I began the hardest physical journey that I had undertook in my life. I was packed in a van with 5 other high school classmates and 3 adults leaders, and we looked out to the daunting mountain ahead. The peak of Mt. Shasta was at a towering 14, 179 feet above sea level. The highest "mountain" I had summited before Shasta lied at 7,000 feet... I had been training for the past month: running, hiking, and weight training. However I knew that no matter how much physical preparation I did, in the end what would really matter was how mentally prepared I was. Mind over matter right?
We arrived at the parking lot, about 6,000 feet above sea level, and had our last breakfast of champions before setting out on a 4 day journey.
We were summited during May, but it was still 100% snow on the mountain, which meant snow shoes and crampons! We prepared ourselves with anti-blister tape, because one bad blister on a mountain can ruin your whole journey.
Up we went! We were troopers, heads down, knees up.
Despite the below freezing temperatures, it was exhausting hiking up snow with 40-50 pounds on our backs. So one of my classmates found a solution to his rising body temperature...
Our first day we made it up to 8,000 feet and had "snow school". We found a pretty steep part of the mountain and began practicing self arrests with our ice axes (which proved very important during my descent). It was a blast! We literally spent 3 hours purposely falling down a steep slope head first, feet first, on our backs, on our stomachs, and then catching and stopping ourselves with our handy ice axes. We also had a very serious talk about the risk of avalanches, the which we had already seen several from a distance.
A week before I left, I went to the dentist and told Holly about my upcoming journey. She replied, "Oh honey that's so amazing. Good luck to you! You know, my friend actually just went up Shasta and died. He was caught in an avalanche and didn't make it out. But he had a locator on him, and when they found his body he had the biggest grin across his face. He had died doing something he really loved". As much as that story freaked me out, it was beautiful all the same.
Our second day we pushed up to base camp at 10,000 feet. During the evening we made a little "kitchen" (pictured below), and did pretty well if I may say so myself! We sung songs, ate food, and chatted about the next day's summit attempt.
The boys all shared a tent together, and did not stake it down well enough. They were supposed to "stake" the tent down in the snow by packing snow around the stake so much that it became an ice block gluing the stake to the surrounding snow. However, somehow they managed to overlook the necessity of doing this task. As we were prepping dinner we saw the tent start to blow away, heading straight towards a 400 foot drop. The boys ran straight for the tent and caught it right in time, thankfully. However, all I could think about is what would have happened if the tent had blown over the edge and the guys had not realized and let go in time...
I must admit that one of the highlights of my trip was during one of my bathroom breaks. I went around to the other side of base camp to do my business. Btw, if you don't know what shitting in the snow would entail, picture a piece of paper with a bulls eye on it. You want to aim for the "10"/ bulls eye. Hopefully you make it. Then you wrap up your crap and put it in a paper bag full of cat litter. Then you bury it halfway in the snow overnight to freeze and carry it out with you. Wonderful process right? But back to the story...I was out having some quality time, doing my business, and everything was silent around me. The sun was setting, making the sky a perfect, soft pink. I could see Shasta City sparkling in the distance. And then suddenly a dry lightening storm began, streaking bolts of vibrant pink across this mellow sunset sky. I was magical.
As lone as God and white as a winter moon, Mount Shasta starts up suddenly from the heart of the great black forests of California.
You would hardly call Mount Shasta a part of the Sierras; you would say rather that it is the great white tower of some ancient and eternal wall, with here and there the white walls overthrown.
It has no rival! There is not even a snow crowned subject in sight of its dominion. A shining pyramid in everlasting mail of frosts and ice, the sailor sometimes, in a day of singular clearness, catches glimpses of it from the sea a hundred miles away to the west; and it may be seen from the dome of the capitol 340 miles distant. The immigrant coming from the east beholds the snowy, solitary pillar from afar out on the arid sage-brush plains, and lifts his hands in silence as if in answer to a sign."
- Joaquin Miller, Life Amongst The Modocs, 1874
Summit day had come - starting at 10,000 feet and praying that we'd make it to 14,179. This day was by far the hardest physical experience I have ever had. I honestly can't even remember the struggle or the pain, because at some point my body stopped fighting against it all and just moved. I went into survival mode, and my mind went to a place where it didn't even question if I could succeed, my body went into a place where it didn't even question the next step. It just moved forward because that was the only thing to do.
We were almost at the top and a whiteout storm blew in. Thankfully, we had been marking our path with red flags every 30 or so feet, in case something like this were to happen. If it weren't for these red flags, we probably would have been stuck up there, unable to find the way down.
WE MADE IT!!! We were all so exhausted, but the minute we reached the top, uncontrollable tears starting to pour down our faces. We couldn't believe it. We were really there. Thank you Shasta Thank you Shasta Thank you Shasta I kept on thinking to myself.
But the journey wasn't over yet. After a few steps down, I realized that I couldn't bend my knee past 120 degrees, or else a shooting pain would run straight down my leg. I later found out that it was due to an intense pressure on my sciatic nerve, caused by my strenuous ascent. So how was I supposed to descend 8,000 feet...? Guess what...I slide on my butt the whole way down the mountain, and it was exhilarating! This is the part where the lessons on how to self arrest using an ice axe came in handy. Many times the slope was so steep that I was sliding down at a dangerous speed, and had to throw my body over to the left and catch myself with my ice axe, only to start sliding down again. I mean, I had to get down, right? I came out of that 8,000 foot descent with some holes in my pants and a really, really bruised behind.
The whole team was ecstatic for having completed our journey. We said our goodbyes to the mountain, hopped in our van, and our first stop was some grub at Big Bear Diner...
Mt Shasta is considered by many to be the root chakra of the world. And boy was it the root chakra for me. It is considered the base of the world energy system where all life energy rushes out of. My experience summiting this beautiful mountain brought me straight to the base of my energy system. It challenged my body, and reconnected me to the physical form that acts as a vessel for all of my life energy. I recently revisited Shasta for the first time since my ascent, and immediately felt the intense energy of this mountain that had once poured energy in and out of me.