Skiing Mt. Shasta

Mt Shasta offers some of the greatest vertical in the Sierras. From Red Banks at 12,000ft, the mountain slopes down to Bunny Flats over five thousand feet below. Most of this ski run has a higher elevation than any of the peaks of Lake Tahoe ski resorts. This is why skiing Mt. Shasta has been a dream of mine for some time.

I drove up from San Francisco with a good friend of mine (despite the fact that he's a snowboarder) to make a two day attempt at the summit and descend on skis/snowboard. We planned to camp at Lake Helen and make for the summit in the early hours of the following day. It's the standard climbing profile for this mountain.

On the drive up north, the weather was perfect. Temps in the central valley were in the 90's and the skis were clear. The forecast showed a storm about three days out; but, with our schedule, we would complete the trip just as the storm arrived. Arriving at Shasta City, we chose a hotel and went to sleep early.

The next morning, we woke to find heavy clouds surrounding the mountain. Unfortunately, the weather system had a schedule of its own. We set a fast pace from Bunny Flats in hopes of beating the storm. Throughout the day, the situation steadily worsened. I changed from shorts into heavy weather gear. As we approached Lake Helen, the heaviest part of the storm hit with high winds and complete whiteout. Despite the fact that my pack weighed 60#, the wind tossed me around like a rag doll. We were both unable to advance in the storm.

We made an emergency bivy at 9,500 ft on a relatively level section. I shivered in my sleeping bag as I tried to warm up my hands, which had become numb. The wind thrashed at the tent. Ironically, this was almost an exact reply of an attempt my brother and I made in March of 2002.

After two hours, the storm calmed down a bit and we decided to retreat back to the car. Although I was looking forward to skiing down, I quickly found that skiing with a 60# pack was extremely difficult. It took all my strength just to stay stable. I drew from my childhood ski lessons and descended by alternating my skis between pizza pies and french fries. I took the photo at right as we descended at a moment when the weather broke. It didn't last long though.

After an hour of had skiing, I made it back to the car completely exhausted. We did not plan to hike and ski down in the same day. But doing so made for a 13 hour hike/ski in heavy packs and inclement weather.

We enjoyed a good nights' sleep and went back the next day, where, under clear blue skies, we hiked to Lake Helen, and enjoyed a fun ski run in the shadow of Mt. Shasta.