This winter started out with some epic early storms in late November and early December. January on the other had saw almost no snow fall in the Sierras. Obviously this is bad news for skiing. The new Mantras with AT-bindings just got a three day work-out in Chamonix in December, but had to stay in the closet back here in Cali.
On the other hand the stable high off the Northern California coast allowed for good conditions for a winter ascent of Mount Shasta. The Casaval Ridge seemed to be in pretty good shape during the first weekend of February. Just the right thing for a quick weekend dash, similar to my previous ascent of Shasta. Or so I thought.
The plan was to leave the Bay Area Saturday morning, get to the trailhead around 3pm, hike to Horse Camp, set up camp in daylight, get an early night, set the alarm for 2am, get going by 3am, summit, descent via Avalanche Gulch, break up camp, head back to the car, make the drive back. Simple enough, right?
The first part worked just fine. We arrived at Bunny Flats around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, got the permits, re-packed some gear and got ready to go. Just as we were about to leave two parties got back to the parking lot, who had started out that morning. Both of them tried to climb Sergeant's Ridge, but turned around due to high winds. They reached a high point of around 9400ft. One of the climbers had soloed Casaval Ridge the previous weekend, and confirmed that the conditions had been great. With these mixed news we were in our way at 3:30pm. The hike to Horse Camp was rather mellow, and eventless. By 6 we had set up camp, eaten dinner and tugged away in our sleeping bags... This is were things deviated from the plan: High winds made sleep practically impossible. It didn't help that I had a congested nose either. Given the sleepless night, high winds, a missing pair of gloves and a malfunctioning headlamp the summit attempt stopped right there.
Objective not achieved... But I still had a good time. A wonderful sunset, a night spent outside... What more can one ask for?
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