I went up to Mt. Shasta Saturday to try a solo trip up Shastina. (Pics are super grainy cuz I was using my phone.) The weather forecast was looking good when I'd last checked it; something like "partly sunny and breezy" with a good freeze.

I got a nice early start and skinned up the usual Cascade Gulch route. There were a ton of people camped in Hidden Valley; I counted more than 20 tents.



Things were looking great at this point (5am). The snow is absolutely ridiculous up there; super deep coverage. (If you're not aware, these are south/southwest exposures in this pic.)



I was pretty tired from driving and skinning with little sleep, so I took a short nap on a rock and munched on some food. Then as I was getting ready to leave...what's this?



Ah, crap.



After waiting a while, the cloud level seemed to be hanging steady at about 11 or 12k, so I decided to abort the Shastina plan and skin up to somewhere on Casaval Ridge to find a place to drop into AG and make a quick exit.



I ended up getting to the high point to the right of the saddle in the previous pic.

The ski down was fairly uneventful. It actually started snowing at about 9am and was snowing (raining down low) until I left.

Here's another pic to show how the snow's holding up:



Yes, you can still ski over the Sierra Club hut.

All in all, somewhat disappointing because of the weather, but I still had a lot of fun. I'm hoping to explore Shasta more later in the summer.

Bummer! That mountain definitely makes its own weather. I've been shut down there more than I've succeeded, but I guess that makes success all the sweeter.

Thanks for the pics, that is truly amazing coverage.

I should mention that I was using B&D ski crampons for the first time that I picked up at the backcountry several weeks ago. Those things are seriously great. Using them for the first time was a lot like using boot crampons for the first time: you go from "crap this is slippery" to "I can walk on ANYTHING" and next thing you know you're charging up 30 degree ice crust like it's no big deal.

That's awesome. I currently have Dynafit crampons and use them in hinge mode, but I'm unhappy with how the crampons don't get weighted by the boots when heel lifters are up. So I'm probably going to make an optional hold-down.

I must be one lucky dude cause I've done Shasta 5 times and only the last time about a month ago did I get shut down. The other times it was sunny and virtually windless. This time, while doing West Face, a lenticular cloud set in at about 13,000 feet. At around 14,000 the wind was blowing about 40 mph and 20 feet visibility so we turned around. Our trip being over a month ago had the same amount of snow. Amazing the mountain is still so thoroughly covered with snow.

Looking to do either Hotlum Bolam or Hotlum Wintun in the next couple of weeks. Brewer Creek trailhead is still 14 miles out. Did Hotlum Wintun last year around the end of June and it was some of the best corn I've ever skied. Had about 4,000 feet of almost perfect corn and progressively got slushier and slushier. Was able to ski almost all the way to the car.