1973

I was up at Bunny Flats with a friend to check out the snow conditions but it was still raining. I saw three guys in their late 20s or early 30s coming down with packs on. I noticed one wasn't carrying a pack but also realized he didn't have snow shoes on. Since the snow plow buried their car and it took them about 1/2 hour to dig it out using snow shoes. The snow plow actually hadn't completely buried their car mostly it was new snow that put several feet on the roof of their car their car of snow since yesterday when they first walked up to Horse Camp. The reason one guy wasn't carrying a pack was because he was sinking in too much without snow shoes. So, when they had to go above Horse Camp where the snow would get really deep at that altitude (over 8000 feet or more) at tree line where trees stop growing, he wouldn't be able to walk without snow shoes in this present type of snow. So, they had to turn back and give up on their climb because of the conditions of so much snow and likely also because of a lot of Avalanche conditions right now too because of so much snow coming down for so many days almost straight. Then wind makes wind drifts and then if the sun hits it even for an hour or more it can come down.

One avalanche ended the old ski lift above Panther Meadows so they eventually built another one up from Snowman summit on highway 89 but away from where the avalanches are the worst historically. Even after the one that destroyed the ski lodge and lifts above tree line 10 or 20 years ago now another one took out hundreds of adult trees heading for Panther meadows then. YOu can still see all the dead and fallen trees up there all these years later when they were all knocked down (in the summer when the road is open) above Panther meadows.

I told them the story of how I hiked up on skis or snoe shoes (likely snow shoes then) when the snow was about 25 feet deep in April of 1973 so when I got to Horse Camp lodge for my birthday I had to clear the chimney of snow and dig down at least 10 or more feet further to even open the front wood door to build a fire in the Sierra Club emergency lodge then.

Now people only stay there in a real emergency when people might die but then it was somewhat different than that then they way things were at the time.

So, then I played guitar and wrote there while the wood stove kept me warm the night of my 25th birthday all alone.

I had driven a lady to Mt. Shasta going home to Alaska with her 3 year old daughter so she could take the bus back from here then. She was a member of my church visiting southern California then. I had given myself a nylon string Yamaha guitar for my birthday so I was in heaven then staying at horse camp buried in the snow all alone for my birthday then in April 1973.

I eventually married about 1 year later but I wasn't even dating my wife to be then on my birthday. One year later a son was on the way and I was getting married. Life changes so quickly doesn't it sometimes?

Here is what Horse Camp looks like today:


It's right at tree line and is the most climbed route up the mountain year around. However, if there is no snow I might recommend going up to the end of the road above Panther meadows when the road is open in the summers. This route up the ridge is better if you don't want to get killed by rock fall when there is no snow to keep the rocks in place. What often happens when there is no snow is a climber above you dislodges a little tiny pebble the size of the tip of your little finger. But what happens next is a chain reaction on steep slopes like this especially from Lake Helen up where it gets really steep. So, if you miss the fact that a rock from 1 to 5 inches in diameter is bearing down the mountain at you at about 70 miles an hour bouncing from rock to rock and dislodging more rocks then that might be your last day on earth. Because they aren't very loud when they come down especially the ones 1 to 3 inches in diameter.

However, the ridge route has it's own dangers. then you have to watch you don't fall off steep precipices or lose your footing and go down and not stop. Mt. Shasta is considered the hardest easy climb or the easiest really hard climb of mountains here in the U.S. and many people die on the mountain from various causes every year.

However,  I know of a guy that climbed it barefoot sometime between 1965 and 1975. (Obviously no snow then). And another guy lived at the sulfur vent near the summit to stay warm for several years to protest the Viet Nam War back then too while the war was going on. People hauled up food for him then to support his cause so he stayed up there for several years and didn't come down.

I don't think living at that altitude would be good for your long term brain functioning at over 14,000 feet. But that's just me.