Last Updated 18-Aug-00

Mount Shasta 2000

Team
At the start:
David Limbach, Matt Crow,
& Doug Limbach		   Team
On the summit:
Doug, Matt, & David

Below is a summary of our trip up and down Mt. Shasta. Each climber has summarized their experience below.

David Limbach: I have to start by saying that the best quote of the weekend was from Matt when he said to me: You look like either you know what you are doing, or that you are about to be shot out of a cannon. Having never climbed with crampons and an ice ax before, my biggest fear was getting into trouble on the steep snow. With my annual goal of "climbing something high" the altitude was not a concern, and strangely neither was the fact that I had thrown out my back just three weeks prior to the trip. As it turns out, the equipment was easy to use and made scaling up The Heart quite fun.

With other trips of mine, the ascent was only half the work. Makes sense right, you have to climb down just as far as you climbed up, and while descending is physically easier, the pounding on the joints is hard plus you are fatigued from the climb up. This is NOT the case with Shasta: On the return trip you get to glissade down the mountain, which is just a fancy word for sliding on your ass. For a full 20 minutes, we slid down the mountain at a pretty good clip. So while our trip up took over 4 hours, coming down was completed in 90 minutes. The glissade was worth the price of admission alone!

To sum my experience into one sentence: Climbing Mt. Shasta was more exciting than I expected, the steep ascent and descent making it different and more exhilarating than any other climb I have done.

Doug Limbach: Why climb a mountain? Because it is there? The nice view from the top? The physical or technical challenge? The opportunity to conquer something much larger than yourself? The adrenaline of flirting with danger? The awe of fully experiencing one of Mother Nature's masterpieces? My Californian answer to this metaphysical/philosophical question is: "Like wow, it is WAY fun!"

Being self-sufficient when camping above 10,000 feet on the mountain, you come to know the true substance of your comrades. For instance, I had no idea Matt is sooo Republican that he even despises National Forest Rangers and Smoky the Bear. I was also shocked to learn that despite Dave's abundance of energy and climbing talent, he would not even "short-rope" his own brother to the summit if needed. These and many other mysteries were revealed in the alpen glow, but the rest remains Classified.

Overcoming the challenges of summitting Mount Shasta was an absolute thrill. Challenges unique to mountains like Shasta were temperature swings over 50 degrees, melting and filtering snow to have enough drinking water to keep hydrated at altitude, reassembling a failed crampon on the steepest face of the mountain, and tracking rocks sailing by like huge buzz-saws. Like any great vacation, memories of it sustain you through the adversities faced during the rest of the year. It is great to be back to civilian life with Sandra and the kids, but secret plans are already under way for scaling Rainier next year ...

Matt Crow: My Mt. Shasta experience was greatly enhanced for two important reasons: the character of my climbing partners and the beautiful weather that allowed us to enjoy the mountain. Both Doug and David possess excellent senses of humor and, being brothers, played off one another all the way up, and all the way down the mountain. I wouldn't recommend doing the climb with anyone without a sense of humor or the ability to laugh at one's self.

Aside from the soul inspiring scenery, Shasta presents a long, rather arduous exercise challenge. I didn't find any of the technical challenges (crampons, ice ax usage) overwhelming; but the "one foot in front of the other" factor was a bit daunting at times. The presence of teenagers and one gentleman who was 60-years-old at Lake Helen and on the summit encouraged me greatly. However, I thought to myself more than once that there really isn't anything "sexy" about climbing Shasta; I liken it to climbing up the stairs of a 250 story building . You know you are going to get to the top, but it takes many, many steps.

I suppose the one image I will always remember is the full moon, ready to set about 5:00am, just over the Trinity Alps 40 or so miles away to the West. In my tent at Lake Helen, I had just woken up, gotten dressed and was peering outside. It was a solitary and fascinating view.

Trip Itinerary



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