[TR] Shasta / Shastina - 5/22/2015

[nutsandbolts]

Trip: Shasta / Shastina -

 

Date: 5/22/2015

 

Trip Report:

May 22nd - Shastina

 

Four miles after leaving the trail head at Bunny Flat, we reached Hidden Valley which offered spectacular views of the mountain landscape and far more privacy than we would have received elsewhere. With psych building, we quickly ditched our overnight gear near a large rock in the center of the valley, and began our trek toward Shastina - objective #1 for the weekend. We opted for The Lightning Couloir which was basically straight up the south face. The top of the couloir was a false summit that leads to an extra 1000 feet of climbing. The summit of Shastina is actually a rad, crumbly little boulder, the pieces of which are held in place by ice and snowpack.

 

 

The ski descent was one of the best runs of my life - dropping turns into the Lightening Couloir, and carving lines all the way to the door of the tent 3000′ below. It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

May 23rd - Shasta

 

The first pitch of climbing out of Hidden Valley was fairly steep- likely the steepest section of the entire day. There are several options, but we opted for a ~200′ tall shoot between two rock outcroppings. Luckily, once again, we were blessed with beautiful weather and the snow was primo for crampon’ing. The angle was too steep and snow too hard for efficient skinning without ski crampons so I packed my skis up to the top of the West Face and left them there for the final summit push.

 

 

The slog up to the top of the West Face of Shasta is nothing more than a steep, steep hike. From the top of the West Face (~13,000′), we traversed east, to meet the Avalanche Gully and Casaval Ridge routes for the climb up Misery Hill (500′ of gain). Once atop Misery, its another quarter mile and a few hundred feet of gain to the summit pinnacle. We reversed the route for descent.

 

 

Due to our trip up Shastina the day prior, we got a late start and didn’t end up on the summit until mid-afternoon. We celebrated with a few other folks, took the requisite selfies, and headed down. I skied from about 13,000’ down to our tent at 9,000’. Exhaustion and bliss blurred together as I collapsed every 1,000’ or so. I’d sit in the snow panting like a dog and wait for Corie to catch up. So tired, so happy. This was a milestone for us, as our first 14er, but also capped our tenth month of this project with our eleventh summit. Life is sweet.

 

More stories and pictures, along with GPS links are here: http://mountainrefugees.tumblr.com. We've also got 10 other TRs from mountains in the Cascades up there as well.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons and an axe.