August 31, 2002

Almost there for the summer goal of all 15 California 14ers. Shasta is number 14. Scotty and I left the Bunny Flat trailhead (6,880') at 6:45 am, and reached Horse Camp (7,880') 27 minutes later. Proceeded non-stop from there to Lake Helen (10,400'), arriving there an hour and 43 minutes into the hike. Stopped to chat with the USFS fellow stationed there, and continued up toward the Red Banks. A party of 8 was just leaving Lake Helen when we arrived, and we didn't want to be behind them in the loose stuff, so we scampered up the left side of the slope just above Lake Helen and passed them well to the left. We had brought crampons, and were tempted to use them to go up the narrow snow field left of the Heart, but decided against it because of rockfall warnings. Nearly all of the natural rockfall is generated on the (climber's) left side of the slope. We crossed the snowfield at the bottom tip of the Heart, and went up the actual Avalanche Gulch.

This part of the route, despite all I've heard to the contrary, was the easiest and quickest portion, as we were early enough (even with a late 6:45 start) that the rocks and scree in the bottom of the gully were all frozen together, making for easy traveling. As we approached the Red Banks, we were scouting a route through, checking the rotten gullys for access. As Scotty peered up one gully, a rock came ricocheting down the gully, just missing his head. Sure enough, near the top of the gully were a pair of tourists. We passed on that gully and made an end around all the way to the east end of the Red Banks. Here we climbed a very short class 3-4 crumbly section to gain a bench on the back side of the ridge, right above the Konwakiton Glacier. There were huge and amazing crevasses and bergschrunds on this glacier, made me glad I was on the tourist route, as my glacier skills are minimal. From this bench, we did 2 moves of class 3 to the left to re-gain the tourist route, and continued up towards Misery Hill. Here we encountered the tourists who had dropped the rocks, and it turns out they were looking for a way to bail. A few clouds had blown up on the mountain, and they didn't like the looks of it. Too bad, only 1,200 feet or so to go.

I don't know where the name came from, Misery Hill isn't that miserable. The trail is good, and it goes by quickly. At the bottom of Misery Hill, we met 2 tourists on their way down (they had camped somewhere up there), and they warned us of a snow field ahead that was over water (The Pond). They reported breaking through the snow and falling into the water. When we reached this snow, it was frozen nice and solid, and we cruised over no problem. We were now above the clouds, and we stumbled up the last few switchbacks, and were on top. We signed in, took photos, made calls, and enjoyed the windless, sunny expanse of the summit. Total ascent time was 4:52, not particularly fast, but respectable, especially considering the fact that there is no snow on the route. There were no tourists on the summit, so we stayed quite a while. Finally a tourist did poke his head up from one of the North Side routes, and we decided to head out. We crossed The Pond again with no problem, and stopped there to get some water. We met the party of eight just above the Red Banks, still headed up, and they were looking for aspirin. A little AMS perhaps.

We descended the gully through the Red Banks this time, as there was no one above us. Once we hit the Avalanche Gulch, we looked for the loose stuff for a rapid descent. I sure prefer to glissade, but there is so little snow at this time of year. We passed the 2 tourists who dropped the rock just before Lake Helen, and continued on. The rest of the way down we met a continuous stream of tourists headed up to Lake Helen. The rest of the descent was uneventful, we made the car in 2:54, which was good for no glissade mileage. Our total travel time was 7:46 round trip. For Scotty's take on this peak, click here.