For Memorial Day weekend a couple friends and I humped our skis up Casaval Ridge on Mt. Shasta for a ski on the west face. I thought I'd share our view just after sunrise part of the way up the ridge. We eventually skied from the highest point you can see in the upper left (at about 13,600 feet).
I have climbed to the top of Mt. Shasta 28 times and spent a lot more time poking around the lower reaches. Late May and early June is usually optimal snow and weather conditions for climbing. This year the snow pack is only about 30% of normal. On Memorial Day there are usually several feet of snow at the trailhead and very little exposed rock on the slopes. This time we didn't even ski back down to tree line before the snow was mostly gone...conditions more typical of the end of July. It is going to be a dry, hot summer at this rate.
Wow - that's an amazingly low snowpack, given that we're somewhere around normal up here. But I suppose the dry/warm May was even a bit more so down south. I like this image - reminds me of the old-time climbing images that typically showed a climber gazing up at the peak from some crag.
Discussion
2 repliesI have climbed to the top of Mt. Shasta 28 times and spent a lot more time poking around the lower reaches. Late May and early June is usually optimal snow and weather conditions for climbing. This year the snow pack is only about 30% of normal. On Memorial Day there are usually several feet of snow at the trailhead and very little exposed rock on the slopes. This time we didn't even ski back down to tree line before the snow was mostly gone...conditions more typical of the end of July. It is going to be a dry, hot summer at this rate.
Tom