In May of 2003 Jamie and and I and a few of her friends headed to give Mount Shasta another try.

This time we planned to climb it by its hardest route--the Casaval Ridge (Class 4). We had crossed this ridge the year before when we climbed Shasta on our way to and from Hidden Valley camp. Many climbers also get a terrific view of the Casaval Ridge on their left when they are climbing the standard Avalanche Gulch route.

 

On the first day we climbed up to our camp. We had good conditions and everything went really well. After we arrived we set up our camp and had dinner. We then crashed in our tents to get some rest before our alpine start at 12:00.

 

As we started our summit climb, we could see that again, we were going to have perfect weather like the day before. As we climbed up the ridge, I slowly began to tire. I guess it just wasn't my day. I didn't feel as acclimatized as I should be and pretty much "bonked" where the Casaval tops out at the base of Misery Hill. My wonderful sister Jamie gave up her summit bid to keep me company while the others--who were feeling strong climbed Misery Hill and made the summit.  Thank you Jamie :)

 

Afterwards, we regrouped at the base of Misery Hill and post-holed through the soft snow back to our camp where we rested, ate and slept. We then packed out the next day.

I don't have many pics of this climb as I was mostly bent over sucking wind the whole time!

  See the pictures of this trip

  See recommended reading for this trip

  See a gear list for this trip

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