Pictures are here. Send me as email attachments and I will add.
We ran into this crew on Saturday. They were coming down as we were going up. Joey loaned us their map of Shasta and gave some good directions for pitching base camp.
A movie of their ascent is here (Facebook sign in required). Their homepage, with some photos is here. Their mission is to hit all the Northern California peaks with the constraint that each new peak must be visible from one previously summited. Summary of food advice from a web page: Eating while climbing is recommended. Climbers need 200 calories per hour while climbing. Gorp and high fat food is not recommended. After climbing stops, eating should be done within an hour of ceasing activity. (TraditionalMountaneering.com)
Perhaps a reference to Doc Bey is appropriate at this point:
Ibuprofen taken before symptoms start. Link to article at Stanford.edu.
Researchers found the incidence of altitude sickness decreased from 70% to 43% in a study group of 40 placebo-recievers and 40 ibuprofen takers. Peter([email protected]) 07/12/2014 10:03am Great research. Dovetails nicely with my plan for taking approximately 800 mg hourly to combat muscle cramping, ankle pain, and backache. It does allow me to add one more item to my list of concerns shared with Tom, as 43% occurrence is pretty high in the group that was treated. I hope to go from his tabulated 408 questions to an even 500 by mid-week. 1) [tom} I CAN and would gladly do Avalanche gulch route but if easier and safer less risk of rockfall I want all options such as Clear creek route.
Peter 07/10/2014 1:12pm Let's check the climbing advisory page and call maybe call ranger station this weekend for latest direction. Everything seems to indicate snow is better, so I'm up for alternate, but nothing crazy like requiring ropes. Tom: Call 530 926 5555 for a daily recorded report. People are still climbing avalanche but summiting early.am.to avoid rock fall times later in day as snow loosens. Its 40 degrees at 11 and 12k high and low of.about.32. We can sleep at 9.5k so hopefully 45 high and 35low or so. No problem. With tent and bag and gloves. ADVENTURE!!!! Tom: Perfect news. Guide at 5th season highly rec clear creek route for following reasons -much less rock.risk. bike helmet fine but.those of u.sworried can still rent metal -much less steep grade and less traffic -there is camping.at a spring for fresh water at about 9k.feet which is ideal for first night and we can leave heavy gear there and.summit.and then sleep 2nd.night on way down with tents there versus ascend to 11k and sleep there if weather seems nice. -he said weather not bad at all ie warmer than usu at night All in all. Have no fear men. We will love the journey Tom Fred:
Arriving in Oakland at 1055AM direct from Chicago. Evan claims he'll pick me up around 1130, after I've secured my pack from baggage claim. Departing Oakland at 240pm on July 22. Sam: Arriving in Redding around 8pm-ish Friday per verbal w/EG. Peter: I am arriving on same flight as Fred from Chicago. So we need something big enough for three and gear. Returning from Oakland right now on same day as Fred and Evan. Still waffling on staying longer, work is a situation, decision will likely be made for me when later return flight becomes unavailable or too expensive. [Fred:] What is this mention of a bike helmet? Do we bring and wear a bike helmet whilst high up on the mountain?
[update: tom] I have all bike helmets for everyone IF we decide to use them. I used one the first time. However there are more rocks now on Avalanche gulch this late in season so we may all need to simply rent metal ones if we take Avalanche route vs just use my many bike helmets here if we take clear creek route because less rocks that route Peter Zobel ([email protected]) 07/10/2014 1:15pm Bike helmets are not seen as sufficient protection and I value my noggin enough to rent one. Clear Creek may not even require one. I'm as worried about sliding somewhere and not knowing what to do with the ice axe We get water from runoff when we camp. How do we purify it?
Tom 07/09/2014 11:27pm I have a pump ceramic purifier and iodine tabs and filter bottles and enough bottles for everyone. They are plastic bike type bottles with a filter inside bottle but key filter is my ceramic pump filter which I took a pic of but it must not have been visible enough Peter Zobel 07/10/2014 4:36am I have a SteriPen UV type purifier. Good for clear water, not so much muddy. Package came with some sort of pre-filter too. From Intl Mtn Guides site : 07/13/2014 Bring 2 large Nalgene 1-L bottles per person per five hours climbing. (Evan: Sounds like 4 bottles for the summit day per person, Summit day on Mt Shasta will be climbing up from 5 am to 11 am and descending from noon til 5 pm I think, for ten hours total maybe? So 4 liters?) If the water is from melted snow, probably no need to sterilize. If from runoff, consider a purification strategy such as boiling, iodine, or filtration. From Extreme Alpinism site: Mark Twight and James Martin in Extreme Alpinism, suggest climbers must drink 5 to 6 quarts of water in a 12-hour climb, and note that even this may only provide 50% of the hydration that is theoretically required. Since it is often practical to carry only 2 or 3 quarts (4 to 6 pounds of starting water weight), it is necessary to carry a pot, lid, stove and fuel to replenish our favorite Nalgene water bags from snow. |