Trip Report
Basic Alpine Climb - Mount Shasta/Avalanche Gap
My party successfully summited, but I did not due to persistent bronchitis.
Hadi Al-Saadoon
- Fri, Jun 2, 2017 — Sun, Jun 4, 2017
- Basic Alpine Climb - Mount Shasta/Avalanche Gulch
- Mount Shasta/Avalanche Gulch
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Snow all the way from Bunny Flat trailhead. The approach to Helen Lake was easy to follow. Plenty of prepared tent sites that required a little maintenance to use. Latrine site is to the east of the camping area. Melting snow was required for water. I recommend an early morning start for better cramponing. Also, the chance of thunderstorms is higher in the early to mid afternoon although they were not evident in spite of the forecast. Expect persistent winds above Red Banks. Climbing ranger states that the snow bridge at the Thumb Rock gap is shrinking and suggests using chute to the climber's left if start is later in the day.
See above for approach. I was forced to return to camp one hour into the summit push at 11,500' due to a persistent case of bronchitis. I allowed the rest of the party to continue to the summit as I had no doubts concerning their abilities on this route. All of them summited successfully. Rena Chinn, another climb leader who was with another party agreed to become defacto trip leader for the summit push and verified that they all summited. The party took 8 hours from camp, up and back. No issues of any kind. A great group of students and basic graduates. NO intermediate students bothered to sign up for this trip.