PSA* - don't start a blog when there is
a great chance you won't get cell service...
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Day 1 - Mt. Shasta
Pouring rain...
9:00am - meet/greet, gear check, safety and trip instructions and first leg of climb.
Meet/greet - Met our 4 guides and the 10 other climbers. 6 women/5 men. Age range mid 20s to mid 60s. We were broken into two groups with two guides for each group.
Nerves were racing...its hard not to be a little nervous, size up the other climbers and hope you "brought all the right stuff", physical and otherwise!!!!
Gear check - I rented - a helmet, ice axe, crampons, mountaineering boots (ugh...all i can think of is blisters, blisters, blisters...) and a sleeping bag from #fifthseason . They were knowledgable, efficient and super super nice!
Every climber had to "explode" their bag so guides could evaluate our items.
I was pretty well packed...and was able to lose 1lb of my goods and gain 5 lbs of communal goods and more snacks (they want us to eat every hour summit day and we should "each" consume 7000 calories--what what?)...pack net net= 48lbs
Question--- do you want to share a 3 person tent or add another 5lbs to your pack? Hmmmm, ok, i can barely pick up my pack with two hands now as it is, and i seem to sway & wobble when i finally do get it on...soooo....
i will take the three person tent!!! OMG!!!
Yep! That's the 3tent...one roomie in background.
P.S. - I forgot to mention...Mt. Shasta is wag bag territory...oh boy!!! I have not been lucky on the digestive front on all of my last hikes...sweat beading on my brow...
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1:00pm - Clear Creek Trailhead @7000 ft. - 2mile hike in to camp, 1100ft gain, roughly 2 hours.
Rain ceased just as we donned our packs...
Boy this pack is heavy...always smiling though...sights are majestic! I say it alot, but I like to remind myself, we live in a beautiful country!!!
Onward and upward...
3:00pm - Landed at our base camp @ 8100 ft. Guides scouted a flat area close to the water source and we set up camp...I couldn't drop my pack fast enough. We set up the 3tent, negotiated sleeping arrangements...i lost - i was the monkey in the middle...we exploded our packs (outside our tent of course), and refilled water bottles...before mountaineering class
No filter, no tablets...straight from the source...must be a magical mountain!
5:00pm - Mountaineering school- "hikenese" - ready to be impressed by my ever expanding hiking vocabulary?
Ice axe - (adze, shaft, pick, spike)
Self arrest -
Glissading -
Scree - (ok, i knew this one already...)
French step -
Punch step -
HAPE -
Harness, carabiner and crampons - perhaps you know these words? Know their meaning or even know if you put them on or suffer them? 😜Or perhaps you could care less... :)
7:00pm - dinner was on. Cup and spork in hand, we gather around a rock formation and pulled up a stone seat. Dinner was amazing - potato/leek soup and vegetable cous cous with chicken sausage and chocolate chip cookies.
A full moon lit the sky, temp mid 30s. Seemed like a perfect time to wind down the day, meditate on my day tomorrow and do some yoga to stretch out.
My luxury item...an electric toothbrush! Happy to add those few extra ounces!!
In sleeping bag by 9:00pm...
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Stay tuned for Day 2 - Summit Day
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*public service announcement
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