Hike Mt. Shasta

Arabians graze beneath snow-capped Mount Shasta.

This post is a few weeks overdue. With the start of school and a few other things going on, it has been on my list of things to get done but never high enough to actually sit an do it…until now. However, I have other things I want to write about so I am going to keep this brief, light on commentary and image heavy.

First, after the initial set of images I posted on the wild mudflows we had here in Mount Shasta, I was able to capture a few others that showed the deep channels the water carved as well as some other large mudflows.

Here are the first ones:

The next day I was able to capture a few others:

In Avalanche Gulch, deep channels were cut and another large mudslide came off of the Heart and covered some of the snow.

Another view of the large mudslide and deep channels on the west face.

The upper sections of Cascade Gulch, both above and below Hidden Valley, were enlarged.

The gully inside Diller Canyon looks noticeably larger.

Morning, after another round of storms.

As if the rain from Hurricane Hilary wasn’t unusual enough, the next weekend saw another round of rain. This time, however, the temperatures were much colder and rather than melting Mount Shasta’s snow, it added a fresh layer to the mountain’s upper 5,000 feet.

It was gratifying to see the mountain white again, especially after swaths of snow were melted by the earlier storm. Since the hurricane hit in August and the next storm arrived at the the beginning of September, this meant that it has snowed on Mount Shasta every single month thus far in 2023 except the month of July. Not too bad, considering last year had fresh snow on the mountain every single month of the year!

Though vestiges of this summer snow still lingers on the mountain, it was not destined to last too long. Nonetheless, it was an odd, but interesting episode in summer weather here in Mount Shasta!