Backpacking

[clackamascoug]

It's amazing how weathered and fragile all those rocks look.

[BigPiney]

Half dome permits and Whitney permits lotteries close in the next week or so. Go do something fun this summer.

[creekster]

Half dome permits and Whitney permits lotteries close in the next week or so. Go do something fun this summer.

We are signing up to do half dome again this year, but some of the locals told me if you show up during the week and go after the main summer rush there is a very good chance that you will get returned day permits for Whitney. DO you concur?

[PaloAltoCougar]

Half dome permits and Whitney permits lotteries close in the next week or so. Go do something fun this summer.

I expect Whitney will be an especially fun challenge this year, at least until late summer. I've never done it and I'm thinking this year might not be the best time to start. We're gathering the entire brood at Tahoe in late July and I fear the usual big hike we do will be a little muddier than usual.

[BigPiney]

We are signing up to do half dome again this year, but some of the locals told me if you show up during the week and go after the main summer rush there is a very good chance that you will get returned day permits for Whitney. DO you concur?

I have never had a problem getting whitney permits the day before. They always seem to be available midweek. You do have to be in Lone Pine to get them.

I also think it depends on which route you are taking. If you are doing it all in one day then that is easier than staying at trail camp. My favorite route up is the Mountaineers route, but this year I would wait till late August for that as the snow may never melt. You can also do that as an overnight and stay at boy scout lake.

[bluegoose]

Climbing Mount Shasta tomorrow. It was the one thing that my 18 year old son wanted to accomplish this summer (too bad making a lot of money wasn't as high of a priority...), so we asked a friend with several previous summits to help get us to the top.

Starting at 2:00am from Bunny Flat, which is right about 7,000 feet. Hoping to make it to Helen Lake by 5:00am, where we will hopefully ditch our snow shoes and don our crampons. From there, things get steep and slow all the way to the top. Shasta still has a ton of snow, which will make it a much safer summit. Falling rocks become a huge danger up high as the snow melts. Avalanche danger is pretty low this weekend, but there is a chance for some weather tomorrow afternoon, so we are hoping to hit the summit by about 10:00am and make it a good way down within the first two hours. If the temps warm up a bit by then, it is supposed to be an amazing glissade, covering about 4,000 vertical feet in one shot.

Started my dose of Diamox yesterday, hoping to avoid a return of the awful altitude sickness I suffered when I climbed clouds peak in Wyoming about 20 years ago. Wish me luck that i don't die....

[Pelado]

Climbing Mount Shasta tomorrow. It was the one thing that my 18 year old son wanted to accomplish this summer (too bad making a lot of money wasn't as high of a priority...), so we asked a friend with several previous summits to help get us to the top.

Starting at 2:00am from Bunny Flat, which is right about 7,000 feet. Hoping to make it to Helen Lake by 5:00am, where we will hopefully ditch our snow shoes and don our crampons. From there, things get steep and slow all the way to the top. Shasta still has a ton of snow, which will make it a much safer summit. Falling rocks become a huge danger up high as the snow melts. Avalanche danger is pretty low this weekend, but there is a chance for some weather tomorrow afternoon, so we are hoping to hit the summit by about 10:00am and make it a good way down within the first two hours. If the temps warm up a bit by then, it is supposed to be an amazing glissade, covering about 4,000 vertical feet in one shot.

Started my dose of Diamox yesterday, hoping to avoid a return of the awful altitude sickness I suffered when I climbed clouds peak in Wyoming about 20 years ago. Wish me luck that i don't die....

Good luck, bluegoose. Please don't die.

[SteelBlue]

Good luck, bluegoose. Please don't die.

Yeah, about that...

[BigPiney]

Yeah, about that...

He said please.

[bluegoose]

Good luck, bluegoose. Please don't die.

Yeah, about that...

Yeah, about that....

Our day started at midnight on Friday night after getting a whopping one hour of sleep. Drove to the trailhead and started hiking at 2:00am. Still a ton of snow up there; about 6 feet at the parking lot (7,000 feet elevation), and who knows how much up higher. So we put our snow shoes on from the start and began the slog up the lower slopes. After about an hour we rose above the tree line and the pitch got quite a bit steeper. Our first rest stop was scheduled at Helen Lake, which is base camp for summit attempts on Shasta, and is about 3.5 miles from the start. It sits at 10,300 feet and has room for probably 40-50 tents. We climbed through a big gully called Avalanche Gulch. Made great time, arriving just after 5:30 am. Were hoping for 5:00, but it was so icy that it slowed us down a bit.

While stopped at Helen, we ate some food and put on some warmer clothes. I was feeling pretty good at this point. Legs were doing fine, and the breathing was starting to accommodate a little to the elevation, the thing I was most worried about. We continued the ascent up toward the area called the Red Banks, a steep section of exposed rocks that leads to one of the higher ridges that leads to the final summit push. We had plans to change out of our snow snows and don our crampons and ice axes at a big bank of rocks that was about 500 feet above Lake Helen. To get there was a steep side-sloping section, that was covered with about 2 inches of solid ice. It was a lot of work to break through the outer crust to get much traction. But we were doing well and still feeling pretty good as we approached the flat rocks.

When I was about 2 steps away from the rocks, by buddy shouted out to the son, who was about 10 feet behind me, that it was super icy and to be careful, and that if you slipped you wouldn't slide forever, but you would probably go a long ways. About 3 seconds later, my right snow shoe was unable to gain any traction and didn't break through the ice when I bore weight on it, and down I went.

Next thing I knew, I was flying face first down the icy slopes. Hiking poles went flying, and my ice ax was still strapped on to my backpack, well out of reach. Within seconds, I was at full speed, with nothing but a steep ice and snow field below me. Strava tells me I hit 36.1 mph and the slope was between 30 and 45 degrees. Try as I might, I couldn't gain any traction, and the snow shoes on my feet weren't a bit of help, and really were kind of dangerous, knowing that if I started going feet first and they gained any purchase on the ice that I could get tomahawked down the mountain. My hands were on fire from the friction on the ice, despite wearing snow gloves.

I'm not really sure what happened, but all of a sudden I was able to catch something with my left hand which swung my legs down and flipped me onto my back in one motion. My butt formed a big snow plow and I somehow came screeching to a stop. I was still on a crazy steep slope, so I started to try to dig a seat in the snow to keep me from sliding further. A couple of seconds later I looked uphill and one of my ski poles was coming right at me like a torpedo. It basically hit me in the back and I grabbed it and used it to dig into the ice around me.

I grabbed my phone and texted the guys up the hill that I was ok but that my day was done. I checked my altimeter and found that I had lost about 800 vertical feet and a 1/3 of a mile of distance in about 45 seconds. They made their way back down to where i was sitting, taking about 20 minutes to do so after trading out their shoes for crampons.

It was still way too icy to glissade down, so we had to walk the entire way, post-holing up to our calves and knees with each step until we got low enough to put our snow shoes back on. We were trying to figure out where I would have eventually slowed to a stop had I not stopped when I did. We found our likely answer when my buddy found the snow basket from my ski pole about 2,400 vertical feet down.

I've got a couple of gnarly friction blisters on my hands. Overall, I was very fortunate to escape with just a bunch of bruises and a few scrapes. It could have been much worse.

[falafel]

Glad you are okay goose. That is terrifying.

[Applejack]

I'm not really sure what happened, but all of a sudden I was able to catch something with my left hand which swung my legs down and flipped me onto my back in one motion. My butt formed a big snow plow and I somehow came screeching to a stop. I was still on a crazy steep slope, so I started to try to dig a seat in the snow to keep me from sliding further. A couple of seconds later I looked uphill and one of my ski poles was coming right at me like a torpedo. It basically hit me in the back and I grabbed it and used it to dig into the ice around me.

I think you know what it was: The Holy Ghost!!!!

Makes for a nice testimony next month.

[bluegoose]

I think you know what it was: The Holy Ghost!!!!

Makes for a nice testimony next month.

Well I am speaking in stake conference in two weeks. Hope to see you there for the rest of the story!!!

[BigPiney]

Yikes, that is really scary.

[Pelado]

Thank you for not dying. Next time, please don't make it so close.