skyclimb Posted February 7, 2005 Posted February 7, 2005 Climb: Shasta-Casaval Ridge Date of Climb: 2/4/2005 Trip Report: I went to Mt. Shasta On Thursday night. Slept at bunny flats, from 11:00 to 4:00 a.m., getting a good nights sleep. I awoke, skiied to the base of the ridge, ditched the ski's, and proceeded to solo the ridge from the base to the summit in about 6 hours. It consisted of perfect hard neve, with a lot of exposed easy mixed climbing. The rock was like a spung, and formed to my crampons. I then proceeded up Misery Hill in 100+ mph winds, and summitted at around 12:00p.m. Signed in the summit register, and then made the ardous decent down avy gulch. The gulch is very hard icy neve and makes for a long decent. I made it back to the skiis, and enjoyed a beautiful exit back to the truck. It was 2:00 p.m. when I returned to bunny flats, at which time I went straight to the black bear diner for a 3/4 pound burger. The mountain really had great conditions, which made for a fun day in the hillz! Gear Notes: One tool, Poons, compass, not much else Approach Notes: Use skiis, watch for wind loading Quote
snowball Posted February 7, 2005 Posted February 7, 2005 Hi Cascadeclimbers! I am new to this forum. From LA but love to climb up in your backyard... Skyclimb I am planning a 2 day climb up the ridge this weekend. Ive climbed the northside (hotlum glacier) and the gulch in spring and summer but not the ridge... 1. wondering how long a typical snowshoe to the base of the ridge would take from bunnyflat. 2. the 100+mph winds were above or at misery hill from the northwest i assume, or not? how did you circumvent them? just wondering b/c consistent 40+mph winds are sufficient to knock me over and impair forward movement (at least from my measurements). did you avoid them by going around the southeast side of misery hill?... Thanks for any beta. David Quote
skyclimb Posted February 7, 2005 Author Posted February 7, 2005 The approach will depend on how much this recent storm dropped. I did the approach once in snowshoes, and it took about 1 hour....(shrug). Winds were the strongest in the col between the false summit and misery hill, and on top of misery hill. I can't personally say how much wind it takes to knock you over, yet I have learned on shasta in winters before that 80+ mph will buffett me severely, and 100+ I need to be self-arresting during the big gusts. There was no avoiding the wind in the col, but I did traverse misery hill via the north face, which was blue boiler plate ice due to wind scouring.... my suggestion is to be a creeper in the wind....get as low as possible and aerodynamic, and then slowely move forward....or use the wind in your favor as a kind of sail. Be prepared for high winds, as the jet stream drops across the mountain in winter... All that said, the route is very asthetic, and the rock portions are most excellent. Quote
skyclimb Posted February 7, 2005 Author Posted February 7, 2005 http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/roman/meso_base.cgi?stn=MSGRB This link should help you find data on winds on mt. shasta...at 8,000 feet winds for me were 40mph gusting 50mph.... Quote
snowball Posted February 7, 2005 Posted February 7, 2005 Many thanks. Awesome climb by the way... Quote
JonMain Posted February 7, 2005 Posted February 7, 2005 As I understand it, the rock is the only element of the route with exposure. If you stay to the west side (climber's left) of the ridge on the snow it's basically a slog with a few steeper sections but long runouts. Right? Quote
gapertimmy Posted February 7, 2005 Posted February 7, 2005 nice work mang! any picts of that sweeet arse couliour on the west side of shastina, snap i forget what its called, but any picts? you can see it from weed. Quote
skyclimb Posted February 7, 2005 Author Posted February 7, 2005 No pics of the couloir Tim, sorry. But I can tell you that as we drove north, it looked SWEET . It is continous from the top, and slowely widens from tight to wide! Quote
snowball Posted February 9, 2005 Posted February 9, 2005 By the way, did you go through the Catwalk, or up and left of it? Just trying to get a sense of what people think is fastest or safest or easiest. Thanks David Quote
JonMain Posted February 11, 2005 Posted February 11, 2005 The green section in the pic below is the Catwalk. (Taken from http://www.summitpost.org/show/route_link.pl/route_id/78/object_id/2) I want to know if the route has good runouts in its steeper sections if you avoid the rock on the ridge and follow the route indicated by the red line above. Is this the case? Cheers Quote
Couloir Posted February 11, 2005 Posted February 11, 2005 I'm trying to understand why you'd take the variation. Yeah it's steeper to stay higher and closer to the ridge, but in terms of greater objective hazards, it seems like more work for nominal gain. Quote
JonMain Posted February 11, 2005 Posted February 11, 2005 I personally wouldn't take the variation. That photo just happens to show it. I posted the pic because someone wanted to know what the catwalk was. My question about the runout is a completely seperate issue and has to do with the route marked in red only. If the runouts are basically long snow slopes I'd feel more comfortable bringing someone less experienced along. Quote
skyclimb Posted February 13, 2005 Author Posted February 13, 2005 In the photo it shows the standard route cutting left, and then taking the catwalk back up and right. I never cut left...I stayed on the ridge the whole way up, doing 3rd and 4th class "mixed climbing" where necessary, which obviously includes the "catwalk", and was the funnest way to possibly go. At the steepest, it was snow to 50 degrees, as is the other left variation(shown in photo) which I did last year. This route is a slog, what makes it interesting is covering 7,400 vertical feet in a day, going from 300 ft. to 14,100 feet in a short amount of time, and dealing with winds in excess of 100 mph. As for the "run-outs" , and taking someone "less experienced" only you can decide what you are comfortable with. Quote
griz Posted February 13, 2005 Posted February 13, 2005 I'm trying to understand why you'd take the variation. Yeah it's steeper to stay higher and closer to the ridge, but in terms of greater objective hazards, it seems like more work for nominal gain. No expert but I'd guess the variation might hold snow longer than the regular rte later in the season. I'd take it if it meant avoiding the PNW volcanic scree shit and being able to climb on good ol snow. Quote
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