Home > Trip Reports > october 16, 2009, Mt Shasta N Side

october 16, 2009, Mt Shasta N Side

10/16/09
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Posted by Aleksey on 10/19/09 3:05pm
The crux of this trip occurred before I left. Checking NOAA daily, calling the ranger station and watching both of Shatsa€™s web cams drove me to the brink of insanity for over 48 hours. Finally I resigned myself to fate, and waited for a clue from the universe. As I sat finishing yet another chapter of pharmacology, I turned to the news: "Senator SNOWE of Maine, became the first Republican to vote for the Obama health care bill". BAM!
I dedicate the trip to folks that go against the grain. Why else go to Shasta in October, after the ranger calls you "antsy" and laughs openly at the idea of skiing?

On Tuesday the biggest storm since 1969 hit the Bay Area, snow levels were at 6K and Bunny Flat got about a foot of snow. Wednesday saw decreasing precipitation but the visibility remained at "white out" and winds were still howling.
Then, Thursday at noon, during a sucker hole, I caught a glimpse of Mt Shasta to about 7k via a web cam.

White! All white!

30 minutes later I was off for a 5 hour drive. As I was coming up over a pass at sunset I saw the mountain. The sun painted a soft pink and purple alpenglow on the blanket of snow covering its south side. It looked as though at least one avalanche already swept across Avy Gulch. What a contrast to August when the slim streaks of snow were overwhelmed with brown rock and dark, dirty glaciers.  At its sight I quickly forgot about the "museum of poop" that was advertised along I5.

As I approached the mountain the eternal corn creator set, leaving me to wait until sunrise to see the North face. The night was spent in a vain attempt to learn to speak coyote, the moon played hooky from work, and a billion stars spread across the sky. Meteor showered the sky like the Russian spy satellites of old.

In the am,  the North Gate trail had some snow left over, enough to convince me that I could have skinned from there the day before. I was welcomed with more and more snow (and fresh bear tracks) as I slowly gained elevation on the trail. By 8K I started skinning.  I traversed west of the normal route, I wanted to climb and ski the Bolum Glacier, stretching the pure vertical aspect of the line as much as I could. The normal route heads east first and then gives the climber options to the summit. I was looking for a more direct route. It seemed to me that by heading west, I would be able to enter the Bolum Glacier from its natural end and climb my intended route to the Step at 13k before skiing it.

At about 8.5K the skinning got tough. The snow was frozen solid and scribing became increasingly difficult. After averting a slide with the whippet I switched to crampons. I made good time on the next 1.5 K and found myself positioned to reach the Step by 3pm, my turn around time. I had plenty of time to rest, eat, nap and work on the elusive October goggle tan.

I took some photos and planned my next trip to the area.  I will not be using the North Gate trailhead for Bolum.

There are better approaches from the spider web of forest roads that drop you off at a higher elevation and a closer horizontal distance to Bolum. The best approach begins West of the North Gate. I think that you could get there from the Military road entrance or the Whitney Falls.

By 1, the snow still showed no signs of warming. The sun was hot, the wind was still, and yet the snow was firm enough to ice skate. My crampons were having a tough sinking their teeth deep into into the top layer
I waited another half hour, figuring I could sprint another 3K if the conditions changed. But it wasn€™t in the cards. The snow never softened.
I climbed on, hoping to get a better feel for the glacier, and to snap some pics. After my photoshoot, I downclimbed back to my skis, crisped by the afternoon sun. It was 3 pm. Raccoon tan....check!!

On the descent, I made some ugly turns (turns is a stretch, more like "slide and hops")  down to about 8.7k, and was rewarded with good corn and a pleasant trek back to the car. I was a little surprised by how firm the snow was, temps were in the 70s at 4k, but regardless the N side did not disappoint. How could it, I had it all to myself. Not a soul in sight and the solitude was very welcomed. Amazing as usual.
Great report, RuSki.  It does my heart good to hear that Snowe came to the rescue.    Way to make iced lemonade out of ice; researching better approaches, enjoying the ice-olation.  More and better snow really is coming...isn't it?

That bruiser you shared the trail with - how big were his tracks?  Black bear, I assume - no grizzlies down there anymore I don't think...

Thanks for the report. I was wondering what it's like over there. Still need a bit more snow before I take the skis out. Here's to a great ski season.
Cheers and Happy Skiing!
Oh yeah, no grizzlie bears here in Cali since the 1920s. At least we think. ;)

Nice TR!  Those black bear tracks are awesome!

I have been looking at those web cams of Shasta all last week wishing I was in drivable distance. Sounds like a great time, congrats on the Shasta Solitude!

nice pics - trip and report! wow - looks like quite a bit of coverage already.

i think pow/soft-snow is pretty rare on the upper mountain in winter.

author=danhelmstadter link=topic=14234.msg59550#msg59550 date=1256086309]
nice pics - trip and report! wow - looks like quite a bit of coverage already.

i think pow/soft-snow is pretty rare on the upper mountain in winter.


yeah, that's the truth. I did have some factors pulling for me:
Latitude allowed for a somewhat longer day
Almost no winds
I think it was about 70 or so at 4k
Where I went wrong, is not giving myself some more time. The Bolum is a N/NW aspect (depends on what line you take I guess), I should have stuck it out until 4 or maybe even 5. When I was driving away around 6, the sun was hitting the upper portion of the glacier. I had a sick feeling I was missing something....
Also, thanks for the vids of late, great fun to watch. What kind of cam are you using? It would be a nice edition to the solo trips I think.

Hi Ruski,

I'm using a gopro cam, it's pretty inexpensive compared to some other cams out there, but it does distort the picture a little with "fish eye", and the audio absolutely sucks.

i bet you made the right deceison for turning around when you did, i think the sun is just to weak for corn on high north faceing aspects now -- pretty much like feb sun (on the flipside of the solstice) i got super lucky and found some south faceing corn on the upper mountain in feb 08 --  that winter i hunted for pow up there after storms (kinda a low snow year) but only found nasty surface ice in various forms...  shasta gets nuked hard (100+winds common above 12k) windboard is pretty fun to ski but can get very scary once it suncrusts to unedgeable broiler plate.

*i think Amar has some kind of sunhit chart in his website

A for effort.  nice pics of the track and I love the Bolam/Hotlum ridge, in the PM light. They call it the Bolam Gully, chute, couloir ? That would have to be pure ice, with the new on top (of which the new was also ice). you would need some good solar rad. to get that into ridable (range). if you're that persistent (and in the Bay area) the top of Mt Rose Hiway has some short shots available, as it's 9,000 ft. 

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october-16-2009-mt-shasta-n-side
Aleksey
2009-10-19 22:05:57