| Climbing Mount ShastaTopped by snow and glaciers, | | | | instead of the tent. The edges pulled loose in the |
| Mount Shasta rises up above everything else when | | | | wind again and again, until we pinned down one side |
| you approach it from the north.As soon as I saw it, I | | | | with heavy rocks, and wrapped the other side |
| wanted to be up there. We were coming south from | | | | around us. Dust blew in, despite the tight wrap and |
| Oregon, after driving across the country from | | | | rain. I was enjoying the adventure more than John, |
| Michigan. A detour to northern California before | | | | who was very quiet. So I talked until he fell |
| heading home seemed like a good idea to both of | | | | asleep.Climbing Mount Shasta"Apparently they start |
| us."I wonder if we could climb it?" I asked. John just | | | | very early," John grumbled. It was dark, but there |
| nodded his head quietly, agreeing not to the climb, | | | | were lights and noise from the tents around us. I |
| but to the fact that he was wondering the same | | | | stood up, and I saw lights on the mountain a |
| thing. I checked the map. Mount Shasta is 14,162 feet | | | | thousand up. It was 5:30 a.m. Hmm... climbers start |
| above sea level. I liked the idea of climbing that | | | | early. With that new insight, we packed our |
| high."Have you ever climbed a mountain," John asked | | | | daypacks, hid our big backpacks in the rocks, and |
| me. I thought about it for a while. "Not really. A lot of | | | | stepped onto the ice.Helen Lake was a mile of ups |
| hills though."Mount Shasta City"Oh yes," the old | | | | and downs, through sun-dished ice. Then we reached |
| woman at the visitor's center told us, "people climb | | | | the loose rock at the base of a steep slope, in |
| Mount Shasta all the time." John pointed out the | | | | Avalanche Gully. We started climbing Mount Shasta. |
| glaciers on the map she had given us. "Oh, well, did | | | | an hour later, we quit."I can't do it," John gasped. |
| you bring crampons and ice axes?" John looked at | | | | "Can't get enough air." We were at about 11,000 |
| me, and I could only say, "I've heard of these | | | | feet, and we knew there was less oxygen, but this |
| things."We did have some gear: backpacks, sleeping | | | | was the first time John had actually been this high on |
| bags, and a tent. John had good hiking boots, but | | | | foot. I once drove higher in Colorado, but apparently |
| mine were more like high-top shoes. Neither of us | | | | driving wasn't a strenuous enough for me to notice |
| had ever used crampons or an ice axe, so we went | | | | the thinner air. I noticed it here. We both did. We sat |
| the few blocks across town to see what the guy at | | | | down and rested for a minute."Are you sure," I |
| the climbing store had to say."Have you done any | | | | asked. He was - I wasn't. It was light now, and John |
| climbing before?" he asked us."A little," I answered, | | | | didn't see any problem hiking down the four hours to |
| remembering the buildings we used to climb on as | | | | the car alone. I would go on to the summit, and then |
| teenagers, and the rocks we had recently scrambled | | | | come back down by evening. I had to continue. |
| up in Oregon. I figured we were ready for Mount | | | | Mount Shasta was my first mountain, and I hadn't |
| Shasta."Well, you can't put crampons on those | | | | even used the poop bag yet.Altitude SicknessThe |
| boots," he said to John, "and you sure can't put them | | | | "Red Bank" is a line of broken cliffs above Avalanche |
| on those," he told me, shaking his head at my shoes. | | | | Gully. I scrambled, climbed, slipped on ice, and |
| Crampons apparently need rigid boots - our | | | | eventually found a way up and over. Then there |
| mountaineering lesson of the day. We could rent | | | | were long steep slopes covered in loose rocks, with |
| them, but only if we rented real mountaineering | | | | a few bamboo sticks marking the way. My route |
| boots also. "And you'll need ice axes, of course." I felt | | | | converged with that of the other climbers, who had |
| a pain in my wallet.Backpacking On Mount Shasta | | | | come up the snow-slope route with crampons and |
| (Too Poor For Climbing)A speeding ticket in North | | | | ice axes.After much climbing, I finally made it to the |
| Dakota had strained the budget, and Mount Shasta | | | | summit, which is called Misery hill, because it isn't |
| was another detour from the route and the budget. | | | | actually the summit. It just seems like it should be. |
| We could, we decided, hike up the mountain and do | | | | There was still a mile of snow to cross, and then |
| a little backpacking. Still, I had to ask, "Do people | | | | more rocky terrain. One snow field had |
| climb Shasta without gear?" The store owner realized | | | | three-foot-high peaks covering it, like a huge |
| that the sale was lost."It's been done," he answered | | | | merange pie.I rested a moment, and realized I'd been |
| impatiently."It's been done," I reminded John as we | | | | hearing a new sound. Bang! Bang! Bang! It was the |
| drove up the road to Mount Shasta. He didn't | | | | inside of my head, which had never been so loud |
| answer, which was a good sign. I watched the Pine | | | | before. Hmm...interesting. I got used to the noise and |
| trees go by, and absentmindedly poked a finger | | | | pain after an hour or so.I got used to the smell of |
| through a hole in my shoe."Old Ski Bowl Trailhead," | | | | sulphur too. Mount Shasta, it turns out, is a volcano. |
| John said. I looked over at the sign. "7,900 feet." We | | | | When John Muir climbed it more than a hundred |
| were at the trailhead, along with forty other cars, | | | | years earlier, he had to huddle next to the hot |
| and it was early enough to hit the trail.Mount Shasta | | | | sulphur gas vents to survive a night near the peak. |
| Poop BagsWe looked at the registration forms, and | | | | He was alternately freezing and burning.At The Top |
| had a decision to make. There was a $10 fee to hike | | | | Of Mount Shasta"So this is the top?" I mumbled |
| or climb above "Horse Camp," at 8,400 feet. John | | | | lamely to the guy who had just told me the John |
| pointed to a pile of paper bags, each with a handful | | | | Muir story. Clouds, and smoke from forest fires, |
| of cat litter in it, and a plastic bag to put it in. These | | | | obscured the view in every direction, but it felt good |
| were for carrying our excrement off the mountain, a | | | | to be so high, and down to the east, I saw my first |
| requirement above 10,000 feet. That clinched it. We | | | | glacier, a few hundred feet below."You can write |
| put $10 each in the envelope and dropped it in the | | | | your name in the register there," the guy told me, |
| slot. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to poop in | | | | pointing to something in the rocks. Guestbooks on |
| a bag in the mountains. I took two for myself, in | | | | top of mountains? Another lesson for the day. I |
| case of good luck.An easy trail took us to the hut | | | | signed in, wrote some comment, and started down |
| and spring at Horse Camp. We filled our water | | | | the mountain.Sun cups, or whatever they call those |
| bottles. The dayhikers looked up at the mountain | | | | depresions in the snow, fill with water in the warm |
| through cameras, while the climbers cooked noodles | | | | afternoon sun - another discovery. I'd climb out of |
| and discussed weather reports. They looked at my | | | | one ten-foot-wide bowl and slide into the pond at |
| shoes and smiled at each other when I mentioned | | | | the bottom of the next. This was the pattern until I |
| we might climb Mount Shasta.After Horse Camp the | | | | thankfully reached the ankle-twisting mile of rocks |
| trail gets steeper and rockier. The trees end at about | | | | piled up below Helen Lake. Climbing down, I realized, is |
| 8,500 feet, leaving only grasses, flowers, and other | | | | more difficult than climbing up, or at least more |
| tundra plants. Then the trail gets lost in the rocks | | | | dangerous.I found the trail, my headache disappeared, |
| just before the steep climb up to Helen Lake.Wind | | | | I reached the road, where John was waiting. By |
| And Rain At Helen LakeThere is no lake. Helen lake is | | | | evening we were driving towards Michigan, Mount |
| a more-or-less level area of snow and ice. At the | | | | Shasta hidden in the clouds and smoke behind us. Oh, |
| edge, overlooking Horse Camp far below, there are | | | | and yes, I did get to use the poop bag. Somewhere |
| dusty clearings in the rocks where the climbers camp. | | | | around 11,500 feet, I think, which I remembered |
| We found an empty spot and we set up camp. The | | | | when I was looking through my pack. "Pull over at |
| wind was howling. We were at 10,440 feet.About | | | | the nearest garbage can," I told John.Steve Gillman is |
| the time the rain started, I realized it might have | | | | a long-time backpacker, and advocate ultralight |
| been a bad idea to talk John into bringing only a tarp, | | | | backpacking. |