when I climbed Mt. Shasta to the summit in August of 1970 I had both Crampons and an Ice axe that I had rented likely at "Fifth Season" which is a winter sports store in Mt. Shasta. The Ice axe and crampons allowed me to climb on the route I took to the summit. I didn't want to go up Red Banks and have to climb a rope up those cliffs so I went to the left up snow all the way to the ice shelf at around 12,000 or 13,000 feet using my ice axe and crampons. Most people said this was too dangerous but I decided to do this anyway. However, one of the problems I ran into was that I fainted on top of the ice shelf at 12,000 or 13,000 feet for a moment when I summited to that location.
The other strange thing was that there was a seagull flapping about scared up there that couldn't fly because of the thin air. I didn't want it to beat itself to death trying to fly so I chased it off an ice cliff and watched it get enough air under it's wings to glide away to safety.
Then I summited but before I did I met my friend who had fallen asleep at 13,000 feet because of the altitude. I told him to go down that it was too cold to sleep at this altitude the way he was dressed so that is what he did. Then I summited alone at around 4 pm that day in August of 1970.
Then I had brought garden plastic to slide down so I used my ice axe as a brake and slid down the mountain when I saw it was safe enough to do this to around 9000 to 10,000 feet from the over 14,000 foot mountain. Doing this was a very quick descent and I was able to get back to Horse Camp Sierra Club emergency lodge by sundown and I was able to rejoin my friends there were we all went down into town and had Vegeburgers at a place I think then called Marilyn's then in August of 1970.
So, I left about 2 am from Horse Camp and was down to Horse Camp by Sundown that day. I was in no rush to summit which is one reason I think why I succeeded that day and didn't get airsick like many people do when they push it too much and don't get enough oxygen and start throwing up or going into hypothermia or other problems that can happen at high altitudes above 10,000 to 11,000 feet. My ice axe looked most like the top one that I rented but then it was legal to have a strap so you didn't lose the ice axe when you most needed it. However, then many people started sliding and the axe got loose from their hands and the axe injured or killed them bouncing on the snow because of the strapping so this went out of fashion for this reason.
Here are some pictures of Ice Axes of different kinds:
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