View from Shasta City Shasta from Bunny Flat Horse Camp Cabin Skiing Up to Avalanche Gulch Camp at Helen Lake Dawn in Upper Avalanche Gulch Shasta Sunrise Shadow Climbing Upper Casaval Ridge Climbing a Red Banks Chimney Above Red Banks Thumb Rock and Lassen Peak Looking Up Misery Hill Shasta Summit Pinnacle On Mount Shasta Summit Alex on the West Summit Shastina Crater View Skiing the Summit Pinnacle Skiing the Summit Pinnacle 2 Skiing Misery Hill Self-Belay through Red Banks Skiing through Red Banks Safely below Red Banks Skiing below Red Banks Cliffs Skiing the Bowl Left of Heart View Down to Lake Helen Avalanche Gulch Farewell Map of Shasta Ski Route View of Shasta from the North

Despite the blazing sun and uncomfortably warm temperatures over 70 F, we made good progress and reached the high camp at Helen Lake (10440 ft) by 3:30 pm. That's me relaxing in front of our tent, with the Heart in the distance and above it the Red Banks along the top edge of Avalanche Gulch. We were soon joined by a weekend crowd of over 40 other tents. Two climbing rangers (wearing randonnee ski boots) made the rounds checking permits before sunset, somehow skipping our tent in the process.
(Photo by Alex Cronin)