Larry Wallace, Gary Armstrong, Stacy McKinney and Jim Wells departed Bend about 2:30 pm June 20th headed to Shasta City and met David Marchi, Petit Pinson, and Linda, time for a nice dinner. David & Petit had been on the mountain a few days before and suggested we take the West Gully route since it was the only route that had adequate snow. We agreed and enjoyed our dinner and good visiting. We camped out near a yurt that David & Petit are using for the summer near Shasta City. During the night we outwaited two light rain showers but the bigger drops in the third got Larry & Jim up to quickly put on the rainfly. After a hearty pancake breakfast courtesy of Jim we stopped at the local organic market on the way up to the trailhead at Bunny Flat.
We squeezed into one of the last parking spots and marveled at the number of climbers. Jim wondered if there would be enough campsites for us all. David reassured that Shasta was a big mountain and that he'd left his tent and gear at the camp at Hidden Valley a few days before so there'd be at least one site for us. He also suggested we leave our pickets, harnesses and ropes in the car because the snow on our intended route was very suncupped and protection wasn't warranted. We were happy to lighten our loads.
With the paper work filled out & dump bags in the pack we headed up to Horse Camp and on to Hidden Valley led by Petit. David walked with Linda who was having some fit problems with her rented boots. We stopped for a bit at Horse Camp for some visiting, water & nibbles and arrived about 3 hrs. later at the 9,000' camp-in-a-rock-pile and found enough wind-shielded spots for our tents. The weather was cool and windy with occasional rain, which made the hike up to camp very pleasant, but the high winds and clouds had kept everyone from the summit that day. After a filling chicken & rice dinner courtesy of Gary we heard a report from one of the several guided groups camped close by that the weather was predicted to clear about midnight. Good news! We all turned in early hoping for few hours sleep before our 1:30 wake up call. About 11:00 the sky was clear and shone with a bazillion bright stars. The dark mountain highlighted the snow chutes which looked as if they were floating in the night sky. Kinda nice.
The hour finally arrived and we futzed around an hour and then started following the line of headlamps up the snow slope. David & Petit chose to climb with Linda whose boots hadn't improved any during the night.
Our ascent went up a wide gully to the S of the 'official' West Gully route to avoid its steep first pitch. At about 11,000' we traversed N across a low rock ridge and followed a thin finger of snow to the official route and continued up to the top of the gully at 13,200'. We took our first 'long' break here and put on our puffys (it was 27 with a nice breeze) and sunglasses and sunscreen since we had left the mountains' shadow. We then traversed across the top of the Whitney Glacier on a nice narrow trail and descended a bit to the bottom of Misery Hill. The 400' ascent of Misery wasn't that since most of the rocks were frozen together and the increasing wind kept us cool. The wind kept increasing all the way to the summit at 14,165', which we reached after almost 6 hrs. of trudging fun. From the top we could see Mt. Lassen, the Trinity Alps, the Three Sisters, and some mountains far to the SE (maybe in Nevada?). Smoke from the recently ignited lightening fires to the W covered most of the low elevations to the SW.
We lollygagged around the summit for a while enjoying the sunshine, the views, and meeting a fellow Bendite and Cascade Mountaineer Randi, who was climbing with her friends 16 yr. old son. After we'd eaten all the very dry bagels, cream cheese, cashews and raisins we could stand, and a bit of chocolate, we took the requisite summit photos and headed down out of the wind.
Descending over the talus of Misery Hill we realized, again, the usefulness of hiking with poles. As we began the descent of the West Side Gully the snow on the looong glissade tracks was still pretty hard. Gary slid on down to protect his newly-operated-on knee. The three others slid a bit, came to their senses & trudged on down. Larry took the ascent track, Stacey & Jim went down the official route to practice a bit on the last steep portion.
At about 10,500' a helicopter made diminishing circles over camp and landed near the tents. We heard later that a young man had twisted his ankle badly on the descent and needed a flight out. Apparently there was also a search going on for a couple who had called a friend about midnight saying they were lost just before losing phone contact. (They were found the next day by the RR tracks.) Just a reminder it does pay to be careful.
Arriving in camp we learned that Linda could only stand her foot pain up to about 10,000', so she, David & Petit played on the snow a while before returning to camp. Soon after we arrived these three struck camp & headed down the hill about 3:30 so David could make his once a decade Monday morning dental appointment. Larry, Gary & Stacey wanted to be home on Monday, Jim wouldn't have minded staying at camp but really didn't want to hitchhike back to Bend. After an hour of rest, tea, eating and stuffing gear willy-nilly into his pack Jim was ready for the descent.
The two-hour, 2,000 ft. descent to Bunny Flat was uneventful except that Stacy's custom footbeds had finally worn through some of her skin and a bit of her resolve. Pulling off our boots and relieving the ice chest of its contents felt pretty darn good.
We passed Petit, Linda, and David about a mile from camp. Apparently Linda's feet had been considerably tortured by her boots and her tennys offered a bit of relief, but her descent was still very slow.
We chowed on Mexican food in Mt. Shasta City before heading on to Bend. Somehow one of us was always awake to yack with Larry to help him stay awake. We arrived in Bend about 11:30 and were all very grateful for the summit, the excellent weather, the good snow, and safe travel. Above all, we were grateful for like-minded mountaineer friends whose company we enjoyed in a really great trip.
