Hotlum Wintun, Sept 24, 2005
9/15/05
2528
2
Went to Shasta again looking for September turns. Arrived Friday evening and hiked by headlamp to about 8,000 feet to camp in lightly falling snow. Looked promising from a distance:
It was cold enough overnight that my gatorade froze in its bottle cozy.
Carried up to about 10,000 feet where the snow started. From here on up there was about an inch of fresh over a rock solid base. I should have donned crampons, but I thought it would soften up as the day progressed. It was a struggle getting up it with skins/ski crampons. With my Fritschi setup, I couldn't use my heel elevator and still have the crampons bite. I also discovered, during one stop to fool around with the ski crampons, that ski brakes don't work when the climbing post is engaged. This necessitated a 500 vft descent on one ski to retrieve the errant one @%!
There was a relatively smooth stretch of snow between about 10,500 and 11,500 feet, but there were quite a few patches of water ice where the new snow had blown off:
By 2 PM the temp was still only 34 degrees F and it didn't look like the surface was going to soften up at all, so I decided to ski down and just enjoy the hike back to the car:
I had planned on staying overnight and skiing Sunday, but I decided to go spend the day visiting my mom instead.
More photos from this trip can be found here.
[Edited to remove extra photos and add link to gallery --Charles]
It was cold enough overnight that my gatorade froze in its bottle cozy.
Carried up to about 10,000 feet where the snow started. From here on up there was about an inch of fresh over a rock solid base. I should have donned crampons, but I thought it would soften up as the day progressed. It was a struggle getting up it with skins/ski crampons. With my Fritschi setup, I couldn't use my heel elevator and still have the crampons bite. I also discovered, during one stop to fool around with the ski crampons, that ski brakes don't work when the climbing post is engaged. This necessitated a 500 vft descent on one ski to retrieve the errant one @%!
There was a relatively smooth stretch of snow between about 10,500 and 11,500 feet, but there were quite a few patches of water ice where the new snow had blown off:
By 2 PM the temp was still only 34 degrees F and it didn't look like the surface was going to soften up at all, so I decided to ski down and just enjoy the hike back to the car:
I had planned on staying overnight and skiing Sunday, but I decided to go spend the day visiting my mom instead.
More photos from this trip can be found here.
[Edited to remove extra photos and add link to gallery --Charles]
Thanks for the post, G3, it looks pretty damn good from here, water ice or no. If it wasn't such a long drive, I'd be there.
G3baron185, I have removed all but one of the posted photos so that your report will be in line with our posting guidelines, which include that there be only one photo/thread for trip reports. I also added a link to your gallery so that readers can see the rest of your photos. Thanks for the report and congratulations on getting your September turns in such a spectacular setting!
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