Home > Trip Reports > April 30, 2005, Mt Shasta, Giddy Giddy Gulch

April 30, 2005, Mt Shasta, Giddy Giddy Gulch

4/30/05
US elsewhere
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Posted by Jeff Huber on 4/30/05 8:14am
After spending half of the past week in the bay area for work, family and meeting my new niece (see photo below), I headed north back home and to make a ski stop on Mt Shasta. The weather forecast for Shasta had deteriorated as the week progressed, calling for mostly cloud skies today and tomorrow with a chance of precipitation. I was aware that with this forecast my objective of Shastina would likely not go, but since I had to drive past Shasta anyway there was little reason not to ski on it. I arrived at Bunny Flat a bit after 2am and slept in my Durango, which is quite comfortable. I didn't awake until 10:45, despite the large amount of wkend traffic in the parking lot. Around 11:30 I finally started to skin up. During the night cloud cover had kept the snowpack from freezing hard and the snow was mush -- which was further compounded by my tardy start. The mtn above Bunny Flat was I headed up Casaval Ridge, being well aware that at any moment the clouds may return as they were still wisping thru the valleys below. Sure enough, as I got higher the clouds started to buildup and at 9500ft I was in a by snow except for the chimney and the far side. The snow was very sticky on the gradual downhill back to Bunny Flat and skiing outside of the well-established track would result in an almost instant stop.  

I was not able to get a good photo of what I skied, so here's looking up Avy Gulch from near Horse Camp:


And here's a photo of my
Related to Shasta, on TTips a user posted an article from today's SF Chronical about a study from the USGS reviewing the threat of volcanoes and calling for better monitoring:
At present, two of the three most dangerous California volcanoes are not only in the northern part of the state, several hours' drive from San Francisco, but those two -- Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak -- are like bomb factories without burglar alarms: They're inadequately monitored with seismic and other scientific instruments

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/30/BAGKNCHQG11.DTL&type=science

For an amusing hypoethical account of Shasta errupting see Harris's Fire Mountains of the West

What would happen to the Lemurains if Shasta erupted?

Jeff, Your new niece looks like a potential sherpa for uncle Jeff.  I have 5 grandsons and the first words I spoke to them when they were born were "it's fun to breaktrail and carry some of grandpa's pack weight." I think I may have a break through with my 3 year old grandson in North Bend,WA.  

When are you coming to the Sierras ?  :)

Zap

Zap, The idea of turning my niece into a sherpa is brilliant! I'll start working on that right away.  :)

I'm not going to have any Sierra trips this Spring. Hopefully another year.

jeff--thanks for the good info on shasta.  despite the suboptimal conditions you spoke of, it still looks like there was quite a bit of snow up there from your pics!  i am heading down there the end of this month, hopefully to find some good corn, and good weather... 8)  any idea how the conditions were above helen lake?

Hi Allyson, Shasta indeed has a healthy amount of snow. The latest updates from Shasta Avalanche Center and Amar's Snowfall and Snowdepth page show snowdepth around 115% of normal.

I don't know what conditions were above Helen Lake on Saturday. If I had to guess, I would suspect it was pretty variable and for a good amount of the afternoon there was poor visibility. Shasta should be good for the next couple months -- I hope to make several more trips there this spring and early summer. If you're thinking about a summit ski of Avy Gulch be aware it gets cupped and pitted with tracks pretty quickly. After a few more weeks the West Face, then the Hotlumn/Wintun will probably be the preferred summit ski routes.

Camping in Hidden Valley for several days and skiing the aspects surrounding it seems like the ultimate late May trip. :)

Jeff

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april-30-2005-mt-shasta-giddy-giddy-gulch
Jeff Huber
2005-04-30 15:14:20