Universities

Yesterday we embarked on a University trip. We are going to visit universities in Oregon and Washington on this trip for my daughter and her two friends who will be high school seniors this year so are getting ready for college. Another of her friends is flying to Portland to meet us there. Then at some point they all will fly back to the SF Bay area. So, we are on the first leg of our long journey.

This time it didn't hit 113 degrees driving up. Instead it was maybe 100 Degrees at most. However, all over the place temperatures above 90 degrees sustained are causing types of havoc all over the country. In the motel we had the air conditioner on and it was bothering my lungs so I turned it off at about 3 am and opened the window as it was by then about 60 degrees out. A friend of mine in Mt. Shasta had called me saying an old friend who used to live in Mt. Shasta in the late 1970s and early 1980s that was a very good friend of mine then was visiting. So, we made it a point to stop and have dinner in Mt. Shasta so we could reminisce about old times. I think my favorite thing we did as friends was to climb Shastina. Mt. Shasta has two peaks, main one and another one with the volcano blown off in a sort of crater. The crater goes up to around 10,000 to 12,000 feet. So, my friend and I around 1980 climbed up there and inside are blue ice lakes which are incredibly beautiful if you have never seen a glacier lake up close before. Also, the view of the countryside is amazing too. If you start your climb from Horse Camp Sierra Club Lodge and make your way to "Hidden Valley" and then go right up the side of Shastina to the top you will finally crest and see the two or more blue ice lakes up there. Or I suppose you might be able to first climb the main peak of Mt. Shasta and do this as an afterthought coming down. However, I'm not sure how safe that might be glissading  down the main peak of Mt. Shasta there to Shastina

This is a definition of a glissade:

Glissade (climbing) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glissade_(climbing)‎

Glissading is the act of descending a steep snow- or scree-covered slope via a controlled slide on one's feet or buttocks. It is an alternative to other descent ...

‎Methods - ‎Sitting glissade - ‎Standing glissade - ‎References

When I personally refer to glissading it isn't in regard to snow but I guess it has now come to mean that too. When I talk about glissade it is a standing up form of controlled sliding that you do on scree. Scree for me would be rocks from 1 to 5 inches in diameter up to a foot across. Depending upon how steep the slope is and how long the slope is it can be safe or not to do this. So, be aware what you are glissading on and what your skills actually are because on really steep slopes doing this if you stumble you will never stop and might die. So, be aware what you can safely do and survive it.

I hadn't talked to my old friend since about 1985 and he had moved up to Washington with his wife and had been living there ever since. But, was visiting his old stamping ground there in Mt. Shasta where he had owned a home and a health food store in the late 1970s. So, it was good to share stories and to catch up. He had also studied about Saint Germain and the Ascended Masters with Pearl Dorris in the 1970s in Mt. Shasta. So, we both had this in common too. He hadn't heard about my near death experiences or my trip to Asia to India and Nepal in 1985 and 1986 either so it was very good to see him as he is 66 a year older than I. He had been  Marine Sargent in the Viet Nam War and then became a teacher after the war. So, It was a very good experience. He was in the area to make his reconnection with Mt. Shasta and Saint Germain while camping in some of the amazing places around Mt. Shasta.