Casaval Ridge Denali Training, Mt. Shasta, March 16 -18th

Our weekend of inclement, cold-weather training on Mt. Shasta. I flew in Friday night, drank beers in Sacramento with my bro (on break from his Blast! tour), then I set off to the mountain with Mark. Highlights include our custom snow cave camp at 10,000' on the exposed ridge, climbing with two tools to the ridge proper at 10,500', several winter whiteout storms, and some route-finding through sketchy avalanche-prone terrain, then back down and to the airport to catch my Sunday night flight back. Whew, what a weekend.
 

The Mount Shasta. Casaval Ridge, our objective, is the prominent ridge on the left. Avy gulch lies at the center

Rolling up the mountain in the ol' 2WD CAR, no chains. Mark is the man as far as driving is concerned. We would later find a group of "Texans" in a lifted truck slid-out off the road on our way down from the Mtn. Some folks can't hang.
Watch out for that iiiiiiiiice!



Casaval Training from Mark Emerson on Vimeo.
Mt. Shasta during a winter training climb. Using all the skills we've learned over the last few year we wanted to push ourselves a little bit with the weather, navigation, physical ability and knowledge. Building a snow cave and learning quite a bit about what to expect in cold weather.

Keep reading for more pics!...

There's not an easy way to change in a Honda Civic. There's also not an easy way to change in 10-degF temps, surrounded by dense snow. Airing it out. Chillin' in our bivy parking lot camp

Camp 1 - planned bivy in the middle of the parking lot. Warm and cozy?

No! Slightly chilled and frosty. Waking up to the dawn light

Mark doesn't shut his door. Neither do I! Meh, we're the only ones up here anyway.

Packed and loaded. Ready to roll... I have never seen this much snow in trees before, in my life. We literally hit the wilderness on the first clearing after two weeks of winter storms.

But, but, but, but... they said it was going to storm all weekend!

Following the skin track.
*Sorry backcountry skiers for destroying your tracks, we ain't stepping off and drowning in the 6+ feet of powder! :-/

Heading through the thick forest, searching for our ridge. The mountain lies out there somewhere...

Clouds envelope Avy Gulch

The approach slog... Hey-oh

We weren't the only ones eager to get on the fresh powder. Man, they hauled up the mountain on them planks!

Still off in the distance.

Last minute adjustments. Dropping the tent for the weekend. Now we're truly committed to "roughing it". I can spell my name!

There's the weather we've been anticipating!

Fresh rime on the trees, on everything!

I like this place, man. Well, I spoke too soon. The clouds rolled in rather quickly

Winter!

Gaining elevation.

Enjoying the endless slog up deep powder! And finally getting some z's missing from the night before. Maybe it's called "Alpine Narcolepsy"?

We're finally on the ridge, heading up. Taking a break -- we should have eaten more!

Looking back down at Horse Camp

Some twisted victims of the harsh winds

And we're officially climbing in a winter storm.

Not many places to get lost... It's just up the ridge.

Cutting switchbacks into the fresh terrain. Peace!

Hey cool, the snow's turning over to graupel! The styrofoam ball-type snow.  Dude, where the heck is this saddle? I'm eager to take a break from slogging and turn all efforts into shoveling metric tons of snow around!

Traversing around some rock outcroppings.

Alas, we have arrived at high camp... 10,000 feet on the ridge, overlooking Avalanche Gulch. Casaval Ridge leading the way up to the Trinity Chutes, above Avy Gulch

Our epic Extended Column Test -- we were legitimately afraid of setting off the weak layer 15 feet below the surface and sending this slab down towards the town of Shasta. Hehe, naw just kidding -- it's our future home in the making.
Getting deeper. Soon we'll be drenching ourselves in melted snow as we burrow into that wall.

Moving tons of this stuff.

Yeah we checked, we're not going to dig our snow cave through the cornice and fall into the gulch

Sunset from 10,000'

And now, it's time for the Profesh Alpine Bowling Championships...

Behold! Just finished constructing the wind-break block wall. Hey, we got "head room" now!

This narrow tunnel in, situated below our sleeping platform, should keep our heat inside

He's got the look and the finger-point of a late-night infomercial tycoon!
"You too can afford one of these if you follow my path to success. I'm living the dream, folks!"

Can't beat this view. Yes, there's even a "Welcome" mat beneath the doorway.

We dug right into the saddle

Tap, tap, tap.

A freshly painted Avy Gulch

The town of Shasta, so close, yet so far away. Night is falling quick.

Mark slaving away in the kitchen.

"Warm and cozy" at 8deg-F. Plenty of leg room, plenty!

Epic mountaineers pose

Yeah, that's booger icicle. It happens. After a quick teriyaki breakfast, Mark and I ascended the slope above camp to practice some controlled falls, running belays, seated belays, and so on.

I got ya, bro. Just fall.

Front-pointing and daggering that slope

Kicking in some mean steps up to Casaval Ridge proper. Once on top we scouted the flat for shelter from the wind.

Hooray for double tools!

Yep, we definitely got our wishes for inclement weather. The neighboring mini-volcano, Shastina Aguilera.

Our camp is down there somewhere.

Time to head back to camp and pack up before the rest of this system situates overhead.

Please erupt... safely. I want to watch.

The rest of Casaval Ridge. It'll have to wait until next time... Got a flight to catch tonight. Argh!

My brotha.

Descending back to high camp on the ridge

Whelp, weather's gonna bomb out at this rate. We getter get started down. Welcome to cold.

Thank you Gortex. Time for some good exercises in route-finding, not only in a white-out but around localized wind-slab and avalanche-prone, loaded slopes. We set of two propagating cracks on the way down, enough of a red-flag to spread out and stay near the trees. Lucky for us there was no facets under the slabs, only loose powder.

Gotta space out and watch each other cross just in case one of us initiates a slide.

Time to lose the crampons and get our float on with the snowshoes. Looking back at the mountain one last time and looking forward to my next visit and a shot to summit this beast.