Shastina

May 19, 2017

3758m

Mount Shasta, CA

The very-aptly-named Shastina is just an subsidiary outlier on Mt. Shasta massif, but don’t get me wrong as it’s a gorgeous objective in its own. It’s also the 3rd highest peak in the whole range of Cascade Mountains behind Rainier and Shasta. The ascent is a mere snow/scree stroll from Shasta/Shastina col and can be easily combined with Mt. Shasta via Cascade Gulch. The approach I took was ascending Mt. Shasta via Avalanche Gulch followed by tagging Shastina while descending the Cascade Gulch route to make an interesting loop.

Mt. Shasta and Shastina via A. Gulch and down C. Gulch. GPX DL

The full trip report is written in my Mt. Shasta’s page and here I’m only focusing on the section between Shasta/Shastina col and the summit of Shastina. I ditched my backpack just to make it easier/faster carrying only poles, camera, GPS and crampons. After about 100 m of tame terrain I came to the crater rim and then had to drop about 30 m into it before climbing another hundred meters or so to the true summit. There’s not much worth nothing other than simple snow slog. The slope averaged 25 degrees with a steeper pitch near the top.

Partway up the first stretch. There supposes to have Sisson Lake.

Looking down the Cascade Gulch

Cresting the crater rim of Shastina

A view into the crater

Looking back towards the west slopes of Mt. Shasta

The summit of Shastina ahead

Summit Panorama from Shastina. Click to view large size.

The crater of Shastina

Another bump on the summit

Mt. Eddy and other peaks much low down.

Me on the summit of Shastina

Because I didn’t bring my backpack with me I did not do any unnecessary lingering on the summit. After taking enough photos I soon plunged down. The snow finally started to soften a bit at this point which made a more pleasant descent. All in all I’d say the views from Shastina isn’t much spectacular but this is definitely a cool peak to bag if you are into this kind of thing. I probably wouldn’t highly recommend this descent variation so if you are only interested in Mt. Shasta then do it up and down via Avalanche Gulch is much simpler.