[TR] Shasta - Hotlum/Bolam Ridge 5/26/2007

[phthisis]

Trip: [TR] Shasta - Hotlum/Bolam Ridge 5/26/2007 - Hotlum/Bolam Ridge up, Whitney & Bolam down

 

Date: 5/25/2007

 

Trip Report:

Flew down to Sacramento the evening of 5/24, left early 5/25 and drove to Northgate trailhead, arriving ~11:00. Gotta love spring climbing in Northern California - sunny with few clouds, mid-70s. After a couple mile hike through dry winding crazy moss covered trees, we hit the first larger patches of snow, about an hour and a half in.

 

 

Once on snow pack, we slogged up to around 10,500 where we found a nice tent-site on a rock ridge, cooked up and settled in.

 

Killer views to the North of Oregon.

 

 

Clear and cold around 20:30, we were able to clearly see our route for the morning.

 

 

 

We slept in, setting out at 06:00 on crampons and hiked to about 12,000 before adding helmets and a short rope to the party.

 

 

There are a number of large icy patches, particularly on the Hotlum, with paths of decent snow. After passing a clear and sunny Headwall, we topped out a little after 11:00. Clear summit and could see in all directions.

 

 

Watered and fed, we dropped down onto Whitney glacier which had few open cracks and traversed over to Bolam which was also solid and back down to our basecamp. Cooked up again and hiked out, (finally!) reaching the lot at about 17:00.

 

Gear Notes:

Helmet, crampons, harness, short-rope. No pickets or other snow pro. Summer bag.

 

Approach Notes:

Slog in and out through dry switchbacks, icy patches but glaciers intact with very few cracks.

[ericb]

How do you like your BD Skylight?

[phthisis]

Tent belongs to my friend who is a big fan. Huge for 2 and still packs in ~4lbs. He had mentioned that one of the internal pole attachment points (velco on seam) was coming off but a dab of glue and all was well. No real wind when we were up but set-up solid with good guypoints..

[SFDukie]

Nice pics. It was a beautiful weekend on Shasta!

Don