Conditions could not have been better. With the most reliable looking forecast south of Washington, plus a volcano with an abnormally large snowpack, Bolton and I decided to make the drive to finally experience this Californian Cascade.

On schedule, we took care of permits and arrived at the Brewer Creek trailhead at about 11:00 p.m. Friday night. The next 6 hours proved to be the toughest part of the trip as we battled mosquitos all night: not the ferocious mosquito that bites continuously, but rather the infrequent mosquito that was looking for a warm nostril or earhole to hang out in. After a bunch of 15 minute snoozes, we were moving with large packs shortly after 6. Our route was up the Hotlum-Wintun Ridge and everything looked good.

We setup camp at about 10.7 and then grabbed a couple thousand feet of turns. Facing E/NE, the snow never softened up much but remained creamy corn most all day. This lovely finding proved true the entire weekend. Whether 9:00 a.m. at 13,000' or 6:00 p.m. at 10,000', the skiing was fantastic!

The next morning we pushed up to the summit with no problems and even kept the boot crampons in the pack.

The peak was as friendly as ever with very little wind, stable snow, and no crevasse worries on our route. Familiar with the volcanoes in Washington, I was amazed at how friendly a ski hill Shasta is. Sure, we had ideal weather, but the terrain itself demands much less than a Rainier or Glacier Peak. It appears there are many great ski options requiring no technical mountaineering skills.

Hearing rumors of the hundreds of people to expect on the summit due to the popluarity of the Avalanche Gully route on the southside, we were pleasantly surprised to find room to sit down and enjoy the scenery. After some friendly conversations with Turns All Year regulars (including the volcano buff himself, Amar), we decided to click in and enjoy a few thousand feet of continuous blisse.



Dave from Tahoe caught up to us as we started down the Wintun glacier and together the three of us enjoyed continous corn to about 9500'.

We enjoyed lunch over quality conversation about our addiction to mountains and the reward of spending time in them with loved ones while periodically gawking at the hundreds of sinuoidal curves we layed in the snow. The three of us toured up about 1000' where Dave headed down to grab his camp goodies and ski out. Rob & I rested in some shade before heading back to the megamid for more R&R.

Here is a view of Shasta's shadow before we called it a night.


The next morning we toured up to about 13,000' to cap off the weekend with a 5500' ski day back to the car where a couple cold Raindoggies welcomed us. To continue the beauty, we drove up the east side of the Cascades on 97 back to Snqualmie Pass.

In addition to the photos linked off our site, Bolton has more off his lumenation site.

Labels: ski touring

It pays to try, although in varying dividends. Bolton's brother was in town and after a bigger night of drinking that prescribed, we headed to the NE side of Rainier. Again, clouds were expected, but we hoped to stay ahead of their eastward flow. We had vis until about 8000', then it never came back.

Labels: ski touring

It pays to try. After a late evening hike to Peggy's Pond, Bolton and I awoke to consistent rain on the megamid. Our hopes of being far enough east to avoid the showers were diminished. But rather than bail (yes, we thought about it), we threw the rain gear on and headed up. The rain turned to snow right away as we skinned through the fog.



We stopped below the spire on the NE ridge. Skiing off the top a couple years ago, we felt we should take advantage of the sun breaks that were starting rather than touch the top and risk a whiteout descent. The ski was lovely, sliding through an inch of new on top of saturated smoothness, and had great visibility the entire descent. You always gotta try.

Labels: ski touring