Hound Summit Team: Summit for Someone Climb with Big City Mountaineers on Mount Shasta

The HST had an an amazing weekend with our Summit for Someone Shasta Team and the Shasta Mountain Guides. We met up with the guides and the rest of our team at the Fifth Season in Shasta on Friday morning. After a layout and an initial briefing, we headed up to the base to start the climb. From the base, we moved to Hidden Valley at 9000 feet, where we established our camp and then went through some mountaineering training with the other climbers. On the way to camp, we stopped at the Horse Camp at 8000 feet, where we refilled our water in the springs from under Mount Shasta, possibly some of the "best water in the world." Once school was over, we put on our warm "snivel" gear and were treated to an awesome dinner of gas stove cooked mac n cheese and veggies and sausage. Over dinner we were entertained by classic jokes and the legend of the Lemurians living inside mount Shasta. We finished off the evening with a nightcap of hot chocolate, and then we made our final preparations for the climb before crawling into our bags. During the short nap before the climb, TJ struggled to sleep during my snoring and I fought off his attempt to steal the whole tent. We woke at 0200, struggled into our gear in the cold, then enjoyed some hot oatmeal before moving out for the top at 0300. We quickly established a good pace and a smooth rhythm up the mountain with solid coaching from the guides. We slowly progressed through the dark and the cold, breaking for a strict 10 minutes for food and water every hour or so. As the sun began to rise on the opposite side of the mountain, we were treated to spectacular views of the surrounding Cascades. Everything was shaping up to be an epic day on the mountain. Around 0800, clouds and light snow began to roll in, but we continued to push with one eye on the weather. At around 0830, just below the top of the West Face at 12000 feet, we were quickly overtaken by high winds, snow, and whiteout conditions. The guides decided to wait out the weather to see if the un-forcasted storm would pass, but as time went on, conditions continued to worsen as the storm dropped lower and lower down the mountain. Around 0850 the guides made the right decision to head back down to camp as it was unsafe to climb any higher in those conditions. While we could have tried to wait out the storm at the top of the west face, there was no guarantee the weather would clear in time to descend safely. So, with heavy hearts, we began to down climb the mountain. After a few hours of post-holing in sugar snow and cursing at the weird weather, we reached camp. I quickly had some target practice in the rocks, then we fell into our tents for a nap. With wet snow and more cold forecasted, we decided to head back to town instead of holding out over night at hidden valley. Once back in town, we turned in our team gear, got into some clean clothes, and tried to cover our stink with some Old Spice spray. We headed over to The Goat with Polly, Orion, and Mike for an after action review over cold beer and amazing burgers.

First and foremost, the HST would like to thank all of our friends and family who contributed to SFS climb through donations to Big City Mountaineers. You are the reason this climb was possible. Together we raised 7200 dollars, which will result in upwards of 600 teens benefitting from their program.

Thanks to Darin Fearday and Summit for Someone for setting up the climb. We look forward to working with you guys in the future.

We'd also like to thank our fellow climbers for good company and a great climb. Finally, I'd like to offer a special thanks to Polly, Brian, and Joe from Shasta Mountain Guides. Not only were you guys knowledgeable and professional, you were awesome company as well. It's no easy task to train and lead a group of strangers of varying degrees of experience up a mountain, and you guys did it exceptionally well. Thanks for making the smart decision on the mountain.

TJ and I are already planning on bringing our ladies here next year for a long weekend in the town and another climb on the mountain with the rest of the HST.