Mt. Shasta - Casaval Ridge
Last weekend, Lauren and I climbed Shasta to do some winter climbing.
They’ve only gotten 5-7 feet so far this year, so it was still in-shape and the weather was stellar. We started up Avalanche gulch on the south side, and climbed to Green Butte ridge, where we camped at 9,000ft. Out of camp by 8am the next day, we leisurely climbed back to the gulch and ascended to 10,000ft, where we found an access point to Casaval ridge, called the “first window”.
Here we roped up and began our real climb. The first pitch was easy climbing to a rock in the middle of the snowfield, where I belayed Lauren. We spotted a few small rocks careening down the field, and decided we’d best climb on the left where there was a few overhanging rocks which would give us cover from any falling rocks. The final 2 pitches led to the stunning crest of the ridge, which is 2 feet wide at the top, providing spectacular views in all directions.
We had lunch at the top, and began our descent (roped). After the third pitch, and watermelon sized rock screamed down and came ~10 feet from Lauren, which was a bit unnerving. We looked at each other and unanimously decided to unrope, figuring that it was safer than being hit by a rock and knocked off the face. 10 minutes later we got to the bottom of the snow-field and breathed a sigh of relief.
All in all, it was a great day of climbing!
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rowantrollope posted this
