[TR] Mt. Shasta - Avalanche Gully 6/6/2007

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Trip: Mt. Shasta - Avalanche Gully

 

Date: 6/6/2007

 

Trip Report:

My first 14-er!

A friend and I both quit our jobs last week so we planned to go to Leavenworth this week but realized the weather might not be very ideal, soe we ran south for three days and had a very leisurely time on Shasta. It was his second time and my first on the mountain but neither of us had done Avalanche Gully before.

After a short hike up in the snow we arrived at the Sierra Club Horse Camp which has a large shelter built in 1922(?). The club owns 740 acres inside the wilderness area and makes the land available to hikers and climbers. We hung out with the cute camp host and her friend for the evening and watched the weather rage on from the comfort of the lodge and a bottle of Southern Comfort (the 100 proof stuff really has some kick to it!). The only incedent at night was having to convince my partner that the tent was not collapsing. The next morning we hiked along Olbermans Causway (singularly the oddest thing I have ever seen in the backcountry) which is a 1/3 to 1/2 mile long stone pathway that was erected by an old cabin caretaker back in the day for climbers heading up the mountain. We camped at 10,400 that evening at Helen Lake (no lake)

We woke up at 2am, chased a mouse out of our brekke, and then started up the hill by 3am We moved fast and clibed a small chute to gain the Red Bank before the rock and ice fall started. The sun came up shortly after, but not before we both lost feeling in out toes and fingers for a short time (shouldnt have stopped moving) After chasing two disappointing false summits we finally found the real one and got to hang out on top in 5mph or less wind and sunny skies. On the way down we passed 4 other parties several hours behind us. Couldnt really glissade because the new snow filled in the track

 

Gear Notes:

'poons, axe, Reeses, twix, assorted curse words

 

Approach Notes:

Do it in one night, camping at Helen Lake. We were just waiting out the storm and had time to kill.

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pics:

 

http://oregonstate.edu/~rothi/Shasta/

[Ptown_Climber1]

Nice job guys.....I'm an OSU grad...wish I was climbing peaks like you guys when I was in school....good effort!!

 

Shasta is one of my favorites, but it's a ways drive from Portland....have you done Hotlum Bolam yet? North side of Shasta is beautiful and less populated.....My next stop on Shasta will probably be Casaval Ridge. Great pics...makes me want to get back down there!

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Casaval looked great. we almost did it. Talked to some guys who were on Hotlum last week and it sounded fun too. This was a really nice climb. At the end, my partner said, "I didn't feel like I was going to die once!" and "I didn't even swear off mountaineering this trip!"

[Fairweather]

Really nice trip, guys. One of you is really good with that camera too! Really captured your trip well. Thanks for sharing your adventure. Did you happen to look down Clear Creek route from the summit? Was there still a fair amount of snow left on it? Thinking about taking a trip down with my son next week.