Tom had hoped for a winter ascent of Mt. Shasta, but unfortunately the road up to the trailhead was closed for several months and only recently opened. It turned out lucky for us, the weather was fantastic.
The trip started Friday with a 6 hour drive from Livermore to the base of Mt. Shasta. We hiked from Bunny Flats (6860 ft.) to our first camp of the trip at Horse Camp.
After a short night of sleep, and some minor visits by local mice, we were on our way at 05:30. Our initial goal was to camp at ~11,000 ft. near the first window on Casaval Ridge. We reached 11,000 ft. around 10:00 and decided to keep heading up. We finally found a suitable camp at around 12,000 ft. at noon. The rest of the day we melted snow for water, soaked up the sun, and rested up for tomorrow. After an early supper, with the sun still above the horizon, we called it a day and sacked out.
Day two started shortly after day one ended. We wanted good snow for the climb to the summit, so the alarm went off at 03:30. We were up and hiking by 04:15. After a long, hard hike up the mountain we finally reached the summit (14,162 ft.) at 08:30, well ahead of schedule. A pief stay at the summit (where Nick, a native Aussie, ate his Vegemite sandwich) and we were headed down. The snow at the top was too icy for a successful glissade. After returning to camp and packing up, we headed toward the car. The snow conditions deteriorated to not better than slush, and we were posthole-ing for a couple of hours. Once we got a little lower, we were able to glissade down a couple of slopes and gained a little time. Once we got back to Horse Camp, we found our stashed snowshoes and slogged the mile back to the car. After only a few miles, but lots of elevation, we finally made it back to the car. The ride back to Livermore was rather fragrant, but a great rest after a great hike.
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