It’s mid April and on Mt Shasta it’s definitely starting to feel like spring has sprung here in northern California. After a slow start to the 2023/24 winter in California, El Nino ended up delivering a deep and moist snowpack to the upper mountain on Mt Shasta. Unlike last year, this year, the spring skiing and summer mountaineering season on the Avalanche Gulch and the West Face routes will go strong into late June. The best time for a summit climb or a summit ski descent is usually May through June. 

At the time of writing this, there’s currently more than 13 feet of settled snow at the weather station in the Old Ski Bowl at 7,600 feet.  Earlier this week, I spotted a small high pressure ridge build as a northerly flow moved past California to the east. This was the change in the weather I was looking for and I decided to climb high on Mount Shasta to check out the conditions. 

With higher snow levels this past winter due to the warm and wet El Nino, access to the mountain’s other trailheads at Creek Clear, Brewer Creek, and Northgate will also become passable sooner because there is less snow at the lower elevations on the mountain.

On Wednesday morning, I left the Bunny Flat trailhead on my skis at approximately 7:30am with the goal of skiing one of the bigger faces on the upper mountain. I skinned up the standard Avalanche Gulch climbing route to about 11,000 feet before switching to boot crampons. From my previous 15 years of experience on Mount Shasta, I was very satisfied with the state of the snow conditions I observed on the upper mountain.  As continued to climb higher on the Avalanche Gulch route and to the right of the Heart, I observed a total of six skiers and snowboarders all descending the climbing route. Please, please, please do not ski down the standard Avalanche Gulch climbing route near the Heart or through the chimneys in Red Banks. The snow surface conditions on the upper part of the standard climbing route are usually firm, and scoured with rime ice. This firm snow usually makes for great crampon and climbing conditions, but also means that the snow in this area is almost never appealing for skiing. It is also dangerous for those below you and creates an overhead hazard. The large surface area of your skis will push large projectiles of rime ice and rock down onto the climbers below you, often out of sight and around the corner. For better and safer skiing routes, check out the entrance to the climber’s left of the Red Banks, Trinity Chutes, West Face, or many of the other options that the upper mountain provides.