Climbing Mount Shasta	Short Cuts
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By: Michal Warzecha - 9/2000

All photos and text (c) Michal Warzecha except where noted. All rights reserved.

Part 3: No Damned Lake

Avalance Gulch Route

The next morning we were up with the Sun. Our minds still revolved around which route to take. All was still, and as the Sun rose, the landscape was transformed from chilly night to pleasant morning. Our view included Shasta in all her glory and her forested flank. We decided to have a hot breakfast at the Sierra Club shack and soak up the glorious view. With a good night's sleep, and the calmness of our surroundings, we reached a decision; it was the "Mall" route. Our feelings were to maximize our odds, especially considering that this was Steve's first time on such a trek. I suggested that we can still have our wilderness experience next spring under better snow conditions. After making the choice, both of us felt a weight taken off our shoulders.

Hiking Between Horse Camp and Helen Lake

Saturday morning was rather lazy. We had the entire day to cover less than 2 miles and a mere 1,500 feet in elevation gain. With our heavy packs, we hiked away from the shack and began hiking the Olberman's Causeway trail. It winds through a valley that must have contained a glacier thousands of years ago. The U-shaped valley is filled with gargantuan piles of rock debris that were carved off the mountain when mastodons roamed the countryside. Both of us were wearing plastic climbing boots, which are wonderful on snow and ice, but dreaded on rocks and trail.

Eventually, we see our intended campsite at Helen Lake. Helen Lake, which is the standard high camp for this side of the mountain, is located at about 10,400 feet. The name is a misnomer. I have been to there during various times of the year (including autumn). I have yet to see the lake. We were about 1,000 feet below the campsite and could see about a dozen people milling about the high camp. Near our location, Steve and I spotted a rock wall and crude campsite on top of a glacial debris pile. Looking at the relative desolation of this site, and the crowding at Lake Helen, we decided to camp low. We could make up the difference in about an hour of extra climbing tomorrow!

High Camp Steve Lyle

It was around noon and our basecamp was established! Even though we were on the high traffic route, only one other tent was visible in our immediate area. The views were stunning and desolate. Our surroundings were snowfields and rock piles. No wildlife or plants were visible. Below us, we could see the Shasta Trinity forest stretching for dozens of miles, and off in the distance the town of Mt. Shasta. To our left, we could see the other major California volcano; Lassen Peak.

Our chores were done and unless we found an activity, we'd have an entire day of idleness ahead. Even though the Avalanche Gulch route is fairly easy, it still involves some technical snow climbing. Steve had no experience with technical snow travel, so I needed to spend a few hours training him. Given our laid-back mood, we deferred this activity to later in the day and decided to take a nap. First, we needed to solve one problem -- the Sun was beating down on us. We made a makeshift shade from the tent rainfly. This created an interesting encounter with a National Forest Service climbing ranger who was not amused by our home improvement project. He approached our camp, looked at our tarp, and the only thing he told us was, "You guys should take that tarp down during the night."

Steve at High Camp

We groggily woke up at about 4 p.m., trained for a few hours, and then began preparing for the night. Our next decision was what time to wake up. Given that we did not have to worry about glaciers and ice-fall, our wakeup time could range from midnight to sunrise. Ideally, it is best to climb early. When the snow is firm, it is easy to ascend. Later in the day, as the snow melts, it becomes too slushy to climb easily. Also, this route has a nasty habit of dumping rocks with the heat of the Sun. We opted for a 12:30am wakeup. Our warped reasoning was as follows; get a head start on the herd leaving Helen Lake, have contingency time if we had to wait out bad weather, and if we reached the top early we could see our wives earlier! We had to be careful. If we attained the summit too early, we would be glissading on hard ice instead of melted afternoon snow. That would be both painful and shred our pants. At about 9:00 p.m. we turned in for the night.

Barely three and one-half hours later, we awakened. The night was calm, and the weather perfect. With stiff joints and deadened thinking, we began putting on our crampons, helmets, and headlamps. We snarfed down a "delicious" cold breakfast of trail-mix and energy bars. Some time around 1:00 a.m. I realized that many of my friends back home were still awake and out having a beer. Even though I wanted to climb this mountain, at that moment, I envied my beer-drinking comrades. The moon was high and bright, but clouds were beginning to build from the south. Our thoughts were that the clouds were high and should pass.

[ Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI ]