Sunday, September 21, 2014

No Glaciers on Mt. Shasta in 1862?

J. D. Whitney and William Brewer of the Whitney Survey explored the mountain in 1862, prior to King's expedition (Russell, 1885; Farquhar, 1923; Hill, 1975; Biles, 1989). Not only did they not see any glaciers, Brewer stated in an 1862 letter to George Brush, "In this climate, although immense quantities of snow fall in winter, no rain falls during the long cloudless days of summer, so there are no glaciers." The letter describes how difficult the climb was; Whitney had "his fingers frostbitten" and much of the day was cloudy.
Although not published in the scientific literature, glaciers on Mount Shasta were known about as early as 1866, prior to the scientific explorations. Following is an excerpt from an 1866 article in the Yreka Journal:

Crater and Summit of Mount Shasta -- A New Route

YREKA, August 24 ...The wonder is that no one before ourselves has ever attempted to make the ascent by this route, which winds on a comparatively easy grade around the mountain to its summit. It is very evident why the new way is so agreeably bare of drifted debris. Vast quantities of snow and ice have at different periods gathered and become packed between the two summits, until forming an immense glacier, which would in time by its great weight, break away and go sliding and plowing down the mountain, carrying with it everything movable. By this means the very ribs of the mountain have been planed and polished, and in places sharply grooved, the grooves invariably running downward and parallel with each other.
We were not far from the base of the crater's wall when the stars began to pale in the dazzling light of heaven, and soon rosy sunshine flooded the world of our vision except where the shadows of great mountains stretched away to the west; that of Shasta like a dense, black, pall lying prone across the land, its apex well defined against the western sky.
When looking from below we supposed if we could reach the crater at all, it must be by the ravine to the divide, but arriving at the base of the wall, and finding the rocks lying against it quite large and firm, we resolved to scale straight over the intervening space of probably twenty-five hundred feet to the top. This we did, and emerging upon the grand ramparts, which as jaws encircled the terrible mouth of Shasta, whose bellowings therefrom once shook the continent, we uncovered our heads in reverence and in awe of the mighty power which, though not active, manifestly exists in repose.
We were the first that ever burst
Upon that silent scene,
 
end quote from:
http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/env/glacial/exi.htm 
 
Maybe they were the first White men to do this but Native American Warriors and Medicine men had been doing Vision Quests and Power Quests up to the top of this mountain and jumping in Shastina's snow fed blue lakes for thousands of years, especially from the local 6 tribes surrounding the mountain. 

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