| Climbing Mount ShastaTopped by snow and | | | | into bringing only a tarp, instead of the tent. The |
| glaciers, Mount Shasta rises up above everything | | | | edges pulled loose in the wind again and again, until |
| else when you approach it from the north.As | | | | we pinned down one side with heavy rocks, and |
| soon as I saw it, I wanted to be up there. We | | | | wrapped the other side around us. Dust blew in, |
| were coming south from Oregon, after driving | | | | despite the tight wrap and rain. I was enjoying |
| across the country from Michigan. A detour to | | | | the adventure more than John, who was very |
| northern California before heading home seemed | | | | quiet. So I talked until he fell asleep.Climbing Mount |
| like a good idea to both of us."I wonder if we | | | | Shasta"Apparently they start very early," John |
| could climb it?" I asked. John just nodded his head | | | | grumbled. It was dark, but there were lights and |
| quietly, agreeing not to the climb, but to the fact | | | | noise from the tents around us. I stood up, and I |
| that he was wondering the same thing. I checked | | | | saw lights on the mountain a thousand up. It was |
| the map. Mount Shasta is 14,162 feet above sea | | | | 5:30 a.m. Hmm... climbers start early. With that |
| level. I liked the idea of climbing that high."Have | | | | new insight, we packed our daypacks, hid our big |
| you ever climbed a mountain," John asked me. I | | | | backpacks in the rocks, and stepped onto the |
| thought about it for a while. "Not really. A lot of | | | | ice.Helen Lake was a mile of ups and downs, |
| hills though."Mount Shasta City"Oh yes," the old | | | | through sun-dished ice. Then we reached the |
| woman at the visitor's center told us, "people | | | | loose rock at the base of a steep slope, in |
| climb Mount Shasta all the time." John pointed out | | | | Avalanche Gully. We started climbing Mount |
| the glaciers on the map she had given us. "Oh, | | | | Shasta. an hour later, we quit."I can't do it," John |
| well, did you bring crampons and ice axes?" John | | | | gasped. "Can't get enough air." We were at about |
| looked at me, and I could only say, "I've heard of | | | | 11,000 feet, and we knew there was less |
| these things."We did have some gear: backpacks, | | | | oxygen, but this was the first time John had |
| sleeping bags, and a tent. John had good hiking | | | | actually been this high on foot. I once drove |
| boots, but mine were more like high-top shoes. | | | | higher in Colorado, but apparently driving wasn't a |
| Neither of us had ever used crampons or an ice | | | | strenuous enough for me to notice the thinner air. |
| axe, so we went the few blocks across town to | | | | I noticed it here. We both did. We sat down and |
| see what the guy at the climbing store had to | | | | rested for a minute."Are you sure," I asked. He |
| say."Have you done any climbing before?" he | | | | was - I wasn't. It was light now, and John didn't |
| asked us."A little," I answered, remembering the | | | | see any problem hiking down the four hours to |
| buildings we used to climb on as teenagers, and | | | | the car alone. I would go on to the summit, and |
| the rocks we had recently scrambled up in | | | | then come back down by evening. I had to |
| Oregon. I figured we were ready for Mount | | | | continue. Mount Shasta was my first mountain, |
| Shasta."Well, you can't put crampons on those | | | | and I hadn't even used the poop bag yet.Altitude |
| boots," he said to John, "and you sure can't put | | | | SicknessThe "Red Bank" is a line of broken cliffs |
| them on those," he told me, shaking his head at | | | | above Avalanche Gully. I scrambled, climbed, |
| my shoes. Crampons apparently need rigid boots | | | | slipped on ice, and eventually found a way up and |
| - our mountaineering lesson of the day. We could | | | | over. Then there were long steep slopes covered |
| rent them, but only if we rented real | | | | in loose rocks, with a few bamboo sticks marking |
| mountaineering boots also. "And you'll need ice | | | | the way. My route converged with that of the |
| axes, of course." I felt a pain in my | | | | other climbers, who had come up the snow-slope |
| wallet.Backpacking On Mount Shasta (Too Poor | | | | route with crampons and ice axes.After much |
| For Climbing)A speeding ticket in North Dakota | | | | climbing, I finally made it to the summit, which is |
| had strained the budget, and Mount Shasta was | | | | called Misery hill, because it isn't actually the |
| another detour from the route and the budget. | | | | summit. It just seems like it should be. There was |
| We could, we decided, hike up the mountain and | | | | still a mile of snow to cross, and then more rocky |
| do a little backpacking. Still, I had to ask, "Do | | | | terrain. One snow field had three-foot-high peaks |
| people climb Shasta without gear?" The store | | | | covering it, like a huge merange pie.I rested a |
| owner realized that the sale was lost."It's been | | | | moment, and realized I'd been hearing a new |
| done," he answered impatiently."It's been done," I | | | | sound. Bang! Bang! Bang! It was the inside of my |
| reminded John as we drove up the road to Mount | | | | head, which had never been so loud before. |
| Shasta. He didn't answer, which was a good sign. I | | | | Hmm...interesting. I got used to the noise and pain |
| watched the Pine trees go by, and | | | | after an hour or so.I got used to the smell of |
| absentmindedly poked a finger through a hole in | | | | sulphur too. Mount Shasta, it turns out, is a |
| my shoe."Old Ski Bowl Trailhead," John said. I | | | | volcano. When John Muir climbed it more than a |
| looked over at the sign. "7,900 feet." We were at | | | | hundred years earlier, he had to huddle next to |
| the trailhead, along with forty other cars, and it | | | | the hot sulphur gas vents to survive a night near |
| was early enough to hit the trail.Mount Shasta | | | | the peak. He was alternately freezing and |
| Poop BagsWe looked at the registration forms, | | | | burning.At The Top Of Mount Shasta"So this is |
| and had a decision to make. There was a $10 fee | | | | the top?" I mumbled lamely to the guy who had |
| to hike or climb above "Horse Camp," at 8,400 | | | | just told me the John Muir story. Clouds, and |
| feet. John pointed to a pile of paper bags, each | | | | smoke from forest fires, obscured the view in |
| with a handful of cat litter in it, and a plastic bag | | | | every direction, but it felt good to be so high, and |
| to put it in. These were for carrying our | | | | down to the east, I saw my first glacier, a few |
| excrement off the mountain, a requirement | | | | hundred feet below."You can write your name in |
| above 10,000 feet. That clinched it. We put $10 | | | | the register there," the guy told me, pointing to |
| each in the envelope and dropped it in the slot. | | | | something in the rocks. Guestbooks on top of |
| We couldn't pass up the opportunity to poop in a | | | | mountains? Another lesson for the day. I signed |
| bag in the mountains. I took two for myself, in | | | | in, wrote some comment, and started down the |
| case of good luck.An easy trail took us to the hut | | | | mountain.Sun cups, or whatever they call those |
| and spring at Horse Camp. We filled our water | | | | depresions in the snow, fill with water in the |
| bottles. The dayhikers looked up at the mountain | | | | warm afternoon sun - another discovery. I'd climb |
| through cameras, while the climbers cooked | | | | out of one ten-foot-wide bowl and slide into the |
| noodles and discussed weather reports. They | | | | pond at the bottom of the next. This was the |
| looked at my shoes and smiled at each other | | | | pattern until I thankfully reached the ankle-twisting |
| when I mentioned we might climb Mount | | | | mile of rocks piled up below Helen Lake. Climbing |
| Shasta.After Horse Camp the trail gets steeper | | | | down, I realized, is more difficult than climbing up, |
| and rockier. The trees end at about 8,500 feet, | | | | or at least more dangerous.I found the trail, my |
| leaving only grasses, flowers, and other tundra | | | | headache disappeared, I reached the road, where |
| plants. Then the trail gets lost in the rocks just | | | | John was waiting. By evening we were driving |
| before the steep climb up to Helen Lake.Wind And | | | | towards Michigan, Mount Shasta hidden in the |
| Rain At Helen LakeThere is no lake. Helen lake is a | | | | clouds and smoke behind us. Oh, and yes, I did |
| more-or-less level area of snow and ice. At the | | | | get to use the poop bag. Somewhere around |
| edge, overlooking Horse Camp far below, there | | | | 11,500 feet, I think, which I remembered when I |
| are dusty clearings in the rocks where the | | | | was looking through my pack. "Pull over at the |
| climbers camp. We found an empty spot and we | | | | nearest garbage can," I told John.Steve Gillman is |
| set up camp. The wind was howling. We were at | | | | a long-time backpacker, and advocate ultralight |
| 10,440 feet.About the time the rain started, I | | | | backpacking. |
| realized it might have been a bad idea to talk John | | | | |