Robert had the opportunity to go with some friends and climb Mt. Shasta which is in Northern California at the southern end of the Cascades. It is 14,179 ft. high. Here's Roberts report of the trip.
Thursday, 5/12 - Awoke at 3:15AM. On the road by 4AM with two members of our ward. Drove 4 hours to Mt. Shasta City. Had a calorie-laden breakfast and rented some equipment for our climb. I was able to borrow almost all of the gear and supplies I needed from the leader of our hike who has four teenaged boys and for whom he purchased ice climbing gear over the past couple of years. My pack weighed between 45-50 pounds (1/3 of my body weight!). We got on the trail by 11AM and spent the entire day hiking. Our climb began at 6,900 feet and we eventually made it to 9,600 feet on Thursday. We began our hike today at the trailhead with snowshoes. Snowshoed for about 2.5 miles over relatively flat terrain. Then the terrain became more elevated. Spent the next three to four hours hiking up various steep snow inclines with crampons. The hiking was strenuous but very enjoyable for me. The weather today was very sunny and felt like about 30 degrees outside. We arrived at our campsite at about 5PM and spent the next two hours digging a hole in the snow for our tent. Retired to bed around 8PM and slept off and on for about 10 hours.
Friday, 5/13 - Awoke around 6AM. Had breakfast and broke our camp around 10AM. Hiked for two hours to Helen Lake. Spent the rest of the day acclimatizing to the high altitude (10,500 feet). The weather started to change in the late afternoon. The temperature hovered around 20 degrees and the wind picked up in the late afternoon. We also got our packs ready for tomorrow. Retired to bed around 8PM.
Saturday, 5/14 - Awoke at 1AM. Had a tuna sandwich and boiled some water for my summit attempt. I was in the first wave of hikers to attempt the summit. Armed with multiple layers of clothes (for my body: garments, long johns, fleece thermals, hard shell pants, two down parkas and a hard shell jacket; for my head: a mask and helmet; for my hands: two waterproof, high altitude snow gloves; for my feet: two layers of hiking socks), an ice axe, crampons, and a headlamp, we made our attempt. We spent the next three hours climbing 3,200 near vertical feet in temperatures that were well below freezing. My guess is that we were near 0 degrees with the wind-chill factor. We crossed over multiple ice fields where our lead hiker felt there was some risk for an avalanche and almost had us turn around. Aside from small pieces of ice blown about by the heavy wind, there was little that bothered us in the pitch black. When we finally made it to the top of a ridge before the summit, the wind was blowing so hard that the three of us decided it was unsafe to proceed. A storm had set in and conditions were very bad. It was so cold that my two, 1-liter water bottles in my pack froze almost completely in less than three hours on the way up. As we talked, I realized that my right hand had the early stages of frostbite. In fact, it was not until about 10 hours later that the tips of my fingers felt better. On our decent we met with four different companies of climbers - all of whom we convinced to turn around given the weather conditions. The last part of the decent to base camp, I was able to glissade (a mountaineering term meaning to slide down a glacier with only one's ice axe dragging in the snow to slow you down). We took a two hour nap and then hiked the 5-6 miles back to our car. Our group had a feast at Olive Garden in Redding and we made it back to El Dorado Hills just before the kids went to bed.
I was disappointed we did not make the summit of Shasta but the experience was very enjoyable and I would gladly attempt something like this again if given the chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment