Hike Mt. Shasta

Cloud enshrouded Mount Shasta on the morning the storm began.

The last few days of October were great autumn days. Suddenly, on the 1st of November, we got an unexpected snow storm that dropped 4-5 inches. This was an unusually large amount of snow for this time of year and it came with no warning, since only rain was in the forecast. A few glorious days followed, with a white mountain and glowing fall leaves. However, more rain and possibly some snow was in the forecast. I was expecting Mount Shasta to be even whiter than it the first snow had made it but when the weather finally arrived, I (and all of nature) was unprepared for what showed up.

The morning the storm was slated to arrive, I headed out to the east side of Mount Shasta. Everything was purified white with snow and at sunrise everything glowed marvelously in pink light. Mount Shasta presaged the storm by gathering a dense cap of cloud over its upper flanks so it was largely hidden. Nonetheless, the glow was grand and magical and made for an exhilarating sunrise. I even got a nice shot of one of my favorite junipers, which is located on a rocky prominence, contrasted against the fiery sky.

A loan juniper greets Aurora.

By the time I left, the clouds were moving in and the storm was on its way. It rained all day, but never particularly hard until the evening. Then, during the night it really started to snow. By morning, it turned out to be far more than anticipated. We measured 10 inches around 7 AM!

Only a few days into November, we woke up to a midwinter scene! Some snow was expected but nearly a foot was very unexpected.

It continued to snow throughout the day, eventually adding another 5 inches so that we had about 15 inches at my house. This would have been a pretty good midwinter storm but for it to come right at the beginning of November, in the heart of autumn was pretty impressive. I have seen a few storms like this around Thanksgiving but never just a few days after Halloween.

Of course, this kind of weather does not come without a price. The early storm didn’t just catch people off guard. It also caught all the trees off guard. Since October was so warm, we didn’t get a lot of fall color in that month this year. This means that most of the trees were just starting to get their fall color and a significant number were still green. Leaves on trees means more surface area for snow to accumulate which means significantly more weight and strain on the branches. Many simply gave up and snapped. I had a few come down at my house but in town the damage was heavy, with broken limbs ubiquitous on the sides of the streets. Even a few large trees were toppled over at their roots.

An entire tree in my backyard tipped over at the roots from the massive snow load in 2010.

I have not seen this kind of storm damage around town since the great storm of January 2010, when feet (and I mean feet!) of snow came down in a matter of days and broke limbs and toppled trees everywhere. It was the biggest and most damaging storm I have ever seen. This most recent snowfall was nothing like the quantity that fell then but the presence of the leaves on the trees made for a lot of damage.

A frigidly warm sunrise on Mount Shasta’s sunrise. 

In the end, Mount Shasta finally got a really nice blanket of snow on it, rendering the mountain white once and for all for the winter. I hope this early snowfall is an auspicious start to the winter season. I love fall, but I don’t think were getting much of it this year. We kind of had a long summer and are jumping right into winter. The way we need water, I don’t think I will be complaining!

Another beautiful Friday morning on Mount Shasta.