Mt. Shasta - Memorial Weekend 2000
It's really nice to write report when everything went right,
everybody in your group summited and got back in one piece.
On May 29th six of us (Dima Onoprienko, Misha Chumak, Sasha Kizler,
Anya Ryabova, Igor' Slepchin and Ilya Timofeyev) successfully
summited Mt. Shasta via the Casaval Ridge - West Face Gully route. We had
excellent weather all alone, which certainly helped.
Our team was part of a large group of Russians climbing Mt. Shasta on
the memorial weekend. This climb was organized by the "Smirnov Outdoor Club" and was
dedicated to the memory of
the three members of this club (including the founder of the club V.Smirnov)
who died in Mexico in December 1999.
In short, this is our route -
Day 1
Start from Bunny Flat 7000' (2134m)
Camp at 8400' (2560m) on the ridge to the right of the Avalanche Gulch
Day 2
Ascend Casaval Ridge with full packs
Camp at 10000' (3048m) on Casaval
Day 3
Ascend Casaval Ridge with full packs
Traverse left onto the West Face Gully at about 12100'-12200'
Ascend the West Face Gully
Camp at 13100' (4000m) on plateau on the border of the Whitney Glacier
Day 4
Summit Mt. Shasta 14162' (4316m)
Return to Bunny Flat via Avalanche Gulch
General Comments
Our team had two two person four season tents,
3.7L of white gas + 1100gr (2x450gr Gray Primus cartridges
and 227gr Red MSR cartridge) of propane-butane.
I think that 1L per day of white gas should be enough
for 6 people to melt water in the morning and in the evening.
I like propane-butane mix since one can cook in the
tent easily. Since Mt. Shasta is well-known for it's windy conditions
you should be prepared for this. We carried two stoves - Primus Himalaya
Multi-Fuel and Peak 1 propane-butane. Peak 1 did not perform well in the wind,
but luckily for us Primus stove worked well on everything.
We also carried snow shovel, two ropes, 3 snow pickets.
A snow saw is highly desirable, and "a must" if you want to repeat
our route (i.e. 13100' camp).
Personal equipment included crampons, ice-axes, helmets and harnesses.
Each team carried an FRS radio and we had good radio communication with other teams
which gave us additional confidence and helped several times. Cell phones worked in
random places on the mountain and, in particular, in our 13100' camp.
It was a real zoo (about 200 people)
on Lake Helen on the Memorial Weekend and we glad we chose to climb
a different route. We had at least some privacy on the mountain, and we for sure did
not see anybody around our 13100' camp. I estimate the route we've
chosen to be grade 2. I think that the upper part of the Casaval Ridge is more difficult
and people rarely climb it. Moreover, I suspect that most of the people consider
the variation we did to be "the standard Casaval Ridge route", which is not.
We saw about 20-25 people
ascending the same way we climbed, and I bet all of them would say that they climbed Casaval.
May 25th
On may 25th we flew into the San Francisco airport to team up with other
guys. There were four different groups of Russians organized by the "Smirnov Outdoor Club"
intending to climb Mt. Shasta.
Some people live in San Francisco and kindly provided a place to sleep for us.
May 26th
We spent about 4-5 hours driving from San Francisco to the little town called
Shasta (big surprise, right?).
We stopped at the local shop called
"The Fifth Season" (530-926-3606)
and asked them about
the conditions of different routes, places to camp, etc. They told us
that there were about 5-6 groups on Casaval Ridge already and it would be
impossible (or very hard) to find a place to setup a basecamp on Casaval.
Instead of climbing Casaval they suggested climbing Mt. Shasta via West
Face Gully all the way from the Hidden Valley.
I personally did not believe that we would not be able to find a spot to camp.
My team supported my decision to climb Casaval.
It turned out that there was plenty of spots to camp at about 9800'-10200'.
After spending some time at "The Fifth Season" we
drove to the trailhead (Bunny Flat) where we
spent about 2 more hours packing and filling out registration.
We started pretty late (at about 6pm) from Bunny Flat and I am embarrassed to
say that we missed the Horse Camp and spent first night on the ridge to the right
of the Avalanche Gulch
at about 8400'. We saw several groups on the ridge, but
there was plenty of space
to camp just where the tree-line ends. Two of our friends (Vadim Uchitel' and Kostya Buryak)
camped right next to us and also decided to climb Casaval.
May 27th
We traversed to the left from the ridge and started climbing Casaval ridge.
We had a good (but soft) snow coverage and did not use crampons that day.
With heavy packs we were going slow and it took us about 4 hours to reach
10000'. The weather was excellent - above freezing and just a little bit windy.
There are several obvious places to camp on the ridge and we could
easily dug out a flat site for a tent and build a wall.
We met several teams
intending to summit next day. We found a spot
on the rocks and build a small wall around the tents.
Overall it was easy part of the route - just walking on a moderately
steep (no more than 30 degrees) snow.
Vadim and Kostya camped right next to us and decided to investigate the route further.
Our team spent part of that day practicing self-arrest, snow anchors and
belaying techniques. It became foggy and the visibility dropped in the afternoon
and we were glad to see our friends coming back.
I had to admit that we did not setup our tents well and walls around them were kinda small.
The night was windy and one of our tents was partially broken. We got the message.
May 28th
On this day we separated from Vadim and Kostya - they decided to summit light from the
camp (they made it to the summit in about 7 hours in extremely high winds and
descended down to Lake Helen in 2 hours after that)
and we decided to ascend further with full packs and summit next day. We did not
want to take down our camp in the dark and got up at about 5:30am.
We slowly started up about two and a half hours later.
It was colder than the previous day and we put on crampons right from the start.
It was also very windy and I was a little bit worried about climbing with packs.
We saw obvious tracks to follow. We also had radio
communication with Vadim and Kostya and another group which ascended Casaval Ridge through one
of the windows from the Lake Helen. After completing the long, more or less flat part
of the route which bends to the left
we came to the steep section. This part of the
route keeps to the left of two gendarms on the
ridge and ends at about 11400'.
Then we had to ascend a snowfield up to 12000'-12100'. This snowfield
lies sort of in between the Casaval Ridge and the West Face Gully.
The visibility was good and we saw several parties going up this snowfield and then
traversing to the left and the end at about 12100'. There were good firm
steps from boots from the previous (warmer) day which certainly helped.
We saw some switchbacks on this snowfield, but decided to ascend it straight
up using the steps. The steepest portion of the slope is about 100-200 feet long and sometimes
reaches 55-60 degrees. We had to use the high-dagger technique or
use our ice-axes as ice tools.
This is the only steep section in our climb where a fixed rope might be desirable, depending
on your experience and snow conditions. It was clear that it was impossible to
arrest a fall on that slope. We carried the ropes as dead weight and used the steps all
the way up on the steep section. If it wasn't for the steps we would, probably, had to
setup a couple of fixed rope in this place.
A good landmark is two sections of vertical
rocks on the left side of the snowfield (Eastern Side of the West Fase Gully).
We climbed roughly a little bit above the level of
these rocks and then traversed to the left to the small rockfall. I think that
that was where the Casaval portion of the climb ended. Most of the parties do the same thing
and don't encounter more technical (grade 3) portion of the Casaval. This is a wise thing
to do, unless you're ready for the steep ice/snow and carry rock protection with you.
We traversed further to the left, took a brake under the vertical rocks on the West Face Gully
and started ascending the West Face Gully.
Our initial plan was to descent via the West Face Gully route after summiting
and we started to look for a place to camp. The most gentle slope was at least
25 degrees and we had to keep going up. We reached the flat plateau on the border of the
Whitney Glacier at 13100 at about 1pm.
After short brake we started digging. It took us about 4 hours to dig out a site
for two tents, build a wall and setup a camp. You certainly should allow some time for that
at this altitude.
Weather reports said that wind was reaching 55mph on that day on the Avalanche Gulch route.
Our friends who summited the
mountain on this day confirm that.
They had to lay on the snow during particularly
strong gusts of wind on the Misery Hill and above. At least two people without ice-axes
had to turn back on the Avalanche Gulch route.
Our team did not feel such strong winds on the West Face Gully and in our
camp at 13100'.
May 29th
Summit day, also the last day on the mountain.
There was no rush for us and we got up at about 6am, boiled some water, took care of the
tents and started our final ascend at 7:30am. We kept to the right and decided to
merge with the finish of the Avalanche Gulch route. The weather was pretty good. It was
windy, but not as bad as on the previous day. We were on the summit at 9am. Taking pictures and
registering in the book took about 10-15 min. This portion of the climb was pretty
straight-forward.
There were a lot of people on the mountain that day, but all of them came
from the Avalanche Gulch. We descended back to the camp, cooked some soup, took down our tents
and started descending at 1pm. We would like to thank Vadim and Kostya who were waiting for us
at their camp on the Casaval for the whole day. To have a good radio communication with them
and to be on time on Bunny Flat we decided to descend via the standard Avalanche Gulch route.
The snow was firm above the Red Banks, but below it started to get softer. After a while we
took off our crampons and got on our butts. That was fun!! We got wet by the time we reached
Lake Helen - but that the heck, it's our last day. We reached Horse Camp at about 5pm
where we met Vadim and Kostya. After a brake we headed for Bunny Flat where our friends from
another team waited for us with cold beer.
Personal thanks
I would like to say "thank you" to all the members of my team.
We had a very good team and I already miss you.
Also I would like to thank Irina Zaks - main organizer of this trip,
Yuriy Abarbarchuk, Lev Gorenshteyn, Andrey Vakhutinskiy - for their advice before the climb,
Borya Ratinov - just for his presence on the mountain,
Vadim and Kostya - our "neighbors" for the most part of the climb.
Some Links we collected before the climb
Mount Shasta, The Casaval Ridge (nice report about the Casaval)
Mt. Shasta Wilderness Avalanche and Climbing Advisory (up to date weather and snow conditions)
"The Fifth Season"
Mt. Shasta Climber's Guide, Mount Shasta City, California
GEOSHASTA EXPLORATORIUM
Mount Shasta Home Page - The Summit Page
Climbing Mt. Shasta Virtual Photo Tour
Mt. Shasta Links
Weather and Snow report Hotline: 530-926-5555
timoxa2@yahoo.com
written - 6/1/00