Hike Mt. Shasta

No sooner did I put up an up-to-date collection of rainbows around Mount Shasta then another storm sailed through the area and provided another fascinating specimen, as well as a number of other interesting sights.

Thus far this summer, the temperatures have not been too hot and there has been a staccato rhythm of thunderstorms, each yielding up color temperatures, rain, copious lightning and all the other hallmarks of quality summer storm weather. I honestly can’t remember a series of storms like this in the recent past. This last series of storms, however, was unusual in that it brought a lot of lightning, a totally unique rainbow and fresh snow on Mount Shasta. That is a trio of phenomena that I have not seen before and as Mount Shasta always does, it surprises and defies expectations.

The first wave of the storm was not too exciting but it did leave a very gentle dusting of snow on Mount Shasta. Yet the clouds continued to gather and it was obvious that some exciting weather was building up.

The storm itself was pretty epic. There was so much water coming down that some areas, especially at the north end of the Shasta Valley and Yreka there was a fair amount of flooding. This time lapse (I don’t know if anyone likes these as much as I do, but I really enjoy them!) shows the intensity of the storm and how it develops out of nothing. I especially like at how about 0:35 the clouds stop there westward movement and then suddenly turn and blow eastward. It’s a pretty dramatic reversal.

Like the storm just before the 4th of July, this event had quite a bit of lightning. It wasn’t as intense as the earlier storm but still exciting to witness. It was made even better by the fact that a great deal of the lightning was flying over Mount Shasta. I set up my camera to try to capture it in the evening but it seemed like every bolt was coming in between when my camera was capturing an image. It was frustrating but awesome. The above image was the best I managed to get. Someday, I will get a good shot of the mountain with a fat bolt of lightning.

All of a sudden, as the sun was sinking below the horizon, light red light washed over the mountain and it looking like the forest had burst into flames. The alpenglow was intense. However, even more surprising was that right in the narrow path of the light a rainbow extended upwards. I have never seen a rainbow when it was this dark out. Even more striking was the presence of a faint but discernable second rainbow right in from of Shastarama Point. As the alpenglow faded, the rainbow lingered, since the sun was too low to light the mountain it was still barely high enough to cast light into the rainy sky. Finally the sun was too low the rainbow disappeared and it was dark but for a fleeting moment there had been a truly magical sight to behold.

The next day another storm was forecasted. I headed up to the Old Ski Bowl in the morning to get a shot of the mountain with fresh snow. It had rained a fair amount after the sun set and there was a solid layer on the shady exposures of Mount Shasta above 12,000 feet. I was up there fairly early and it was already beginning to melt off in the sunnier areas. Still, it was pretty spectacular up there, with a new, massive thunderhead building over the mountain’s summit.

The fresh now highlighted the crags of the mountain nicely. It was naturally thicker higher up but even below 11,000 feet there was a surprising amount of snow. It is hard to believe that the snow had come down in the peak of summer but there it was glistening on the slopes.

Heading down, I had hoped to capture a shot of the upper part of Avalanche Gulch and the West Face Gully area, where the snow was especially thick. Unfortunately, I had not factored in the alacrity with which the next storm was brewing and by the time I got down to one of my favorite vantage points, the clouds had built up and covered the summit. Glimpses of fresh snow were visible through the fast moving clouds but, for the most part, it was obscured.

While returning from Yreka later in the day, the new snow was still visible on the cooler north side. Though not obscured by clouds, it was shadowed by the clouds that continued to increase in size. It looked like it was going to be another good storm. It was, however, a storm I wasn’t meant to see, since I was in the hospital with my son (he’s fine) all evening when the lightning and rain really got going.

The next day I headed up to the Old Ski Bowl for the sunset. Most of the snow was gone but the clouds were still clearing. It was absolutely gorgeous. The crags, particularly Thumb Rock and Shastarama Point were highlighted in magnificent fashion by the bits of clouds racing past the cliffs.

All in all, it was a stunning sunset, the kind that is hard to believe we can witness just a short drive from town. Of course, there are amazing sunsets to be witnessed from in town, but each is great in its own way. It was another fascinating round of storms, with some unusual sights to witness. There may be yet another storm next week, before July draws to a close. I hope it is a good one.