KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 (edited) Climb: Shasta-Avy Gulch Date of Climb: 6/16/2006 Trip Report: A buddy of mine and I attempted Shasta last year and got blown off the mountain due to high winds at the base camp. We decided to head back for a second try. We considered doing one of the ridge routes, but opted to go with the trade route to avoid going home again empty handed. Drove from Seattle to the Bunny Flat trail head in just over 9 hours on Friday. Factoring in dinner and other stops and it was 8:30. We decided we didn't want to hang out with the crowd in the parking lot with their bonfires and loud chatter, and headed up the hill at 9. We stopped just above Horse Camp at 8200+ feet and dug a platform in the hardening snow. We slept in until 8 the next day, and headed up to Lake Helen at 9 arriving in 2+ hours, and snagged a nice vacated platform. It was quite warm, no wind, and a cloudless bluebird day. The forecast was for more of the same. We set up camp, got water ready for the next day, and ate dinner, while watching all the climbers and skiers come down from the previous day. My XGK stove was all clogged and I had to do some at-camp maintenance. We wanted to get an early start, so we crashed at around 5:30 and rested/dozed until our 2:30 wakeup. Several teams had headed up earlier, but we still were ahead of most of the pack, and could avoid getting crap knocked down on us. We headed up at around 3:45, and slowly passed a large, guided group of 10 who were short roped, and were zigging and zagging up the 30 degree slope toward the Red Banks, whereas we were just going straight up. Most parties were doing the left-of-heart variation for some reason - we just went to the left of Thumb Rock. The freezing level was 10000 feet, so the cramponing was perfect styrofoam the whole way up. We topped the Red Banks at 6:15, grabbed a quick bite, and headed up Misery Hill. Up until now, there was a little wind, and cool temps, but things got nasty on Misery Hill. Winds were gusting at 35 mph, sometimes working sideways, and sometimes pushing us back. We moved up steadily. My buddy was dropping back slowly so that when I crested he was maybe 200 feet below me. I added to the obvious community bathroom at 13900 and chatted with 2 skiers who said there was a good break from the wind at the other side of the summit plateau, so I crossed it quickly. My buddy still hadn't crested Misery Hill, so I opted to tag the summit and did so at 7:45. I hung out a bit, ate, took photos, etc. Nobody came up for 40 minutes. I started down and noticed the winds had gotten worse. At least 2/3 of the parties had turned back on Misery Hill, including my buddy who was chilling next to Thumb rock, where it was sunny and had a nice wind-break. He had made it within 30 feet of the top of Misery Hill and some a-hole had told him he still had "a long way to go". He was feeling nauseaus so he had bailed. The snow was still hard styrofoam, and we had a 9 hour drive ahead of us, so we crampon'd down 2/3 of the way to camp, before we got any glissading in. Only 2 or 3 teams had already come down. We broke camp in an hour as other teams were coming down. Just after noon we started down, got in good glissading all the way to horse camp. Back at the car by 1:30, despite sloppy soft snow on flat slopes, and hit the road. We got to Seattle at just after 11. Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons (steel recommended), helmet, lots of sunblock Approach Notes: leave early; with warm temps the bottom is sloppy snow Edited June 20, 2006 by KaskadskyjKozak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 You finally nailed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlegV Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Great job and the TR! Any pictures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 20, 2006 Author Share Posted June 20, 2006 (edited) Great job and the TR! Any pictures? Here are a few. They are uploaded into the gallery - but are smaller, unfortunately. From camp on Fri (note snow coverage) Looking up Avy Gulch: Lake Helen on Saturday morning: Looking up Misery Hill: Looking down Misery Hill: The summit block (taken on the way down) Kaskads'kyj Kozak on the Summit: Shot from the Summit: Back above the Red Banks: On the way back down the Gulch: Edited June 20, 2006 by KaskadskyjKozak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlegV Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Oh, dude, I need my powerful electron microscope to see what's going on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Oh, dude, I need my powerful electron microscope to see what's going on Here is KK's gallery, you can check out the bigger pics there http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5380 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tophervw Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Good Work~ Glad you got a better weather window than I did the previous week...If your trip was same as ours "slop" down low is an understatment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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