Mt Shasta - July 22-24, 2004

Mt Shasta from the parking lot of the trailhead. We camped at the trailhead on Thursday night. The trailhead is at about 6800 ft.

The group, at the start of the hike. From the left: Juan, Sylvia, Me, Cindy, Karl, John, Jim, Barry (guide from SWS). Kim (other guide and owner of Sunrise Mountain Sports) is taking the picture.

Taking a break on the hike up.

Further along on the approach. It's getting closer. The snowfield on the right is where we did self arrest practice.

The snow field where we practiced self arrests.

Breaking for lunch before self arrest practice.

A shot of the terrain hwere we had lunch - you can see that we're clearly above the treeline. This is at about 9000 ft. Photo by John Allen.

Jim, showing off his fasionable sun protection. Photo by John Allen.

Self arrest is the practice of stopping (arresting) yourself if you're suddenly sliding down the mountain. Barry (in the orange on the right) is instructing us and Juan's on deck to try it.

We practiced three different ways of arresting:
1. Sitting down and sliding feet first.
2. On our stomach head first (that's me in this picture).
3. On our back headfirst.
Photo by Kim Grandfield.

John has come to a rest at the bottom of the hill.
Photo by Kim Grandfield.

Our campsite. This is at about 10,000 ft.
Photo by John Allen

This is our first good look at the mountain that we'll be climbing. The summit is 4000 ft higher than us right now, but it sure doesn't look that high.
Photo by John Allen.

Dinner on Friday night.

Sunset from our camp on Friday night.
Photo by John Allen