Mt. Shasta

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So by now ya’ll know that there has to be something unusual about what you are about to read, otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten this email notification. And you would be right. While not particularly noteworthy in the scheme of saving lives or world peace, this one is top of the world for me.

The last couple of years Anthony and I have gone west of the Mississippi to see what adventure we could find. We have backpacked in Montana, repelled down a 16 story cliff, sat at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and walked to the edge of Angels’ Landing. (Remember I told you all to NEVER do this one in an earlier blog!) So, what’s next?

Go back several years with me when I posted about our climb of “Ol Doinyo Lengai”, the Mountain of God, in Tanzania. It was one of the hardest things I had ever done, yet one of the most memorable ones. 7 years later, we still talk about that trip.

So . . . why not climb a mountain in America? OK, it’s a plan . . . but America has 100’s of mountains, so which one? Seriously? Do I really have to think about this one? Of course not! There’s no other option than Mt. Shasta in California! Anthony made all the plans and Thursday June 12^th,, 2014 we headed to Northern California with Mt. Shasta as our destination.

As a side note, I have to throw in two amazing things that have also happened in the last few months. Joshua and Annie are expecting Reagan in August! And her daddy graduated pharmacy school, passed his tests and will be starting his new career as a pharmacist! As his graduation present Joshua and Annie have joined us on this trip. They however are NOT climbing the Mt.

Agenda in hand we headed to the Nashville airport. And everyone knows if you have an agenda then things go just as planned, right? Not so, agenda’s can and will be challenged by everything under the sun.

The ONLY major storm system going on in America west of the Mississippi the 12^th was in Dallas – guess where our connecting flight was? You got it . . . Dallas. We sat on planes both here in Nashville and in Dallas for a longer period of time than we were in the air. We missed our connecting flight to Reno, but were the top four standbys on the next flight. We arrived in Reno nearly 5 hours later than our AGENDA had us arriving, but we did arrive.

Once we made our way to the town of Mt. Shasta I found my name was plastered on signs, walls, billboards and buildings everywhere! Mt. Shasta, California. It was so weird! But I could get used to it. J

The next morning we arrived at 5^th Season outdoor store where we had gear reserved and met up with our guides from Shasta Mt. Guides, Dane, who is from North Carolina (which required no translator to the Californian language, he he) and Brian (who did require some language assistance now and then). The others in our climbing group were - Lori, a single lady from Oregon, and Rick and Lindsey, a father and daughter from California.

We said goodbye to Joshua and Annie and they headed south for a few days while Anthony and I went on to Mt. Shasta.

Now, some Mt. Shasta history – it’s a volcano, the last eruption was recorded in 1786. Of the 145 highest mountains in the entire lower continental United States, Mt. Shasta is the 22^nd highest at 14,179 feet. It is the 2^nd highest peak in the Cascade Range, and the 5^th highest peak in California. In other words, this isn’t just a big hill. There are 100,000’s of visitors a year that just hike and camp and never attempt to climb to the summit of the mountain. But there are only 15,000 of us each year crazy enough to attempt to make it to the summit. Only about 1 out of 3 succeed.

After briefing, gear check, signing of waivers (Yes! It’s dangerous! And after last year’s Angel Falls warning about climbing tall things, here I am again – only to a new level of crazy!), we head to our starting point. We drove up to Bunny Flat on the Mt. where we could park the car and begin hiking. The elevation at Bunny Flat is 6,890 ft. Point of reference – Nashville has an elevation of 597 ft.!

We began the 1.7 mile hike up to our first stop, Horse Camp. Our backpacks with gear, food, tent, sleeping bags, ice picks, crampons, water and clothes weighed in somewhere around 40 – 55 pounds I suppose. Try walking with a 50-pound bag of dog food on your back and you get the idea. This hike took us up 1,110 ft. to an elevation of 8000 ft. Even though only 1.7 miles, it took us nearly 3 hours. Yes, the air is thinner up here! We set up camp, talked and learned more about our climbing group and settled into the chilly night on Mt. Shasta. Horse camp has an incredible water source straight from the waters of Mt. Shasta. No filter required. The next morning we ate breakfast, broke camp, and had our last potty break with a seat and a door for 3 days. (See the picture with the bulls-eye and just let your imagination fill in the rest). Anthony had gotten a hot spot on his heel that we taped up hoping that it did not turn into a blister.

Our next stop was Hidden Valley where we would camp for 2 nights. This 2-mile section of the trail, took us to an elevation of 9,250 ft.! We’ve only been that high once, at Ol Doinyo Lengai, which is 10,459 ft. Once we arrived - WOW … what a view. What we didn’t know until we got to this point was that Mt. Shasta has three peaks. The one that we were camping beneath was not the summit. The summit was another 1,100 ft. climb beyond what we could see from our tent.

Next . . . SNOW camp. Snow camp was to teach us how to walk on snow using ‘crampons’, use an ice axe, and how to self arrest if we were to slip and begin sliding down the side of the mountain. Crampons are metal spikes that you strap to your boots. There is also a specific way that they want you to walk to help with traversing the steep slope and preserving as much energy as possible. Then there is the self-arrest. I didn’t really like the thought of “what if”, but it was necessary, so we pretended to fall and begin sliding down the small practice slope and then with a specific hold on the axe we would flip ourselves over face down, jam the pick end of the axe into the snow while at the same time digging our toes into the snow (which would have crampons on them) and arch our body up and away from the snow so our slick jackets and pants could get off the snow to help stop our slip-n-slide downward.

After snow camp we had a meeting about what the plan was for the next day and the climb up Mt. Shasta and some things to be aware of. Don’t fall!

To bed early and try to sleep since we would be getting up at about 2 a.m. to start the climb. Yes, 2 A.M.! We slept on and off and never very soundly. Both my hips have bruises from the ground (I am a side sleeper) and Anthony had to keep propping up on his pack because he is a side sleeper also. Additionally, he had shoulder surgery 4 months ago and doesn’t sleep well on the ground!

I heard the call to get up and we start putting on our gear, boots, and make our way to breakfast. We tape up his heel, which now has a big open blister, and hope that the tight tape and pad will get him through. We had broken down our packs the night before to just carry our water, food and extra coat. The rule is, hydrate - but don’t over drink, and eat at least 100 calories every hour. Ok … this I can do! J

It’s dark at 2 a.m., but there was a full moon the night before, and we each have a headlamp on our helmet to help shine the way. We start out on rocks and what they call scree. It’s a lot like big sand – one step forward two steps back – we liked walking on the snow better. From our tents to the snow took 30 mins. walking. Judging distance here is crazy weird. I stood watching these tiny dots come down off the mountain the day before and after a half hour it looked as if they had barely moved, but in reality they had moved more than 500 feet! So what seems like it should take just a few minutes turns into hours because of the vastness of distance. Almost like when you are looking at a map and you say, “How far is it to the next town?” and the answer is ½ inch! J

We get to the snow and take a break to put on our crampons, get our ice axe, and put away our walking poles. Every time we stopped the first rule Dane had, (our guide), was put on your “Puffy” – meaning your down coat outer layer that you didn’t keep on while climbing; unless the temperature really dropped. We have found a newfound loved fabric that I can tell you is amazingly warm, yet airy, and wicks moisture supremely. Merino wool. We bought long johns, and under layer shirts. It is so soft and warm and not itchy at all, unlike the traditional wool that we grew up with. I have found several really nice Merino wool sweaters at Goodwill and I am sold on its warmth. Where I am usually cold and hate the thoughts of being in the winter, having these layers of clothing made 100% difference in enjoying this trip.

As we begin the snow portion of the climb, we were attached to each other via ropes on our harnesses and carabiners, with a 5,000 lb. weight limit. I know I need to lose a few pounds, but this did make me feel a LOT safer. J We were separated into two groups. Anthony, myself, and Dane were together; Lori, Rick and Lindsey were attached to Brian. In the dark it didn’t seem to be that steep, but in reality it was a 30 – 40 degree slope. We walked back and forth, back and forth, slowly traversing (zigzagging) our way up the face of the mountain so we did not have to ascend straight up. At one point, we began a steep section that put us almost at about a 50 degree angle. During the night the snow had re-frozen so the crampons made a crunching sound as we walked. The spikes digging into the crust of the snow was the only thing that you could hear except your own breath and the occasional comment from one of our team and the guide checking in to see how we each were. Everyone’s thoughts were on keeping upright and not losing our foothold.

After several HOURS of climbing, the headlamps could be turned off as the sun was rising from the other side of the mountain. We were slowing inching our way up the side of the mountain. I was really surprised at how strong I felt. Don’t get me wrong, I was feeling the burn that the seemingly endless stair master session going on here caused – but I had not reached that point where I felt like I just could not go one step further. I will have to put in a plug here for the reason why I was feeling pretty strong at this point. The Dailey Method is a program that I learned about from Sophia Clanton, co-owner of the new facility in Nashville. Check it out, it is the hardest one-hour class I have ever done where there is NO cardio – but LOTS of core, alignment, and thigh work. Anthony is feeling strong too, but his blister is giving him a lot of pain.

We have been really fortunate the last couple of years in that all of the people we have been paired up with have been pleasant and easy to get along with. The bad thing about climbing with a group is that it is much like the musketeers, “one for all and all for one”. In the case of this trip with two guides, if the group goes up and one decides to quit, and there is not much distance between the two groups, a change up can occur and the one can be escorted down, while the rest move on. BUT, if one guide has taken one or more down, and then one in the second group who has moved on can’t continue, then even those who want to continue must come back down too. Leaving no one to finish even if the possibility was there.

This was the case on our trip. There were two guides and 5 climbers. Once we had been climbing for several hours Anthony had Dane check and re-taped his blister, which has now grown to the size of a half dollar. Dane, having to be brutally honest as he has literally our lives in his hands, checked it out, re-taped it, but gave some comments about what we needed to consider about the rest of the climb and the fact that even if Anthony continued to the top, he still has to come back down.

We continued for a bit longer, and Anthony decided to call it. He can take a lot of pain but knows where his limits are. Dane called Brian on his radio to tell him that he would be taking Anthony down, and he would bring me up to his group.

Now, most of you know me enough to know that I love a challenge. I love pushing myself, but I did not want to do this without Anthony. We are going on our 30^th year of marriage and these adventures are becoming something I look forward to us doing together. I think he wanted me to get to the top, more than I wanted to get to the top.

Yes, it is proverbial, so forgive me for saying it, but to me it wasn’t about succeeding and making it to the top, as much as it was about the journey that Anthony and I were having together. So I told Dane I would go down with him and Anthony. We had made it to 11,900 ft. at the point that we were standing; so, as is the custom in the south – I’ll say we made it to 12,000 ft.! J It’s a new record high for us, beating Ol Doinyo Lengai by 831 feet! YEAH! To put it in perspective – JUST starting from our tent, this distance up would be the equivalent of climbing a building with 248 floors! The empire state building only has 103 floors! The picture here has an arrow and bubble indicating where we got to before starting down.

Now comes going down . . . at this time the sun is up, and we can see where we were headed. NOW it’s scary! It was just shocked at how high we were. I couldn’t look long at where we were going before I literally got dizzy at the height. And going down, while you would THINK would be easier - is not! The pressure on the knees and the angle that you have to maintain to keep from toppling over and down, down, down, is painful. However, of all the parts of my body that were sore at the end of this whole trek, my neck is the sorest. Not sure why, but it is. Maybe the stress that I was holding in my shoulders and neck for fear of my body zooming down the seemingly never ending slippery slope of death to a pile of rocks at the bottom to catch me?? A little dramatic you say? I mean seriously, look at those pictures! If looking down a height of TWO Empire State Buildings, with no guard rail between you and the bottom doesn’t give you the slightest queasiness in your stomach, then you just ain’t right!

While we gathered ourselves to descend Brian and the other 3 continued. But not for long – we found out later that they continued on but kept getting slower and slower and then finally Lori, in her own words, “had a mental breakdown”, and just sat on the snow and cried. Lindsey said she too got incredibly emotional and had a good cry as well. So, they turned back before getting to the top of this section as well. They did get to about 12,700 ft. just short of the false summit, but no further.

SO – even if I had joined the others, I would not have summited this time around. Instead, we got to nap sooner than the others! Sweet!

As soon as we got back to camp Anthony had his boot off! The blister was almost bleeding! With us getting to camp sooner than the others, Dane was able to go ahead and get dinner started so that it was ready not too long after the others returned to camp and had a rest. Lori soon mentioned to me that she was not feeling well. She ate some soup and went to her tent. Brian went to check on her, and within just a few minutes she came out and mentioned she was having trouble breathing and wanted to leave as soon as she could. You could tell she was distraught and unnerved. Both guides were very caring and quickly made arrangements. Anthony and I helped her pack up and within 30 minutes they were on their way down. The next day Dane said that before they got to the bottom she was feeling better and they think she had a bit of an anxiety attack. Either way they did not make any delay in getting her down safely and were very, very, professional during the entire trip and ordeal.

The next day packing up and getting out was much easier as we did not have to take out our tents, and cooking gear. Shasta Mtn. Guides was sponsoring a climb to raise funds for breast cancer in the next couple of days and wanted us to leave those items to be there ready to use. We left camp at 8:15 and reached Bunny Flat at 11:00 – only 2 ¾ hours. Motivation for a bathroom, food, and bath (in that order! HA), kept us going at a quicker pace!

We checked our rented gear in, walked just a block down the street to get a BIG HAMBURGER and waited for Joshua and Annie to arrive.

It’s all downhill from there … no pun intended … another amazing trip!

Shasta – Mt. Shasta (scroll down for more pictures 😊 )

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