| Climbing Mount ShastaTopped by snow and glaciers, | | | | idea to talk John into bringing only a tarp, instead of the |
| Mount Shasta rises up above everything else when | | | | tent. The edges pulled loose in the wind again and |
| you approach it from the north.As soon as I saw it, I | | | | again, until we pinned down one side with heavy rocks, |
| wanted to be up there. We were coming south from | | | | and wrapped the other side around us. Dust blew in, |
| Oregon, after driving across the country from Michigan. | | | | despite the tight wrap and rain. I was enjoying the |
| A detour to northern California before heading home | | | | adventure more than John, who was very quiet. So I |
| seemed like a good idea to both of us."I wonder if we | | | | talked until he fell asleep.Climbing Mount |
| could climb it?" I asked. John just nodded his head | | | | Shasta"Apparently they start very early," John |
| quietly, agreeing not to the climb, but to the fact that he | | | | grumbled. It was dark, but there were lights and noise |
| was wondering the same thing. I checked the map. | | | | from the tents around us. I stood up, and I saw lights |
| Mount Shasta is 14,162 feet above sea level. I liked the | | | | on the mountain a thousand up. It was 5:30 a.m. Hmm... |
| idea of climbing that high."Have you ever climbed a | | | | climbers start early. With that new insight, we packed |
| mountain," John asked me. I thought about it for a while. | | | | our daypacks, hid our big backpacks in the rocks, and |
| "Not really. A lot of hills though."Mount Shasta City"Oh | | | | stepped onto the ice.Helen Lake was a mile of ups |
| yes," the old woman at the visitor's center told us, | | | | and downs, through sun-dished ice. Then we reached |
| "people climb Mount Shasta all the time." John pointed | | | | the loose rock at the base of a steep slope, in |
| out the glaciers on the map she had given us. "Oh, well, | | | | Avalanche Gully. We started climbing Mount Shasta. an |
| did you bring crampons and ice axes?" John looked at | | | | hour later, we quit."I can't do it," John gasped. "Can't get |
| me, and I could only say, "I've heard of these | | | | enough air." We were at about 11,000 feet, and we |
| things."We did have some gear: backpacks, sleeping | | | | knew there was less oxygen, but this was the first |
| bags, and a tent. John had good hiking boots, but mine | | | | time John had actually been this high on foot. I once |
| were more like high-top shoes. Neither of us had ever | | | | drove higher in Colorado, but apparently driving wasn't |
| used crampons or an ice axe, so we went the few | | | | a strenuous enough for me to notice the thinner air. I |
| blocks across town to see what the guy at the | | | | noticed it here. We both did. We sat down and rested |
| climbing store had to say."Have you done any climbing | | | | for a minute."Are you sure," I asked. He was - I wasn't. |
| before?" he asked us."A little," I answered, | | | | It was light now, and John didn't see any problem hiking |
| remembering the buildings we used to climb on as | | | | down the four hours to the car alone. I would go on to |
| teenagers, and the rocks we had recently scrambled | | | | the summit, and then come back down by evening. I |
| up in Oregon. I figured we were ready for Mount | | | | had to continue. Mount Shasta was my first mountain, |
| Shasta."Well, you can't put crampons on those boots," | | | | and I hadn't even used the poop bag yet.Altitude |
| he said to John, "and you sure can't put them on | | | | SicknessThe "Red Bank" is a line of broken cliffs |
| those," he told me, shaking his head at my shoes. | | | | above Avalanche Gully. I scrambled, climbed, slipped on |
| Crampons apparently need rigid boots - our | | | | ice, and eventually found a way up and over. Then |
| mountaineering lesson of the day. We could rent them, | | | | there were long steep slopes covered in loose rocks, |
| but only if we rented real mountaineering boots also. | | | | with a few bamboo sticks marking the way. My route |
| "And you'll need ice axes, of course." I felt a pain in my | | | | converged with that of the other climbers, who had |
| wallet.Backpacking On Mount Shasta (Too Poor For | | | | come up the snow-slope route with crampons and ice |
| Climbing)A speeding ticket in North Dakota had | | | | axes.After much climbing, I finally made it to the |
| strained the budget, and Mount Shasta was another | | | | summit, which is called Misery hill, because it isn't |
| detour from the route and the budget. We could, we | | | | actually the summit. It just seems like it should be. |
| decided, hike up the mountain and do a little | | | | There was still a mile of snow to cross, and then more |
| backpacking. Still, I had to ask, "Do people climb Shasta | | | | rocky terrain. One snow field had three-foot-high |
| without gear?" The store owner realized that the sale | | | | peaks covering it, like a huge merange pie.I rested a |
| was lost."It's been done," he answered impatiently."It's | | | | moment, and realized I'd been hearing a new sound. |
| been done," I reminded John as we drove up the road | | | | Bang! Bang! Bang! It was the inside of my head, which |
| to Mount Shasta. He didn't answer, which was a good | | | | had never been so loud before. Hmm...interesting. I got |
| sign. I watched the Pine trees go by, and | | | | used to the noise and pain after an hour or so.I got |
| absentmindedly poked a finger through a hole in my | | | | used to the smell of sulphur too. Mount Shasta, it turns |
| shoe."Old Ski Bowl Trailhead," John said. I looked over | | | | out, is a volcano. When John Muir climbed it more than |
| at the sign. "7,900 feet." We were at the trailhead, | | | | a hundred years earlier, he had to huddle next to the |
| along with forty other cars, and it was early enough to | | | | hot sulphur gas vents to survive a night near the peak. |
| hit the trail.Mount Shasta Poop BagsWe looked at the | | | | He was alternately freezing and burning.At The Top |
| registration forms, and had a decision to make. There | | | | Of Mount Shasta"So this is the top?" I mumbled lamely |
| was a $10 fee to hike or climb above "Horse Camp," | | | | to the guy who had just told me the John Muir story. |
| at 8,400 feet. John pointed to a pile of paper bags, | | | | Clouds, and smoke from forest fires, obscured the |
| each with a handful of cat litter in it, and a plastic bag | | | | view in every direction, but it felt good to be so high, |
| to put it in. These were for carrying our excrement off | | | | and down to the east, I saw my first glacier, a few |
| the mountain, a requirement above 10,000 feet. That | | | | hundred feet below."You can write your name in the |
| clinched it. We put $10 each in the envelope and | | | | register there," the guy told me, pointing to something in |
| dropped it in the slot. We couldn't pass up the | | | | the rocks. Guestbooks on top of mountains? Another |
| opportunity to poop in a bag in the mountains. I took | | | | lesson for the day. I signed in, wrote some comment, |
| two for myself, in case of good luck.An easy trail took | | | | and started down the mountain.Sun cups, or whatever |
| us to the hut and spring at Horse Camp. We filled our | | | | they call those depresions in the snow, fill with water in |
| water bottles. The dayhikers looked up at the mountain | | | | the warm afternoon sun - another discovery. I'd climb |
| through cameras, while the climbers cooked noodles | | | | out of one ten-foot-wide bowl and slide into the pond |
| and discussed weather reports. They looked at my | | | | at the bottom of the next. This was the pattern until I |
| shoes and smiled at each other when I mentioned we | | | | thankfully reached the ankle-twisting mile of rocks piled |
| might climb Mount Shasta.After Horse Camp the trail | | | | up below Helen Lake. Climbing down, I realized, is more |
| gets steeper and rockier. The trees end at about | | | | difficult than climbing up, or at least more dangerous.I |
| 8,500 feet, leaving only grasses, flowers, and other | | | | found the trail, my headache disappeared, I reached |
| tundra plants. Then the trail gets lost in the rocks just | | | | the road, where John was waiting. By evening we |
| before the steep climb up to Helen Lake.Wind And | | | | were driving towards Michigan, Mount Shasta hidden in |
| Rain At Helen LakeThere is no lake. Helen lake is a | | | | the clouds and smoke behind us. Oh, and yes, I did get |
| more-or-less level area of snow and ice. At the edge, | | | | to use the poop bag. Somewhere around 11,500 feet, I |
| overlooking Horse Camp far below, there are dusty | | | | think, which I remembered when I was looking through |
| clearings in the rocks where the climbers camp. We | | | | my pack. "Pull over at the nearest garbage can," I told |
| found an empty spot and we set up camp. The wind | | | | John.Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and |
| was howling. We were at 10,440 feet.About the time | | | | advocate ultralight backpacking. |
| the rain started, I realized it might have been a bad | | | | |