Thread: Shasta summer 2012

Any San Fran mags planning to drive from the Shasta area back to SF on Saturday June 16th? Lone skier in need of a ride, will pay the gas bill. Please pm me

Winds were HEINOUS the last couple days, as forecast. Did an alpine start from Bunny Flat (1/2 mile to skinning) on Friday hoping to get lucky with the wind and summit. No dice. Bailed at Helen after watching impressive plumes of snow blow off Red Banks and Trinity Chutes for a while. Spoke to one party that went to about Thumb Rock and then cut the cord after getting buffeted by 80 mph wind and chunks of ice. The good news is that the snow in Avy Gulch is very smooth given the wind, and should be awesome if it warms up as forecast for the next couple days. If you can, DO IT.

Went up H-W ridge to about 10,500 feet today, and again got hosed by even stronger winds. The snowfield is smooth until about our stopping point, and then gets to be the texture of a pile of broken scallop shells above. Nasty. You can drive to within about a mile of the Brewer Creek TH. Doesn't look like it will be fully melted out for a while, but it's a short walk.

It was pretty damn cold Friday and Saturday. Might attempt to go back next weekend.

Thinking about heading up this Wed - Friday and the weather looks like it should be good to go.

Anyone have a guess of how hard (ie. lack of snow across the drainages) it would be to get to Hidden Valley from Bunny Flat?

The Most Interesting Mountain in the World Mt. Shasta

According to the climbing rangers (who were just about to wand the route), there were a couple dry spots to get over to HV.

I'll be out in early July... is there anyone who'd be willing to answer a couple questions about the hike and experience over email to someone new to the mountain? I'd be meeting 2 other great ski buddies, solid BC experience, but none with Shasta. My email is andyreinerfiddle (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks so much!
-Andy

Anyone heading up to BC trailhead this weekend?

supposedly MapleLeafGillies and I are headed up there on Saturday, but unsure what time. We're not going for a single day push. I probably don't have legs or lungs for that.

Oooooh the weather forecast looks like cornucopia for the weekend - clear skies and winds vanishing. Looking fortuitously awesome.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...&FcstType=text

[QUOTE=supposedly MapleLeafGillies and I are headed up there on Saturday, but unsure what time. We're not going for a single day push. I probably don't have legs or lungs for that. [/QUOTE]

I'll be base camping hopefully around 9K, if I can get up at a decent time on Fri. Shastaavalanche.org report said something about 75mph winds this weekend, but I don't see it with this high pressure.

There was high pressure last weekend and 90 mph winds up high. That said, the forecast on the shasta Avy site looks screwy. Was there really winter storm on Monday???? The weather was nice in Bend...

AFTER THURSDAY...THE WEATHER LOOKS DRY AND WARMER. TEMPERATURES
FRIDAY WILL BE NEAR NORMAL THEN A THERMAL TROUGH SETS UP ALONG
SOUTHWEST OREGON THIS WEEKEND WITH ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES.
TEMPERATURES THIS WEEKEND ARE LIKELY TO BE THE WARMEST SO FAR THIS
YEAR IN THE ROGUE VALLEY. WE SHOULD END UP NEAR 90 DEGREES SATURDAY
AND IN THE LOWER 90S SUNDAY.

http://forecast.weather.gov/product....n=1&glossary=1

Was up there yesterday (Wednesday).
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=1174...tlum%20glacier

Gonna be hot this weekend. Climbing ranger said freeze level 13.7k on Fri and 14.3k on Sat. Get it early, lookin like post-hole city by late morning.

It was pretty good last weekend.
Brewer Creek TR

Should be better this weekend. Go git some!

Just got off the hill after skiing left of heart. Skiing was pretty good, but once again the wind was obnoxious above about 11k. Super warm temps made the wind more tolerable than last weekend, but it sure as fuck didn't make Misery Hill any more pleasant.

Originally Posted by Andyski

Super warm temps made the wind more tolerable than last weekend, but it sure as fuck didn't make Misery Hill any more pleasant.

Ha ha, what did I read once? Having a bad memory is the secret to being a mountaineer.

Even though I totally suffered through most of my South Sister trip, and have been in great pain and limping ever since, I am still planning trips to Adams, Hood, and Shasta for the upcoming weeks. Hmm.

Hood is definitely the easiest of that bunch if you take the standard South route.

On the way up Shasta: "Why the hell didn't I just spend the day on the patio at 10 Barrels???"
On the way down: "THIS is why."

Was thinking SW Chutes, Cooper Spur, and Hotlum-Wintun, respectively.
the South route on Hood creeps me out, not sure why, maybe the crazy toilet bowl of death?!?

OK, staying on topic here: anyone know if Brewer Creek is accessible yet?

It's good to go. Last week, drove to about 1 mile from the TH.
But you just hike up the main drainage and not up the road.
Heading up there tomorrow morning. Skiing Wednesday.

Jibmaster will have the better beta, but last weekend the H-W above about 10,500k had very wind-affected, bumpy-looking snow. Looked like crappy skiing that we didn't even bother with due to high winds that day. The walk to the trailhead was a piece of cake.

headin up at of the week for a last go this year. weather looks to be agreeable

Originally Posted by linds-o-rama

Was thinking SW Chutes, Cooper Spur, and Hotlum-Wintun, respectively.
the South route on Hood creeps me out, not sure why, maybe the crazy toilet bowl of death?!?

Are you fully aware of the cooper spur line? Complaining about south sister + saying the south side of hood is dangerous + going to ski cooper spur...does not compute

Skied H-W on Sat. The Wintrun side is definately in better shape, nice smooth corn at about 11am. After that it was probably softer than ideal. The Hotlam side was both very wind affected, and somewhat decimated in places by the Boyscout troops that glissaded and post-holled it until 6pm on Fri!

TR from last Wed. is up
http://www.earnyourturns.com/11870/s...acier-13jun12/

Originally Posted by linds-o-rama

anyone know if Brewer Creek is accessible yet?

It's more than open - that recent heat melted all the snow away pretty much all the way to 8000'. There are a few strips of snow that connect from 7700' to to 8100', but I don't think they'll last long. We had to hike for about 40 minutes on Saturday and didn't hit continuous skinnable snow until about 7700'. By next weekend probably you're probably walking up to about 8100' or 8200', unless you like portaging between strips while skinning for 200' at a time.

ditto what Nevada29er said about the Wintun - the Hotlam is windfucked like bgnight spotted a few weeks ago, and not smooth at all.

Nevada, we missed you on Sat - we set up camp in the middle of the route at 10,100', climber's left and 400' above the main plateau where everyone camps (and leaves themselves open to the wind). We probably missed you because we didn't even leave the TH until 3 PM on Saturday, set up camp around 6:15 PM or so.

Anyways, the winds have been warm overnight - Sunday morning the snow was softer than it was on Saturday night! Winds were much more manageable on the Brewer Creek route over the weekend since they were coming in NW it seems. Actually, winds were basically non-existent on Sunday on the route, and pretty gusty on Sunday night / this morning. The soft refreeze on Saturday and our late timing on Sunday (had a little issue with asthma/altitude but was still able to top out, just really slowly) made for a pretty heavy mushy ski back down to camp - smooth, but a lot of work for someone who doesn't really know how to ski.