June 11, 2005
Solo on Shastina
Joe
Shastina, the little sis on the left, called me to her flanks when I rounded the corner to Hidden Valley on my solo journey on June 11th, 2005.
Admittedly it was a bit of a hairball idea to venture up to the great white pie in the sky at the far side of Nor Cal by my lonesome in a quick sub 30 hour round trip. But it was what I wanted, and turned out to be what I needed. I initially made a feeble attempt to recruit partners (mostly as due diligence for Jodi's benefit). As each partner bailed I felt increasingly excited about my solo escape. Work had been a grind for several months without a break, and now I needed a break, or I was going to break. Yes, it was best I went alone.
At 3:00 PM on Friday the 10th, I left the Tahoe heat (like 75 degrees, or so) for the stifling Central Valley broiler to hop on I5 in route to Shasta. I enjoyed the music, the drive, the lack of conversation and even the drab scenery and conditions only fueled the payoff I would find upon arrival at the base of the grand snow dome in the North country. A bit of boredom on the drive led me to take a few photos while driving.
Sutter Buttes over Rice Fields: Saving miles on Ramirez Road:
Jodi's bro's future business: Paul and I loved this sign as kids on I5:
So I continued through Chico, cut over to Red Bluff, rolled into Redding, dodged balmy cloud bursts as I careened up the Sacramento River canyon, finally arriving at the fair viewed township of Mount Shasta City. Along the way I found more worthy photographic opportunities.
Thunderstorms over Shasta Lake: Castle Crags (means I'm getting close):
Grandness loomed above while I fueled up with a red neck dinner at the Black Bear Diner:
After dinner I drove up to the Bunny Flat trailhead and parked amongst the many vehicles of random hikers, climbers, lemmings and a few skiers. I had never slept in my truck before this night, so my expectations were low. It turned out I was quite comfortable on my back seat bench with the front seats pushed forward. In fact I slept so good, that I did not hear my alarm. So much for the militant 4:00 AM start. Instead I would settle for the more California-esque early bird start of 5:30 AM. No one to talk to, so I entertained myself with the camera.
I was thrilled to see snow all the way to the parking lot. I was able to boot quickly to Horse Camp and then left for a long climbing traverse to Hidden Valley. The sky was clear, no sounds did I hear, my eagerness grew and from the North those winds blew. The red neck dinner had me well fueled. I felt gu-ood.
Upon arrival at the Eden called Hidden Valley, I was mesmerized by the views of the long and sumptuous slopes above me. I was also painfully divided over which route to climb and ski. The debate raged (nearly violently at times) for a good 15 minutes. The sight of the spin drift blasting off the headwall of the West Face of Shasta in comparison to the South side of Shastina casually sunning it's 3,000' face eventually decided it for me. I was Shastina bound (and it was kind of nice to not debate this with any partners).
Shastina: West Face of Shasta:
This guy silently nodded in agreement with every decision I made all day.
My day's objective:
As I booted up the long approach to the base of the ancient crater cone, I could not believe the smoothness of this Summer snow. Down in Tahoe and the Eastern Sierras, the snow was mostly a sun cupped, runnelled, death fin mess. I'm glad to be here.
In front of me:
Behind me:
This guy was always there, agreeing with my every move:
These boots were made for climbing:
After another couple hours of climbing I reached the summit plateau of Shastina. In the spirit of Shasta, there was one more "little" hill to be climbed to reach the true summit of Shastina. I booted up to the top of the volcanic rocks perched high above the enormous crater to enjoy the amazing views in all directions. I can never get enough of that jet liner feel of Shasta when gazing down on the valleys and clouds far below.
Black Butte and Weed: Mount Shasta City:
Cassaval Ridge: Upper Whitney Glacier:
Shastina's gigantic crater: Shasta's summit:
A single raven sympathetically circled this lone ski mountaineer standing sternly on the summit of Shastina. It felt prophetic to me, but I think he was most interested in scoring the crust off my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
The view to Diller Canyon looked especially tasty from the top. Tony and I had skied this epic tilted pool table of a line in the great Spring of 1998. How am I ever going to ski all the mountains I dream of skiing if I can't even resist returning to this one single mountain as often as possible?
Lots of playing with the camera....
And then others arrived on top of the Shastina plateau. Turns out it was Chris Carr of Shasta Mountain Guides just doing his job with a couple of clients. He's got the best gig going of anyone I know.
After hanging with Chris and his party for about half an hour, I decided the snow may have ripened to just my liking. So off I went. Unfortunately it was a bit too tricky for me to snap self portraits while carving sweet corn, so no action shots. Just imagine a lone dude skiing 3,000' of perfect blissful hissing corn with a perma-grin.
Holy Blue Skies and Bright White Snow! There are no tracks visible in these shots, but I'm posting them here for my own damn benefit. That way I can be happily reminded of the best corn run of 2005 / 2006.
Thanks to the advice of Chris, I booted up the little ridge leading out of Hidden Valley and made the long traverse to nearly the top of Giddy Giddy Gulch for more vert. GGG offered up another session of fine corn harvesting. However, the skiing was not the most memorable part. The moment of the day goes to my terrific and spectacular starfish of a fall when I dropped into some deep Shasta-mank, with speed. For the group of 5 that happened to be skinning up the bowl at the time, it must have been quite entertaining to view my show as I proceeded to throw my body into a high speed spin cycle . Before my grand entrance, they had no idea there was another skier anywhere near them. Then I came rocketing off the lip in a full rag doll tumble. I'm sure they assumed it was just another idiot who are an all to common sight on the great Mountain of Shasta.....I'm not going to argue with that.
Giddy Giddy Gulch from below: Avalanche Gulch (where everybody else was):
A few more stops and a few more pictures:
Skiing all the way to the car in June is very cool:
From town, looking back up into the stratosphere:
On my way back home through Susanville I spied the other great California Volcano (Lassen) looking rad:
I arrived at home around 7:00 PM, less than 30 hours after leaving. I was tired, but cured.
I returned 1 month later with Rich Steele to summit Shasta and ski the classic late season 7,000' Hotlum Wintun route. Trip report to come shortly. For now here's a Trip Report propa' from the Urban Backcountry Skier himself:
Shasta - Hotlum Wintun - 7/9/05 to 7/10/05
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