I was sitting looking up from my hotel veranda at Mt. Shasta and noticed something unusual I had never noticed before for some reason just below tree line on the Shastina Side of Mt. Shasta. Shastina is a lava cinder cone that looks more volcanic than the main peak of Mt. Shasta just to the left if you are in the Mt. Shasta City area looking up at the mountain.
At first I wondered whether it had been clear cut by loggers up that high but realized that wasn't very likely because that high up the mountain is usually protected in various ways by individuals as well as organizations and by state and Federal Government as well.
So, when I called a friend who lives here still in Mt. Shasta he said that: "Oh! That's a Snow Avalanche that wiped out a bunch of trees there about 15 years ago.
So, I guess I never heard about this specific Avalanche.
In knew about the one that took out the old Ski Lift up by Panther Meadows years ago and other avalanches that took out many trees later in the same area and I had seen the avalanche that hit around MacBride Springs much lower on the mountain and I had hiked up a few years ago above Bunny Flat to where the avalanche had taken out many trees that time.
But, "The Alien Hand" was one I never knew about at least around the time it must have happened around 15 years ago.
So, the next time you can get a good view of Mt. Shasta look towards the left from the City of Mt. Shasta and you can see what looks a little like 3 fingers coming down from an arm which also looks like someone has clear cut a section out of the trees to the left and into the tree line of Shastina.
I climbed Shastina in the 1970s with a friend by the way and there are crystal turquoise blue lakes up in the Cinder cone there which was pretty interesting to see back then too. So, these lakes are at about 12,000 feet which I believe is the altitude of the Shastina peak next to but a part of Mt. Shasta
No comments:
Post a Comment