I wasn't getting sweaty or too warm climbing in my parka. The experience of climbing in this cold was very insightful since I always pack these extra layers, but I never have to use them. I was very comfortable in these layers so I know I could withstand even colder temperatures.
The steepest part do the climb was over now and we were now at the base of Misery Hill. Misery Hill is a gentle slope that ascends about 600 ft to the summit plateau. The long slog and the altitude makes it miserable. The altitude was starting to get to me as far as my wind. Just walking across the flat plateau was exhausting. The summit was a ~100ft tall rock at the end of a ridge line. The trail continued past the summit and cuts back along the ridge for a gentle climb up to the summit. I arrived at 7am and sounded my joyful "summit time baby!" cheer. I looked down from the summit and watched Preston and Greg approach the summit. We enjoyed the summit taking pictures and I was able to make a few phone calls. I was even able to have a FaceTime call. We began the descent at 8am and arrived back to base camp by 10:20am. The snow was still hard and glissading was not very fun. It was rough on our backsides and gear.
The clouds were rolling in just as predicted. Many climbers were headed into those clouds. We were very blessed to have had such a perfect weather window for climbing. We packed up camp and left about 11am back to the trailhead. Arrived at bunny flats at 1:15pm. From about 8:30am all the way to the trailhead, a steady stream of climbers were ascending the mountain. I would estimate 300 climbers were going up that Saturday morning. I couldn't have asked for a better climbing experience. We avoided the crowds and nailed the best weather window during the whole holiday weekend. Wow! Thank you Jesus.
We made the quick drive back to the house and showered up before going out to dinner to our traditional Mexican meal. The rest of the trip consisted of a trip to the annual mushroom festival. An unusual theme, but really it was just like any other festival but with a few mushroom booths and lawn ornaments. We had a BBQ Sunday evening and I consumed 2 of the tastiest burgers known to planet Earth. We finely chopped up a package of bacon and mixed it into the hamburger. This resulted in fire hazard on the grill, but it put a nice crunch to the outside of the burger trapping in the moisture for a very tasty juicy burger. Topped it with bacon, and bacon grease fried onion, and the usual lettuce tomato and condiments. Probably the most unhealthy thing I've consumed, but when you've climbed a 14,000 ft mountain you can get away with eating like that a little bit.
What a trip. What bummer to return to the real world of alarm clocks, demanding bosses, deadlines, & house chores!
Thanks for reading.
We made the quick drive back to the house and showered up before going out to dinner to our traditional Mexican meal. The rest of the trip consisted of a trip to the annual mushroom festival. An unusual theme, but really it was just like any other festival but with a few mushroom booths and lawn ornaments. We had a BBQ Sunday evening and I consumed 2 of the tastiest burgers known to planet Earth. We finely chopped up a package of bacon and mixed it into the hamburger. This resulted in fire hazard on the grill, but it put a nice crunch to the outside of the burger trapping in the moisture for a very tasty juicy burger. Topped it with bacon, and bacon grease fried onion, and the usual lettuce tomato and condiments. Probably the most unhealthy thing I've consumed, but when you've climbed a 14,000 ft mountain you can get away with eating like that a little bit.
What a trip. What bummer to return to the real world of alarm clocks, demanding bosses, deadlines, & house chores!
Thanks for reading.
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