Fiery Independence on the Cascadian Queen, Shasta!
Drove down on the 4th, early morning start at 3AM. The road to Bunny Flis an A+! Felt gassed near 50/50,but picked up speed as I passed Helen Lake, I didn't even need my crampons due to following the numerous tracks, until I reached the Heart. Going straight up the Red Banks my left crampon fell off, and I used it in parallel with my ice ax to climb up the warming snow and loose rock. Misery Hill is apt to the name, easy but tiring, but well worth the summit crater and the awful smelling sulphur. Almost record hot temperatures across northern Cali and southern Oregon, 55F even at 14,000 feet. 7 hours and 30 minutes up, and had a blast glissading down the Red Banks and Helen Lake all the way to 50/50. Beautiful day, could really see Eddy, Lassen, Shasta Lake , Trinity Lake, Castle Crags, Trinity Alps, and McLoughlin!! Could kind of make out Redding and Medford, barely. 4 hours and 50 down, for a total 12 hours and 20 minutes C2C. A little tougher than Adams, well worth it!!
laxatives - Sep 26, 2023 10:00 am Date Climbed: Jul 19, 2020
Crevasse Rescue Course via Hotlum Glacier
I just wanted to do some backcountry skiing but Matt pulled me into a Crevasse Rescue Course at Hotlum Glacier. Somehow ended up doing a lot more mountaineering than skiing over the next few years.
mikekernan - May 26, 2022 11:56 am Date Climbed: Mar 17, 2022
Solo Summit Ski via Avalanche Gulch
Climbed up Avalanche Gulch, sat on the summit and ate some peanut butter cups, then skied down. Great day!
Shasta was very hard. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. These mountains will humble you like no other. The first day I hiked with a group, got to 12600 ft and turned around due to time. I cried when I realized we needed to turn around. Saddened that I couldn't summit. On the hike down, I didn't want to walk away without summiting knowing that I've done most of it already. I thought about it and realized I could try again if I wanted instead of going home the next day.
The next day, I started at 7am, summited at 2pm, got down to the trailhead at 8 pm and car at 10 pm (down the road). The climb up was as brutal as the first day, it was very windy, maybe 30mph around 12000ft. The last 1000 feet of gain was very hard. I didn't pass by anyone. 3 groups passed me on the way up. This was my first 14'er hike on my own. The summit was nothing extraordinary - There were many butterflies on the way up, and bees and flies greeted me at the top. I snapped a few photos and came down. The way down was long, I think because I had climbed yesterday, my legs were pretty fatigued by this time.
Tips: There are a few routes to go up. This time I chose the switchback route which was much easier than the one that is straight down. When you go past the UFO rock, aim for the middle instead of the right side (loose rocks). Keep going once you go past the UFO rock, it is a slow uphill that wraps around to the summit. You might spot hot springs if you follow the sound!
bigjoesmith - May 30, 2021 9:38 pm Date Climbed: May 28, 2021
Clear Creek Route in good shape
The Clear Creek route was in good shape at the end of May, 2021. There is 30 foot wide patch of snow that covers the trail from about the 9400 level up to UFO rock. This snow is dirty, and early in the morning before it becomes soft, makes for very easy, firm footing. No back-sliding on scree. We walked up with boots, no crampons.
In addition the road to clear creek trailhead is in good shape. We had no issues with a Honda CRV. I think it would not be much of a problem in a two wheel drive right now.
jdavies212 - May 4, 2021 3:26 am Date Climbed: Sep 5, 1980
Penitentes, or Nieves Penitentes on Shasta
On my only summit of Shasta with three friends, we came upon a most unusual natural phenomenon after climbing past Red Banks. They have the names in the above title in addition to “snow penitents.” They were in a huge snowfield (or glacier) that took about an hour to cross before the final push to the summit.
There were thousands of little “penitent” white head-shrouded “monks” with heads bowed to the ground. They were from about 15 centimeters to 1.5 meters tall. Between them were narrow and deep snow cups where you had to place your feet, making it quite an unsteady hiking surface. Charles Darwin was the first to describe these in 1839.
The current information on Snow Penitents indicates they are caused by ice-melt when an ice field is at a particular angle to the sun in warmer seasons. The combination of dry winds and a dew point below freezing produce this quirk of nature (Article in Wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitente_(snow_formation)
For years, on the internet, only Shasta and certain peaks in the Andes were known to have these. In the last decade or two, all references to these on Shasta have disappeared. At the time (1980s), printed materials on Shasta also made reference to this phenomenon.
I’m wondering if these have indeed disappeared on Shasta? I know that Shasta is one of the few locations in the world where glaciers are growing. This, I’m thinking possibly that in the last 40 years, these have been obliterated by increasing glacial size and depth.
Anyone else have knowledge of this? Either by experience in climbing Shasta or by historical reference over the last 40-50 years?
rstenson - Apr 9, 2021 11:13 am Date Climbed: May 26, 2016
Avy Gulch on skis
summited!
cjwhat - Aug 27, 2020 3:53 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2019
Clear Creek
Backpacked in from trailhead and spent the night at about 8,000 ft. The next morning Heidi Hill and I did the long slog pretty much straight up to the summit.
huskertriguy - Aug 3, 2020 5:27 pm Date Climbed: Jul 10, 2020
Finished Business
The forecast up and down the North Cascades was lousy, and I wanted a bit of redemption so Shasta would not rattle around in my brain all winter long. So although the conditions on Avy Gulch were less than optimal, as I had no time to find partners for the other routes and with a bomber weather outlook for the Shasta, I chose to make the drive.
I started walking at Bunny Flat @ 1:00, having left home at an obscene hour of the morning. I got to Horse Camp in 45 min and spent 25 min talking to climbers who had summited earlier in the day; they said they’d observed no rockfall so that was a good sign. I arrived at Helen Lake at 4:45; the pace was quite leisurely from Horse Camp. Likely 10-20 folks were already set up at Helen Lake when I arrived, which was delightfully sparse. I was able to find a site well apart from the crowd. A couple folks showed me a hole dug for snowmelt to filter water, but as I set up my bivy bag I heard running water down in the gully to the east After tromping across a small snowfield and a little looking, sure enough I found a tiny little stream — just enough to dip my BeFree into. I felt far more comfortable with this than with the standing water in the hole right in the midst of camp, no matter how freshly dug.
On my walk up from Horse Camp, dark clouds had rolled in obscuring the summit. I took advantage of my signal to check the forecast, and it still looked great by the 3 sources I consulted. As I crawled into the bivy bag at 7, I observed a rockfall coming down the ridge line that extends to the south of Thumb Rock, though it was not near the route. Up until midnight I heard several others which did give me pause.
I started moving a little after 3 a.m. Several parties had started before me, though I passed all of them except for one within the first hour. For this first hour or so I was able to walk without crampons and ice axe; however once the snow hardened I took the time to transition. The last party ahead of me was a young couple. I noted that their headlamps were persisting up the gully between Red Banks. Although I'd heard from other climbers some concern over the crevasse behind Thumb Rock, given all the rockfall I'd heard the night prior and the couple on the route ahead of me, I elected to take the route off to the right of Red Banks. The crevasse on this back side was very easily avoided, and I only had to take a few steps on the glacier there and bypass a moat before I was on the ridgeline leading toward Misery Hill.
I caught up to the young couple at the base of Misery Hill. They'd expressed surprise that I was still only in my baselayer, as the temperatures had dropped considerably above Red Banks, but I tend to run warm. As I took a break they continued on. I believe they summited about 5 minutes before me. The three of us savored the views to ourselves for about 30 minutes with no other parties in sight. Only once I was descending did I see the first of several parties crest Misery Hill.
Nearly every party I encountered seemed ill-equipped and unprepared for the route and conditions. One man told me he was averaging about 500 vertical feet an hour. Several had asked about glissading. A number of folks with trekking poles and tennis shoes. It is no surprise that this area of the mountain sees the most incidents.
Descending back to Helen Lake was ssllooww & miserable due to the icy snow. Neither plunge-stepping nor glissading were possible given the conditions, and it was a matter of negotiating deep sun cups and postholes left from climbers from earlier in the season. I was back to Helen Lake at 11. From there I took an hour to eat, rehydrate, pack, and savor the last of my time on Shasta.
I knew going in that it would be late in the season for this route, and I certainly would not consider it any later in the year than this (depending upon the conditions and the year).
BKW - Jul 1, 2020 10:58 am Date Climbed: Jun 8, 2019
The Wind!
Made it to near the top of misery hill where the wind turned all parties on the mountain around. Probably 80 miles per hour. The wind was also bitterly cold with nice ice shards in it.
Besides that, great conditions. There was snow all the way to the parking lot.
utahjimk - Jun 30, 2020 7:03 pm Date Climbed: Jun 26, 2020
my first really high Cascade peak!
with Wasatch Mountain Club group. We had fine weather! Via Avalanche Gulch route.
huskertriguy - Jun 26, 2020 12:47 am Date Climbed: Jun 15, 2020
Thwarted by high winds
This was part of a trip pursuing county high points for an itinerary that ended up (adaptability and all that) including Modoc, Lassen, Siskiyou, Lake/Colusa, Glenn, Mendocino, Butte, Tehama, Humboldt, & Trinity counties. (As it happens, Siskiyou -- Mt. Shasta -- was the primary objective on this tour, and it was the only unsuccessful summit attempt.)
Ben C. joined me for this objective. Our plan was to do a 2-day trip camping at Helen Lake. We slept at Bunny Flat the night prior to trekking up to Helen Lake. I am learning this is perhaps not the best idea, at least not unless you are planning on getting up at midnight. The year prior I slept at Bunny Flat and was constantly disrupted by d-bag snowmobilers. This year it was climbers who did not know how to prepare without shouting across the parking lot. Seriously -- do not be that group.
So it was in the morning we got a slow start, but we were in no particular hurry with plenty of time to get to Helen Lake. We did not start walking until 11 a.m.
While there we made a final check of the forecast. The very favorable forecast that had presented itself for our window -- and the reason we coordinated our attempt to land on those dates -- had regressed some. 35-45 mph winds were now forecast to start around 2-5 a.m. As we were already there, we headed up to Helen Lake and hoped for the best.
The snow started at about 9200', and it was pretty slushy, but not so much that it slowed progress. As we headed up we met a couple rangers who advised that camping at Cleavage Point (as they called it, about 200' below Helen Lake) would provide slightly better protection against the wind, and it would also be much quieter. Here there were several spots, and we selected one with a higher berm and minimal snow shoveling. We made it up from Bunny Flat in 3:40, but that included 30 minutes hanging out at Horse Camp talking to others and another 10 minute break at 9200'.
While setting up camp we watched as a helicopter made several attempts to land above Helen Lake for an evacuation. They eventually managed it. We never did hear the full story on that, but it is the most common area on the mountain for injuries etc.
We awoke to our 11 p.m. alarm with wind shaking the tent. It did not seem too bad, but once we stepped out it was quite cold, well below freezing -- and slightly concerning given the freezing level was forecast for 12,500'. We elected to set another alarm for midnight to see if things would improve. They didn't. We set one final alarm for 1 a.m. in one last-ditch hope for an improvement in conditions. In this time the wind started to batter the tent such that we were using all our appendages to hold it up from compressing atop us and to hold down the corners as we took turns tightening the guy lines. At 1 a.m. we did see 3-4 headlamps heading up which seemed unwise.
From 1-4:30 we did not sleep as we braced against the wind. By 4:30 we were done waiting for first light and started packing. As we started descending we saw one individual climber at the far end of the snowfield ascending toward Helen Lake. Every few steps (s)he would keel over and brace for a few seconds before continuing. I tried racing over but could not reach them in time before they ascended above me, and it was impossible shouting over the wind. Around 9200' we met a man and two teenage boys, each clad in cotton hoodies and with one daypack with enough space to hold a 100-ounce bladder between them. They were hellbent on summiting.
From Horse Camp we met several pairs of skiers on their way up, but none of them were looking to summit. We were back at the parking lot by 8 a.m., where we learned gusts at Helen Lake were in excess of 60 mph -- 80-90 mph at the summit.
tcingrum - Jun 20, 2020 8:39 am Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2020
Gulch
Great climb if snow conditions are good.
kevinsa - Jun 17, 2020 5:03 pm Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2020
Shasta
A bit windy after passing The Thumb, but we made it work.
Sarah Simon - Jun 5, 2020 7:26 am Date Climbed: Jun 3, 2020
Amazing weather on Avalanche Gulch
Prior to our climb, the weather was cold and damp. Climbers were returning chilled and soaked to town. We got so lucky on weather! Sunny and “warm”, with only high winds to contend with above the notch between The Thumb and Red Banks.
Gorgeous, burly mountain. I really enjoyed this one!
Cedar - Aug 19, 2019 11:33 pm Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2017
One Long Day/Night
Long hike up from Clear Creek as an extended "pit stop" on the drive north to the eclipse. Watched the sunset from the top through thick wildfire smoke, and descended in the dark. Otherwise, perfectly clear weather all through the afternoon and night. Lots of bats out and about at night on the final stretch of trail by the trailhead.
Guilty - Aug 13, 2019 10:32 pm Date Climbed: Jun 29, 2019
Sargent Ridge Deviation route
One very long day with some steep snow/ice climbs.
Took Avalanche Gulch up, spectacular glissade from Red Banks down to camp
Varcho - Jul 19, 2019 1:27 pm Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2019
perfect day
was a great day for a tough climb!
Ryland - Jul 18, 2019 6:22 am Date Climbed: Jul 9, 2011
Tough solo day
This was a tough solo climb in a snowy year, though I was rewarded with spectacular views. Started from the car park (where there was still snow) at midnight and climbed via Avalanche Gulch, reaching the summit just after 10am.
Jowzynkyn - Jul 18, 2024 1:04 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2024
Fiery Independence on the Cascadian Queen, Shasta!Drove down on the 4th, early morning start at 3AM. The road to Bunny Flis an A+! Felt gassed near 50/50,but picked up speed as I passed Helen Lake, I didn't even need my crampons due to following the numerous tracks, until I reached the Heart. Going straight up the Red Banks my left crampon fell off, and I used it in parallel with my ice ax to climb up the warming snow and loose rock. Misery Hill is apt to the name, easy but tiring, but well worth the summit crater and the awful smelling sulphur. Almost record hot temperatures across northern Cali and southern Oregon, 55F even at 14,000 feet. 7 hours and 30 minutes up, and had a blast glissading down the Red Banks and Helen Lake all the way to 50/50. Beautiful day, could really see Eddy, Lassen, Shasta Lake , Trinity Lake, Castle Crags, Trinity Alps, and McLoughlin!! Could kind of make out Redding and Medford, barely. 4 hours and 50 down, for a total 12 hours and 20 minutes C2C. A little tougher than Adams, well worth it!!
laxatives - Sep 26, 2023 10:00 am Date Climbed: Jul 19, 2020
Crevasse Rescue Course via Hotlum GlacierI just wanted to do some backcountry skiing but Matt pulled me into a Crevasse Rescue Course at Hotlum Glacier. Somehow ended up doing a lot more mountaineering than skiing over the next few years.
mikekernan - May 26, 2022 11:56 am Date Climbed: Mar 17, 2022
Solo Summit Ski via Avalanche GulchClimbed up Avalanche Gulch, sat on the summit and ate some peanut butter cups, then skied down. Great day!
thebetawoman - Apr 5, 2022 6:50 pm Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2021
Clear Creek route back to backShasta was very hard. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. These mountains will humble you like no other. The first day I hiked with a group, got to 12600 ft and turned around due to time. I cried when I realized we needed to turn around. Saddened that I couldn't summit. On the hike down, I didn't want to walk away without summiting knowing that I've done most of it already. I thought about it and realized I could try again if I wanted instead of going home the next day.
The next day, I started at 7am, summited at 2pm, got down to the trailhead at 8 pm and car at 10 pm (down the road). The climb up was as brutal as the first day, it was very windy, maybe 30mph around 12000ft. The last 1000 feet of gain was very hard. I didn't pass by anyone. 3 groups passed me on the way up. This was my first 14'er hike on my own. The summit was nothing extraordinary - There were many butterflies on the way up, and bees and flies greeted me at the top. I snapped a few photos and came down. The way down was long, I think because I had climbed yesterday, my legs were pretty fatigued by this time.
Tips: There are a few routes to go up. This time I chose the switchback route which was much easier than the one that is straight down. When you go past the UFO rock, aim for the middle instead of the right side (loose rocks). Keep going once you go past the UFO rock, it is a slow uphill that wraps around to the summit. You might spot hot springs if you follow the sound!
bigjoesmith - May 30, 2021 9:38 pm Date Climbed: May 28, 2021
Clear Creek Route in good shapeThe Clear Creek route was in good shape at the end of May, 2021. There is 30 foot wide patch of snow that covers the trail from about the 9400 level up to UFO rock. This snow is dirty, and early in the morning before it becomes soft, makes for very easy, firm footing. No back-sliding on scree. We walked up with boots, no crampons.
In addition the road to clear creek trailhead is in good shape. We had no issues with a Honda CRV. I think it would not be much of a problem in a two wheel drive right now.
jdavies212 - May 4, 2021 3:26 am Date Climbed: Sep 5, 1980
Penitentes, or Nieves Penitentes on ShastaOn my only summit of Shasta with three friends, we came upon a most unusual natural phenomenon after climbing past Red Banks. They have the names in the above title in addition to “snow penitents.” They were in a huge snowfield (or glacier) that took about an hour to cross before the final push to the summit.
There were thousands of little “penitent” white head-shrouded “monks” with heads bowed to the ground. They were from about 15 centimeters to 1.5 meters tall. Between them were narrow and deep snow cups where you had to place your feet, making it quite an unsteady hiking surface. Charles Darwin was the first to describe these in 1839.
The current information on Snow Penitents indicates they are caused by ice-melt when an ice field is at a particular angle to the sun in warmer seasons. The combination of dry winds and a dew point below freezing produce this quirk of nature (Article in Wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitente_(snow_formation)
For years, on the internet, only Shasta and certain peaks in the Andes were known to have these. In the last decade or two, all references to these on Shasta have disappeared. At the time (1980s), printed materials on Shasta also made reference to this phenomenon.
I’m wondering if these have indeed disappeared on Shasta? I know that Shasta is one of the few locations in the world where glaciers are growing. This, I’m thinking possibly that in the last 40 years, these have been obliterated by increasing glacial size and depth.
Anyone else have knowledge of this? Either by experience in climbing Shasta or by historical reference over the last 40-50 years?
rstenson - Apr 9, 2021 11:13 am Date Climbed: May 26, 2016
Avy Gulch on skissummited!
cjwhat - Aug 27, 2020 3:53 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2019
Clear CreekBackpacked in from trailhead and spent the night at about 8,000 ft. The next morning Heidi Hill and I did the long slog pretty much straight up to the summit.
huskertriguy - Aug 3, 2020 5:27 pm Date Climbed: Jul 10, 2020
Finished BusinessThe forecast up and down the North Cascades was lousy, and I wanted a bit of redemption so Shasta would not rattle around in my brain all winter long. So although the conditions on Avy Gulch were less than optimal, as I had no time to find partners for the other routes and with a bomber weather outlook for the Shasta, I chose to make the drive.
I started walking at Bunny Flat @ 1:00, having left home at an obscene hour of the morning. I got to Horse Camp in 45 min and spent 25 min talking to climbers who had summited earlier in the day; they said they’d observed no rockfall so that was a good sign. I arrived at Helen Lake at 4:45; the pace was quite leisurely from Horse Camp. Likely 10-20 folks were already set up at Helen Lake when I arrived, which was delightfully sparse. I was able to find a site well apart from the crowd. A couple folks showed me a hole dug for snowmelt to filter water, but as I set up my bivy bag I heard running water down in the gully to the east After tromping across a small snowfield and a little looking, sure enough I found a tiny little stream — just enough to dip my BeFree into. I felt far more comfortable with this than with the standing water in the hole right in the midst of camp, no matter how freshly dug.
On my walk up from Horse Camp, dark clouds had rolled in obscuring the summit. I took advantage of my signal to check the forecast, and it still looked great by the 3 sources I consulted. As I crawled into the bivy bag at 7, I observed a rockfall coming down the ridge line that extends to the south of Thumb Rock, though it was not near the route. Up until midnight I heard several others which did give me pause.
I started moving a little after 3 a.m. Several parties had started before me, though I passed all of them except for one within the first hour. For this first hour or so I was able to walk without crampons and ice axe; however once the snow hardened I took the time to transition. The last party ahead of me was a young couple. I noted that their headlamps were persisting up the gully between Red Banks. Although I'd heard from other climbers some concern over the crevasse behind Thumb Rock, given all the rockfall I'd heard the night prior and the couple on the route ahead of me, I elected to take the route off to the right of Red Banks. The crevasse on this back side was very easily avoided, and I only had to take a few steps on the glacier there and bypass a moat before I was on the ridgeline leading toward Misery Hill.
I caught up to the young couple at the base of Misery Hill. They'd expressed surprise that I was still only in my baselayer, as the temperatures had dropped considerably above Red Banks, but I tend to run warm. As I took a break they continued on. I believe they summited about 5 minutes before me. The three of us savored the views to ourselves for about 30 minutes with no other parties in sight. Only once I was descending did I see the first of several parties crest Misery Hill.
Nearly every party I encountered seemed ill-equipped and unprepared for the route and conditions. One man told me he was averaging about 500 vertical feet an hour. Several had asked about glissading. A number of folks with trekking poles and tennis shoes. It is no surprise that this area of the mountain sees the most incidents.
Descending back to Helen Lake was ssllooww & miserable due to the icy snow. Neither plunge-stepping nor glissading were possible given the conditions, and it was a matter of negotiating deep sun cups and postholes left from climbers from earlier in the season. I was back to Helen Lake at 11. From there I took an hour to eat, rehydrate, pack, and savor the last of my time on Shasta.
I knew going in that it would be late in the season for this route, and I certainly would not consider it any later in the year than this (depending upon the conditions and the year).
BKW - Jul 1, 2020 10:58 am Date Climbed: Jun 8, 2019
The Wind!Made it to near the top of misery hill where the wind turned all parties on the mountain around. Probably 80 miles per hour. The wind was also bitterly cold with nice ice shards in it.
Besides that, great conditions. There was snow all the way to the parking lot.
utahjimk - Jun 30, 2020 7:03 pm Date Climbed: Jun 26, 2020
my first really high Cascade peak!with Wasatch Mountain Club group. We had fine weather! Via Avalanche Gulch route.
huskertriguy - Jun 26, 2020 12:47 am Date Climbed: Jun 15, 2020
Thwarted by high windsThis was part of a trip pursuing county high points for an itinerary that ended up (adaptability and all that) including Modoc, Lassen, Siskiyou, Lake/Colusa, Glenn, Mendocino, Butte, Tehama, Humboldt, & Trinity counties. (As it happens, Siskiyou -- Mt. Shasta -- was the primary objective on this tour, and it was the only unsuccessful summit attempt.)
Ben C. joined me for this objective. Our plan was to do a 2-day trip camping at Helen Lake. We slept at Bunny Flat the night prior to trekking up to Helen Lake. I am learning this is perhaps not the best idea, at least not unless you are planning on getting up at midnight. The year prior I slept at Bunny Flat and was constantly disrupted by d-bag snowmobilers. This year it was climbers who did not know how to prepare without shouting across the parking lot. Seriously -- do not be that group.
So it was in the morning we got a slow start, but we were in no particular hurry with plenty of time to get to Helen Lake. We did not start walking until 11 a.m.
While there we made a final check of the forecast. The very favorable forecast that had presented itself for our window -- and the reason we coordinated our attempt to land on those dates -- had regressed some. 35-45 mph winds were now forecast to start around 2-5 a.m. As we were already there, we headed up to Helen Lake and hoped for the best.
The snow started at about 9200', and it was pretty slushy, but not so much that it slowed progress. As we headed up we met a couple rangers who advised that camping at Cleavage Point (as they called it, about 200' below Helen Lake) would provide slightly better protection against the wind, and it would also be much quieter. Here there were several spots, and we selected one with a higher berm and minimal snow shoveling. We made it up from Bunny Flat in 3:40, but that included 30 minutes hanging out at Horse Camp talking to others and another 10 minute break at 9200'.
While setting up camp we watched as a helicopter made several attempts to land above Helen Lake for an evacuation. They eventually managed it. We never did hear the full story on that, but it is the most common area on the mountain for injuries etc.
We awoke to our 11 p.m. alarm with wind shaking the tent. It did not seem too bad, but once we stepped out it was quite cold, well below freezing -- and slightly concerning given the freezing level was forecast for 12,500'. We elected to set another alarm for midnight to see if things would improve. They didn't. We set one final alarm for 1 a.m. in one last-ditch hope for an improvement in conditions. In this time the wind started to batter the tent such that we were using all our appendages to hold it up from compressing atop us and to hold down the corners as we took turns tightening the guy lines. At 1 a.m. we did see 3-4 headlamps heading up which seemed unwise.
From 1-4:30 we did not sleep as we braced against the wind. By 4:30 we were done waiting for first light and started packing. As we started descending we saw one individual climber at the far end of the snowfield ascending toward Helen Lake. Every few steps (s)he would keel over and brace for a few seconds before continuing. I tried racing over but could not reach them in time before they ascended above me, and it was impossible shouting over the wind. Around 9200' we met a man and two teenage boys, each clad in cotton hoodies and with one daypack with enough space to hold a 100-ounce bladder between them. They were hellbent on summiting.
From Horse Camp we met several pairs of skiers on their way up, but none of them were looking to summit. We were back at the parking lot by 8 a.m., where we learned gusts at Helen Lake were in excess of 60 mph -- 80-90 mph at the summit.
tcingrum - Jun 20, 2020 8:39 am Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2020
GulchGreat climb if snow conditions are good.
kevinsa - Jun 17, 2020 5:03 pm Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2020
ShastaA bit windy after passing The Thumb, but we made it work.
Sarah Simon - Jun 5, 2020 7:26 am Date Climbed: Jun 3, 2020
Amazing weather on Avalanche GulchPrior to our climb, the weather was cold and damp. Climbers were returning chilled and soaked to town. We got so lucky on weather! Sunny and “warm”, with only high winds to contend with above the notch between The Thumb and Red Banks.
Gorgeous, burly mountain. I really enjoyed this one!
Cedar - Aug 19, 2019 11:33 pm Date Climbed: Aug 18, 2017
One Long Day/NightLong hike up from Clear Creek as an extended "pit stop" on the drive north to the eclipse. Watched the sunset from the top through thick wildfire smoke, and descended in the dark. Otherwise, perfectly clear weather all through the afternoon and night. Lots of bats out and about at night on the final stretch of trail by the trailhead.
Guilty - Aug 13, 2019 10:32 pm Date Climbed: Jun 29, 2019
Sargent Ridge Deviation routeOne very long day with some steep snow/ice climbs.
cascadescrambler - Jul 26, 2019 10:11 pm Date Climbed: Jul 29, 1995
Best glissade everTook Avalanche Gulch up, spectacular glissade from Red Banks down to camp
Varcho - Jul 19, 2019 1:27 pm Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2019
perfect daywas a great day for a tough climb!
Ryland - Jul 18, 2019 6:22 am Date Climbed: Jul 9, 2011
Tough solo dayThis was a tough solo climb in a snowy year, though I was rewarded with spectacular views. Started from the car park (where there was still snow) at midnight and climbed via Avalanche Gulch, reaching the summit just after 10am.