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