July 8, 2005, It Hasta Be Shasta

Garth Ferber and I planned a climbing trip in the North Cascades last week, but poor weather (and Silas' TAY trip report) induced us to dust off our skis and head for California instead.  We left Seattle at 6:30 AM Thursday and by 4:00 PM we had maps from The Fifth Season and permits from the Shasta Ranger Station.  We drove through McCloud and circled the mountain to the Brewer Creek trailhead, which was newly accessible after somebody punched a track through the final snow banks.  We hiked the trail then skinned to the Brewer Creek Base Camp area around 8,500 feet.

On Friday morning, we rose with the sun and skinned to about 12,500 feet, where the Hotlum-Wintun route jogs left to the final gully.  From there we packed up our skis and cramponed to the top.  (The route climbs the snowfield right of the center of the left picture above, then crosses the gentle ridge leftward and follows the obvious, broad snow gully to the summit.) Around 11 AM we began our ski descent.  The upper gully (right photo above) was nicely softened and very enjoyable.  Lower, the broad snowfields had rougher and more variable snow, but were still fun.  After breaking camp, we skied to within 500 vertical feet of the trailhead.  The lower mountain is nondescript, and we stumbled around in the woods for a while before we found our car.

The Hotlum-Wintun is a nice route because it climbs directly to the summit.  There is no Misery Hill to slog up near the top, as on the south and west routes.  After packing up our gear, we drove back to Highway 89 and headed south for a