On our way to climb Mt. Shasta. From the front: Jessica, Mario, Mark, and Chris.
Our group met at Chris' place in Davis Friday night (Sep.05) to finish distributing the load and packing. We drove off to Mt. Shasta at 3am and arrive to Shata City at 7am. By 10am we had parked our cars near Bunny Flats (approx 6900 ft.asl) and started hiking on the trail.
On our way to climb Mt. Shasta. From the front: Jessica, Mario, Mark,
and Chris.
The Bunny Flats trail is an easy hike and it took us through a wooded
area that ends at Horse Camp. We reached the camp at approx. 1pm and
stayed long enough to have lunch and fill up with fresh water.
Taking a rest at Horse Camp. In the back: Marcio, Mark.
In the front: Jessica, Chris, Mario, and Michelle.
The hike to Lake Helen (approx 10,500 ft.asl) was moderate and we found
ourselves through some arid terrain full of rocks and sand. We reached
camp at approx 6pm. Lake Helen at this time of the year, was a block of
ice. We stayed the night and the entire next day to acclimatize.
Chris and Michelle practicing self-arrest and other ice safety tricks.
We spent most of Sun.Sep.07 hanging around Lake Helen and trying to get
used to the altitude. Went to sleep early and woke up at 3am the next
day to attempt to climb to the summit.
Mario and Chris hiking up a glacier at the start of the summit attempt.
It was about 12,000 ft asl where I starting getting AMS.
This part of the trip was hard. We hiked up Avalanche Gulch, and through the Chimney at Red Banks. We were now at 12,000 to 13,000 ft.asl, and AMS was becoming a problem while reaching Misery Hill (which is very appropriately named). Jessica is most affected and decided to stay behind at Misery Hill (Mark had already returned to Bunny Flats the day before). We finally crossed a glacier and climbed the last few hundred feet before reaching the summit.
Chris and Michelle at the Summit. Michelle is signing the summit log ...
you wouldn't belive how many people climb Mt. Shasta every month!
Mario, Chris, and Marcio at the summit of Mt.Shasta (14,162 ft.asl),
1:30pm PST on Mon. Sept. 5, 1994 (Labor Day '94).
From the summit, we returned back to Lake Helen to bring down camp, and hiked our way back to Bunny Flats, all in about 6 hours! And like Marcio had predicted, the hot shower I took after arriving home was the best in my life!