Castle Lake- Mt. Shasta area

Castle Lake is in the Mt. Shasta area above Lake Siskiyou and across Interstate 5 from Mt. Shasta city and mountain by the same name.

I was skiing around Castle lake this day with 2 good friends, one of which has now passed away about a year ago now. He was a good friend (both of them have been good friends since the 1970s or earlier). One is still alive now. However, the guy who rescued me has passed away a year ago now.

I Used to ski regularly across Castle lake on Skis because the ice would be thick enough to feel safe doing this up until around 2010 which was the first year I saw the lake without any ice in it about this time of year. After that I didn't really want to ski across the lake anymore because it seems to get warmer all over a little more each year. So, If I ski on the ice now I make sure I can stand up on the bottom so I won't go through the ice accidentally and drown.

Anyway this day we three guys were skiing around the lake and we decided to ski across a shallow portion of the lake. However, skiing on ice is different than skiing on snow so I didn't compensate properly going out onto the ice and fell back on my skis and my rear end was broken through the lake in between my skis.

Now this is laughable except for the fact that I might drown there simply because I couldn't take my skis off from this position without falling deeper into the lake and drowning because I couldn't stand up on my skis because they were on top of the ice.

So, I called out to my friend now passed away (a year ago now) and he came and released my bindings so I could stand up in the lake waist or chest deep and not just drown there which is what I would have done had I been alone doing this. So, this is one reason why you shouldn't ski alone especially when skiing over snow and ice of a frozen lake like us that day.

However, then I had another problem because the wind was blowing and it was about 20 degrees and I was now freezing wet and cold up to my chest from standing in the lake up to my chest. 

It's amazing how resilient we all can be. When I was growing up I thought people might die in these conditions and it's likely true some of them do. So, I walked out of the water and ice in 20 degrees and about a wind of 20 miles per hour on a cloudy day and then realized I didn't have any other pants to change into in my truck. So, I put a rubber coat under my wet jeans and turned the heater ON and headed for town with my 2 friends.

However, it still amazes me what we all can survive in weather like this but I got back to my hotel and my wife and got into a really hot bath so I could thaw myself out from 20 degrees air temperature in a 20 mph wind on a cloudy day at 6000 feet in a lake that was frozen over but not enough so my rear end didn't break through the ice when I fell.

So, here is another story where I'm lucky to still be alive and why it's important to never ski alone(especially if you are going to ski across an ice covered lake back to your truck.