Mount Shasta

If you've spent much time in California, you've undoubtedly heard of Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta is the second-tallest volcano in the Cascade Range. It stands alone, towering nearly 10,000 feet over the surrounding landscape at 14,179 feet high. Shasta is a popular climbing/mountaineering destination, and we decided that it was high time we joined in the fun.


Climbing Shasta in a day requires an alpine start. For those who don't know, this means getting up really early - like 3:30am early - and hitting the trail well before dawn. Though it doesn't sound like a lot of fun, it's actually very quiet, calm and pleasant once you get into it. As the sun rose, I took a few photos.


Shasta is the most voluminous volcano in the Cascades. To give you an idea of how big the landscape is out there, here are a few photos I took of Josh heading up from Helen Lake. They don't totally do justice to the enormity of the land, but you'll get the point. For reference, from where I'm standing to the top of that ridge is about 2,000 feet. Then the summit is another 1,000+ feet past that!


We ended up making it within 75 feet of the summit before hitting our turnaround time, but I'd still have to say that it was a successful trip and a fantastic day. After making it back through the Red Banks, the conditions were finally right for glissading (think sledding, without the sled). We glissaded down a solid 2,000 vertical feet, which makes the way down a lot quicker, and is a heck of a lot of fun if you know what you're doing. After that, a quick couple miles down volcanic scree, a rock-paved causeway, and through a shaded forest, and you're back at the car wondering where the day went....

More photos from Sunday's climb up Castle Dome ahead this week!