Juen 15-17, 2009, Mt Shasta, Avalanche Gulch

I can't find any recent Shasta TRs here, so even though I have seemed to have retired from posting TRs, I figure I better let everyone know that the upper mountain on Shasta is in very good ski shape right now. Over the past few weeks Shasta has received numerous thunderstorms depositing almost a foot of snow on the upper mountain.

My father likes to climb Shasta with me every year and last Monday - Wednesday was our annual climb. I of course brought skis. On Wednesday I skied from the summit all the way to Horse Camp via avy gulch and going right of heart. The snow from the summit to Lake Helen was very smooth and mostly nice corn with the exception of going through the red banks right of heart. Here the snow was heavily tracked and narrower then my ski width, so I took my skis off and downclimbed for about 200ft. If you went left of heart, you wouldn't have to do that. From about 9000ft to horse camp the snow gets cupped, but it does get you down all the way to horse camp if you take the farthest gully on skier's left.

I'm sure the east side routes on Shasta are great right now and probably some of the most uninterrupted skiing you can find on a volcano right now. I encourage people to get out there.

From Helen Lake looking up:


My Dad's photos can be seen here:
http://hud.smugmug.com/gallery/8609083_z3sdn#567813824_wxPC2