Report from Tuesday, June 4
In 1870, German biologist Ernst Haeckel steered {that a} sunken continent known as Lemuria could possibly be the ancestral dwelling of humanity, probably explaining the “lacking hyperlinks” within the fossil report of early people.
Haeckel was not a subscriber to Charles Darwin’s Concept of Evolution.
In America, Lemuria has change into most intently related to Mount Shasta in northern California, which in accordance with Frederick Spence Oliver’s 1894 guide A Dweller on Two Planets and different occultist writers is the final refuge of the survivors of so-called Lemuria.
Legend has it that they reside there in a jewel-encrusted underground metropolis known as Telos.
Properly, if there are any type of Lemurians dwelling in Mount Shasta, they had been pissed on Tuesday after we tried to ski off its summit.
A brutal 3:20 a.m. wake-up behind my automobile that was parked on the Bunny Flat trailhead was how I began the day.
It was nonetheless the lifeless of night time and the sky was illuminated by an internet of glowing gems.
This have to be what they name magic.
By 4:25 I used to be skinning solo in the dead of night.
After mountain climbing for miles on grime to get to the snowline in Mammoth the place I used to be primarily based the previous two weeks, it was a significant blessing to have the ability to tour straight from the parking zone.
The silhouette of the forest contrasted significantly with the shine of the starry sky as I walked by the silent timber.
As soon as I gained just a few hundred ft of elevation I began to really feel the wind.
I knew {that a} swift breeze down right here meant hassle up excessive…
I went up by the lengthy, windy, sun-cupped gully and made it to the bottom of Shasta’s big Avalanche Gulch simply as daylight began to creep its means in.
The mountain was seen and the highest was shrouded in a thick, fast-moving cloud that gave the height the looks of an enormous mushroom.
With how briskly the clouds had been transferring I knew a summit push was going to be unattainable except the climate abruptly chilled the hell out.
I toured up Avalanche Gulch’s large undulating terrain consisting of huge big curves, sub-gullies, and mini-ridges that each one fashioned one mega avalanche path.
Fortunately it’s June and avalanche hazard is subsequent to nill in any other case I most likely wouldn’t be touring up this face like this.
I stored a cool tempo, reaching the excessive camp in about two hours or so.
I went up as excessive as made sense, stopping just a few hundred ft wanting rockfall that had occurred someday over the last few days.
Right here, it was very windy, and a moist, icy wind gusted sharp flakes into my particular person, inflicting me to wince and instantly flip the opposite route.
Now, I’d wait.
As I used to be ready to see if by some miracle the clouds would elevate off the summit and the wind would abruptly die, a fellow traveler named Nic who was additionally headed for the summit got here as much as me and we determined to go the time conversating with one another.
We sat for some time, watching the day develop brighter and the wind seemingly solely get extra highly effective.
It turned onerous to listen to one another speak after some time because of the extraordinarily loud gusts of sifting ice.
It wasn’t getting any higher.
At the least it wasn’t onerous to show round; the choice was apparent.
Exhausting are the bails which can be ambiguous and require considering, like very minor rockfall in a non-exposed spot or a companion who perhaps doesn’t have his head screwed on straight that day.
We had been additionally actually chilly at that time from ready in order that made it straightforward too.
Time for a bail beer.
As Nic and I dropped right into a 3,500′ run again down the parking zone, we had been shocked to search out mushy, slushy snow a lot of the means down.
The snowboarding was really nice till the large suncups within the gully on the backside.
It should not have froze the night time earlier than, making for some clean, straightforward crusing down the vast Avalanche Gulch again right down to the trailhead.
The solar was shining, and again within the forest, indicators of wind had been minimal despite the fact that it was nonetheless gusting seemingly 100 mph on the prime.
We received again to the parking zone to heat temps and general stunning California circumstances.
It was disappointing solely to make it about midway up Shasta however the clean snow down Avalanche Gully and good climate within the parking space accompanied with the nice firm of different bailers chillin’ out within the lot made up for it, and I didn’t go away unhappy.
I knew at some point I’d be again for the highest.
Simply going to need to convey an providing to the Lemurians subsequent time and hope they let me in.
•••
To be taught extra about present circumstances on Mount Shasta, go to the Mount Shasta Avalanche Heart Web site.
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