July 12-13, 2005, Mount Shasta, Hotlum-Wintun

This was the start of a great road trip. We left Seattle at 10pm and arrived at the Shasta City ranger station at 8am. We soon made our way to the Brewer Creek trailhead. In the afternoon heat, we sweated up to our camp at 10,000 ft. Our quiet camp quickly turned into chaos with the arrival of 20-30 army rangers who were there to practice mountaineering skills...I don't think those are the skills they will need in the place they will likely end up.

Anyhow, during the nite a strong warm wind blew constantly. We woke at 4:30am and waited for a third TAYer to show...unfortunately, by 6:30am we decided we could wait no longer. We wanted to be off the steep upper slopes before they got too warm. We made the summit around noon. We lolly-gagged awhile and then made our way down in surprisingly good corn. The lower apron above camp was sticky though. After chilling at camp we descended snow and confusing forest...it was off to Lassen.

Route is slightly obscured by clouds:


Note: If you are descending back to the trailhead without the aid of the trail...do not trend too far skiers left/north...we saw one climber hiking back up the road to his car because he missed the trailhead road and ended up way down the mountain.