ScottyP - Jan 25, 2015 9:05 pm Date Climbed: Jan 25, 2015
wind WINDWind
After making a wrong turn at Bunny I found myself high above AG, must be GB ! I continued above crossing gendarmes where I could and getting cliffed out often. I was solo, so it was an adventure. Got above the thumb before high winds turned me around.
mrchad9 - Jun 21, 2012 4:25 pm Date Climbed: Apr 8, 2012
Scenic
With ElGreco and as he described. The camp was very scenic as expected, and weather was cold, windy, and horrific overall above 13,000 feet (where most parties turned around). Summit was completely engulfed in rime.
ElGreco - May 6, 2012 2:14 am Date Climbed: Apr 8, 2012
Green Butte to Sargent's
With Chad. A windy spring weekend. Camped on the ridge. Turned back a little before Thumb Rock when altitude/asthma hit me and I felt like I couldn't get air in. The route is a winner - beautiful views, especially traversing on the E side around the gendarmes after the intersection with Sargent's. The crux was a short, mixed Class 4 chimney on the W side of the ridge after that traverse. Technical difficulties end after that.
Once as a dayhikie in 2011 with avy gulch descent. Other time as an overnight with a descent back via GB ridge. Fun ridge. More fun than Casaval in my opinion.
pjc30943 - Jun 30, 2011 5:29 am Date Climbed: Jun 27, 2011
Fun route, strange snow
GB/SR is a really fun route with mostly quality scrambling, and a very few short 4th/5th class sections that can probably be avoided if desired. The snow was unusual, and unstable with crampons given the weather cycles/winds/etc, making for slower then usual progress at times. We didn't break out the rope for these sketchy sections, but in hindsight should have. We camped at 12k on the ridge a few hundred feet from thumb rock, (windy at night despite being dug down and ridge walls), and summited to a gorgeous day.
jpsmyth - May 12, 2011 1:10 am Date Climbed: Jun 18, 2010
Green Butte Ridge
Conditions weren't the greatest but still a good climb. First time on Shasta since Sid and I climbed it in1987 via Bolum
Snowcamped near the top of Green Butte. Kind of a slog until reaching Sargents Ridge, which was a little melted out -- lots of rock scrambling in crampons and snow traversing, which took a while. Great scenery.
Descended Avy Gulch (whee !) after summitting and traversed back to Green Butte Ridge.
SKI - Jun 21, 2010 11:00 am Date Climbed: Jun 19, 2010
Gateway to Sargents
Knocked this guy out in a day. Overcame a headwall, oddly enough, to gain the ridge above treeline. Took it all the way to Shastarama, then hopped on the Sargents Ridge Express straight to the thumb. Breakable crust and skis on the back made traverses a slowgoing nightmare. Overall 9 hours car to Thumb Rock to car. Even made time to see some friends camped at Helen.
PellucidWombat - Feb 18, 2010 2:45 am Date Climbed: Feb 15, 2010
Back for Revenge!
I made it to the Sargents/Green Butte junction in January, but low snow made the route too slow-going and technical to continue. This time we had better snow, but a low start (road closure was at 5,000 ft!) This made for a long day between the approach, trail breaking in soft snow from Bunny Flat, route finding difficulties through the cliffs, and my partner's 'tweaked' leg acting up near the end of the route and really slowing our descent. All in all it was 26 hrs car-to-car, 22.5 miles & 9,400' of gain done on 800 calories of food. Next time I'll bring more snacks for this route!
Even with full snow conditions, I found the traverse through the gendarmes far harder in terms of route finding, steepness, and hazards. Definitely my favorite route on the mountain so far!
my buddy Chad and I climbed this route during incredibly calm, warm, spring conditions. We camped near Green Butte (~9500') and left for the summit around 2:15am. We encountered lots of fast-moving snow ridge on the lower portion, slowly progressing into exposed rock scrambling as the route merges with Sargents ridge. Some traversing around the upper pinnacles of the ridge tied us into Thumb Rock and the normal route. All in all a fun climb. I agree with the class 3 rating. There was some snow travel for short stretches on 50deg and longer stretches on 35deg. We topped out at 9:30am, which felt like an average ascent time.
The east side of lower GBR is open to snowmobiles, so don't expect too much solitude if you're in that neighborhood late morning-early evening on weekends.
As for descent, we opted not to deal with downclimbing the route and its rocks, which were frozen in the morning but likely not frozen in the late morning and afternoon. We descended the oven that is Avalanche Gulch and made a diagonal descending traverse from 10500' towards GBR at approx 10000'. This worked out well.
ScottyP - Jan 25, 2015 9:05 pm Date Climbed: Jan 25, 2015
wind WINDWindAfter making a wrong turn at Bunny I found myself high above AG, must be GB ! I continued above crossing gendarmes where I could and getting cliffed out often. I was solo, so it was an adventure. Got above the thumb before high winds turned me around.
mrchad9 - Jun 21, 2012 4:25 pm Date Climbed: Apr 8, 2012
ScenicWith ElGreco and as he described. The camp was very scenic as expected, and weather was cold, windy, and horrific overall above 13,000 feet (where most parties turned around). Summit was completely engulfed in rime.
ElGreco - May 6, 2012 2:14 am Date Climbed: Apr 8, 2012
Green Butte to Sargent'sWith Chad. A windy spring weekend. Camped on the ridge. Turned back a little before Thumb Rock when altitude/asthma hit me and I felt like I couldn't get air in. The route is a winner - beautiful views, especially traversing on the E side around the gendarmes after the intersection with Sargent's. The crux was a short, mixed Class 4 chimney on the W side of the ridge after that traverse. Technical difficulties end after that.
Vitaliy M. - Jul 1, 2011 3:22 pm
x2Once as a dayhikie in 2011 with avy gulch descent. Other time as an overnight with a descent back via GB ridge. Fun ridge. More fun than Casaval in my opinion.
pjc30943 - Jun 30, 2011 5:29 am Date Climbed: Jun 27, 2011
Fun route, strange snowGB/SR is a really fun route with mostly quality scrambling, and a very few short 4th/5th class sections that can probably be avoided if desired. The snow was unusual, and unstable with crampons given the weather cycles/winds/etc, making for slower then usual progress at times. We didn't break out the rope for these sketchy sections, but in hindsight should have. We camped at 12k on the ridge a few hundred feet from thumb rock, (windy at night despite being dug down and ridge walls), and summited to a gorgeous day.
jpsmyth - May 12, 2011 1:10 am Date Climbed: Jun 18, 2010
Green Butte RidgeConditions weren't the greatest but still a good climb. First time on Shasta since Sid and I climbed it in1987 via Bolum
rhyang - Dec 20, 2010 11:33 am
May 2009Snowcamped near the top of Green Butte. Kind of a slog until reaching Sargents Ridge, which was a little melted out -- lots of rock scrambling in crampons and snow traversing, which took a while. Great scenery.
Descended Avy Gulch (whee !) after summitting and traversed back to Green Butte Ridge.
SKI - Jun 21, 2010 11:00 am Date Climbed: Jun 19, 2010
Gateway to SargentsKnocked this guy out in a day. Overcame a headwall, oddly enough, to gain the ridge above treeline. Took it all the way to Shastarama, then hopped on the Sargents Ridge Express straight to the thumb. Breakable crust and skis on the back made traverses a slowgoing nightmare. Overall 9 hours car to Thumb Rock to car. Even made time to see some friends camped at Helen.
PellucidWombat - Feb 18, 2010 2:45 am Date Climbed: Feb 15, 2010
Back for Revenge!I made it to the Sargents/Green Butte junction in January, but low snow made the route too slow-going and technical to continue. This time we had better snow, but a low start (road closure was at 5,000 ft!) This made for a long day between the approach, trail breaking in soft snow from Bunny Flat, route finding difficulties through the cliffs, and my partner's 'tweaked' leg acting up near the end of the route and really slowing our descent. All in all it was 26 hrs car-to-car, 22.5 miles & 9,400' of gain done on 800 calories of food. Next time I'll bring more snacks for this route!
Even with full snow conditions, I found the traverse through the gendarmes far harder in terms of route finding, steepness, and hazards. Definitely my favorite route on the mountain so far!
cdog - Apr 20, 2009 10:12 pm Date Climbed: Apr 19, 2009
GBR-Sargents-summitmy buddy Chad and I climbed this route during incredibly calm, warm, spring conditions. We camped near Green Butte (~9500') and left for the summit around 2:15am. We encountered lots of fast-moving snow ridge on the lower portion, slowly progressing into exposed rock scrambling as the route merges with Sargents ridge. Some traversing around the upper pinnacles of the ridge tied us into Thumb Rock and the normal route. All in all a fun climb. I agree with the class 3 rating. There was some snow travel for short stretches on 50deg and longer stretches on 35deg. We topped out at 9:30am, which felt like an average ascent time.
The east side of lower GBR is open to snowmobiles, so don't expect too much solitude if you're in that neighborhood late morning-early evening on weekends.
As for descent, we opted not to deal with downclimbing the route and its rocks, which were frozen in the morning but likely not frozen in the late morning and afternoon. We descended the oven that is Avalanche Gulch and made a diagonal descending traverse from 10500' towards GBR at approx 10000'. This worked out well.
mdostby - Oct 27, 2008 10:30 pm
Green Butte RidgeMy first trip to Shasta was up Green Butte Ridge solo. Caught in stormy weather for two nights on the ridge.