Mt. Shasta Ascent

Mt. Shasta, arguably one of the most spiritual mountains in the country, has held a special place in my heart since I was very young. To date I have stood at the 14,162 foot summit five times. Despite the grueling 12+ hour climb to the top, I feel drawn to the summit each spring. So it seems that Shasta has become my yearly ritual. Sadly my last summit was the only time I made it to the top without my step-dad Omar. However it was the first time I have brought along a friend who managed to summit. This is the account of the one day ascent in late June by Orlando Giumarra and Nicholas Brinker.

In mid June of 2007, mere days after the Mt. Eddy expedition, Brinker and I planned our ascent of Mt. Shasta. In preparation for our climb, I packed my equipment and Nick rented. Tools required: Helmet, ice ax, crampons, mountaineering boots, extremely warm clothes. We bought trail mix, beef jerky, power bars and several one liter bottles of water. That evening we had dinner with one of my mom's good friends, Mary-Jane, a middle-aged Mt. Shasta native who has summited Mt. Shasta several times and is probably the best telemark skier I have ever seen. She wisely advised us to bring steamed potatoes instead of power bars. "The power bars you eat will give you a temporary energy boost but all that sugar will bring you right back down fifteen minutes later. Instead if you continuously munch on steamed potatoes you will give your body the slow-release energy and carbohydrates needed for the long twelve hour climb." These words proved to be invaluable later on in the hike.
Finally summit day arrived and we woke up to my buzzing alarm clock at 2:00 a.m. We groggily packed up our gear into the car and drove for thirty minutes to the trailhead at 6,900 feet. There was no moon that night allowing for a spectacular display of stars uninhibited by any lights of civilization.


Here we are at base-camp. Our headlamps provided the only light for miles.


Here I am posing at the beginning of Olberman's Causeway, a two miles path made up of enormous boulders that was made by a mountain man living on Mt. Shasta in the nineteenth century.


This is the view from 9,000 feet as the sun was rising.


Still in good spirits, here we are at 9,500 feet.


After hours and hours of relentless climbing, it has become evident that crampons and ice-axes are mandatory. Here is Nick climbing at 12,600 ft.

Having finally crested the ridge right after an intense ice-climb on a near vertical slope, I pause to rest at 12,900 ft.

Here is a view of the aptly named "Misery Hill" at 13,100 ft. While it may not be particularly steep, the elevation and exhaustion from the previous climbing makes this hill a formidable challenge.

Finally, we get a view of the true summit!

Exhausted but thrilled, Nick and I stand at the top of a 14,262 foot volcano!

The descent was long and brutal. We were able to glissade down a few thousand feet, which helped tremendously, but the low levels of snow made for a lot of walking over scree and rock which become painful after several miles. when we finally returned to our car we rejoiced at the feeling of sitting down in a chair and zoomed home to mugs of hot chocolate!