Mountain Climb

The following is the account of my climb to Thumb Rock on Mt Shasta, along with some pictures:

So, it's fourth of July, and I'm panicking. We climb tomorrow, and i still haven't got all of my rented gear, and i haven't packed a thing. I work til late at the Resort, and i was supposed to have everything packed. oh well, that's typical Aleisha for you. In the end, i managed to get the last of my gear at the last minute and went to work, avoiding drinking too much of the rum and coke the crazy borrachos at work were giving me. i went home and packed everything, going to sleep at 1:30am.

I woke up at 7:30am and double checked my packing, ate breakfast, and left to go pick up Will and meet the guides and fellow climbers in town. There were only two other climbers, a British guy and a Turkish (i think) guy, and they were both really nice. We had two guides, both also really nice. here is our whole group at the trailhead (after the climb):

We hiked 1000 ft in to base camp with all our gear (25-30 lbs) and set up camp for the night. I got a migraine and suffered some severe self-doubting moments, but it was thankfully short, and once it passed i was my spunky self, ready for Snow School (by the way, there was a good 4-6 ft of snow at base camp). this was where we went out and learned how use our ice axes to climb on a steep slope, and how to self arrest if we fell. We learned how to work as a team when we were roped in, and we also learned how to use our axes as rudders when we glissaded (slid on our asses) down the mountain after we reached the top (or Thumb Rock in my case). then we went back to camp, ate dinner, and went to bed at 8pm.

The guides woke us up at 1am to eat breakfast and pack the gear we'd need for the summit, and then we headed out at about 2am. Greg, one of our guides, set a brisk pace that i soon realized i couldn't follow. it was disheartening, because all of the guys were keeping up just fine, but Will's mom had given me the great advice to ignore them and keep my own pace. one of the guides stayed with me, and i caught up eventually; luckily the pace slowed down after that. it was fully dark out, and i couldn't see anything except the circle of the snow in front of me that was lit up by my headlamp, pockmarked by the footsteps of thousands of climbers (this was the mountain's most popular route). Every time we passed another group of headlamps, the guide next to me (John) sang snatches of "strangers in the dark." he had turned his headlamp off, and i envied his confidence. without the headlamp it must feel like an empty black landscape, marred by the occasional pinpricks of light and the constant crunch of boots on snow. someday, maybe.

we put on our crampons before we hit Helen Lake. Crampons are these things that i'm trying to eat (they're not really edible. they hook onto your boots):It was pretty cold out. i didn't know the exact temperature, but i'm sure it was below freezing.

I fell behind the group again on the hill to Helen Lake (which, by the way, is not a lake. just an itty bitty flat spot) when one of my crampons fell off. once again, i was really disheartened, because the hill was a bitch to climb and i knew everyone was waiting for me at the top. by the time we got there i could see a little light in the sky, and i realized there was a heavy black-looking cloud over the ridge. i was almost hoping for bad weather to force us back, because i was doubting my ability to climb the whole way. but once i'd rested for a few minutes, i felt better, and then when we started climbing again i could keep up. the cloud disappeared, and so did most of my doubts, and then the sunrise started. we stopped a ways up and watched it for a while, so i got some good pictures:

I look like such a fucking mountaineer. hardcore, totally fuckin' hardcore (picture taken by Will. it was nice to have another photographer there).


oooh.

Ahhhh.

Will was taking pictures too, and behind him our guides are preparing the rope teams. Will and I got teamed together, which made me nervous cus he was the fastest in our group. it turned out to be cool though, and i'm glad it was him and not a stranger who was helping drag my hysterical ass up the last thousand feet.

this was the way were about to go:
Doesn't look too bad, does it? Well it was totally deceiving. the climb up to the the Red Banks (the little bumpy line two-thirds to the right) took us like four hours. or was it three? i didn't check my watch, but it felt like an eternity. later they told me that people said it was the worst part of the whole climb, and i believe them, even though i didn't go further.

The problem with the climb through the lungs (which is what that section of mountain is called) was that we couldn't stop and rest. at least, that was the problem for me. this was because of heavy rockfall danger from the Red Banks (and it's true, we passed lotsa crater-like impressions with head-sized rocks embedded in them), but after taking step after step after step up the steep incline, i started not to care about rocks. in fact, i started daydreaming about just laying down and going to sleep where i was, rockfall or not. The guide was pretty insistent on keeping a steady pace, and although he never really said anything, he would tug at the rope every time i stopped to rest. and i began stopping a lot. i started hoping a rock would fall and take him out, forcing us to turn around. i started a chant in my head: "keep going, not that far. you can do it Aleisha." but no matter how many steps i took, the Red Banks didn't seem to get any closer. the chant in my head turned into "I just want to stop, i don't want to go any further. i mean i really really don't want to. i don't think i can. two more steps..." the altitude was clawing at the bottom of my lungs, and i could feel my muscles grasp for oxygen. i was tasting a bit of bile, and i was half-hoping that i would get altitude sickness and be forced to turn around. finally i voiced my thoughts, and told Will and the guide that i wanted to stop, and that i didn't think i could go further, even though i had no choice. then the guide asked "you don't think you can, or you REALLY don't think you can?" and i realized that i could turn around if i really had to. it made it worse, because i really really had to battle my brain and my body, which felt like it couldn't take another goddamn step. i felt like i lost all desire to climb further, and i don't know what kept me going. maybe it was the desire for a resting spot, to be off this fucking slope, but it was probably that i knew Will wanted to summit, and he couldn't if we turned around now. even when we got to the point where we were only a hundred steps from the Red Banks and Thumb rock, i still felt like i wanted to stop, like i couldn't make it, like i didn't want to. When we finally crested the edge, i threw off my backpack and collapsed. i would have fallen asleep if i could, but i wanted to get pictures first, and as i took off my gloves to change the film in my camera, i realized how cold it was. my fingers felt like logs, and the water in my Nalgene bottle had chunks of ice in it. the wind bit through all my wet clothes, and my hands, feet and face ached. if i fell asleep, i would probably fall into hypothermia and die (of course, someone would have woken me up before that happened). the view was gorgeous though! this is looking over the other side of the mountain (Thumb Rock is on the right):

We couldn't rest for too long, and soon i didn't want to. it was sooooo cold! i have no idea what the temperature was, but with the wind chill factor it was way below freezing. it was also still only 8:30 or so in the morning. Will hooked into the other rope team, and John, the guide who was with the two of us, got ready to take me down. we picked up two boys from another group, cool 16-year-old guys who didn't want to go any further either. Since it was still so early, and the snow was still too hard, we couldn't glissade down. John put me in front of the rope team, and i led the way climbing down, which was certainly easier, but still hellish. i fell once, caught my crampons on my other boot and tumbled face-first down the very steep slope. the other guys caught me immediately, but the adrenaline rush was so intense (especially at such a high altitude) that i almost passed out. we rested once, and i snapped this picture:

You can see a couple people climbing up, and those streaks are the glissading trails.

Eventually the snow warmed up enough and we got to glissade, which was such a blast. i also got to use the self-arrest technique for real, because i wiped out a few times. it was so much quicker to get down than to go up, and so much more fun. by the time we hit camp, i was really tired, but really happy to be somewhere where i could lay down and nap. and that's exactly what i did, for almost three hours until the other half of our group got back to camp. they rested for a bit, and then we packed everything and hiked out.

and that's all folks! surprisingly enough, i didn't get too sore, though i gained four lbs (muscle, i'm guessing). my legs felt so buff, and i had that cool mountaineer sunglasses tanline for a few days. Will left right after, and it was kinda funny cus i didn't see him in three years, then BAM we climb a mountain, and then *poof* and i probably won't see him in a long while again.

okay, this is getting too long. the moral of this story is, go climb a mountain! it's an awesome adventure even if you don't make it all the way to the top.