The short and long of our 2018 summer plans

Freshening the sticker collection on the camper shell is an important aspect of preparing for a long trip.

Locked, loaded, ready for action.

The Reader’s Digest version of our travel plans for 2018 goes something like this: I’m leaving tomorrow (April 30) with the travel trailer in tow, headed for California where I will spend most of May and June climbing mountains. My goal is to finish off the California 14ers (there are 15 of them and I have already climbed 10). Betsy will drive out in her car to join me in June and we will remain in California through the 4^th of July.

Five mountains in two months. How hard can it be?

From California we will head due east to Colorado; arriving in Buena Vista, Colorado on July 15.  We will stay there until we start for home on October 1.

Now, for those readers wanting something more to “digest”, here’s a more expansive itinerary.

My initial destination in California is an RV “resort” near the small town of Lone Pine which sits in the shadow of Mt. Whitney (the highest point in the lower 48 states). However, Lone Pine is also less than 100 miles west of Death Valley National Park, home to the lowest point in North America. So, if you like elevation change, it's an interesting place.

I hope to make the 1,500-mile drive to Lone Pine in a direct but relatively leisurely four days and three nights with stops near Lubbock, Albuquerque and Kingman (Arizona).

The travel trailer will stay there in Lone Pine until the end of May but I will probably be there about half of that time. I’m hoping to car-camp my way as far north as southern Washington in a quest to summit as many as four volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains.

However, my primary goal for May is to get acclimated and climb just one of those volcanoes, Mt. Shasta. If I make it to the top of Shasta it will be the 70^th (out of 75) 14,000-foot mountain in the lower 48 states that I have summited and the 11^th of the 15 California 14ers.

I’ve climbed some of these 14ers more than once, so my total count of 14er summits now stands at 84 and I will probably add to that total prior to attempting Mt. Shasta by “practicing” on some of the easier 14ers near Lone Pine that I have climbed before (probably Mt. Langley, Mt. Whitney or, less likely, White Mountain Peak).

Mt. Shasta is nearly 500 miles north and west of Lone Pine, just south of the Oregon state line. Rather than pull the travel trailer over the mountains and all the way up there I decided it would be easier to leave the trailer in Lone Pine and either car camp or stay in a motel.

For those familiar with the California terrain that probably makes some sense but then - as often seems to happen with my travel plans – the train began to run off the rails when I looked at a map and noticed how close Mt. Shasta is to Oregon. That reminded me that Mt. Hood is in Oregon, which reminded me that the one time I climbed Mt. Hood back in 2006 it was a gnarly, snowy day with zero visibility. So, I thought to myself, gee; Mt. Hood is only 300 miles or so from Mt. Shasta why not climb Mt. Hood (El: 11,239) first as “practice” for Mt. Shasta (El: 14,162) (because both mountains are snow covered and will require crampons, ice ax and snowshoes)?

Logical, right?

And then I noticed that Mt. St. Helens (El: 8,333) is less than 100 miles from Mt. Hood. Ever since its eruption in 1980 brought Mt. St. Helens to my attention I’ve thought it would be a cool (or should I say hot?) mountain to climb. Permits to climb Mt. St. Helens are limited and somewhat difficult to get but I was able to snag one for May 15.

And that, in a nutshell, is how I developed my plans for the month of May.

In the first 10 days or so that I’m in Lone Pine I’ll “practice” by climbing, probably, Mt. Langley and/or Mt. Whitney. The trailheads for both are a short - albeit steep - drive from Lone Pine. Then I’ll drive up to Mt. St. Helens (which is in southern Washington, about 800 miles north of Lone Pine) and go for the summit on the 15^th (it’s a day hike, typically done in 8-10 hours). Then, a day or two later and weather permitting, I’ll have a go at Mt. Hood. After that I’ll drive down to Mt. Shasta.

Mt. Hood can be a dangerous mountain in bad weather and I will only attempt it if the forecast is solid.

This schedule will hopefully get me into good climbing shape and give me the week prior to Memorial Day to focus on Mt. Shasta with plenty of time to wait for a good weather window.

However, having said all of this I’ll be open to abandoning this plan and heading straight to Mt. Shasta if weather conditions are favorable and it seems to make sense to do so. Conversely, I’ll have to be open to delaying an attempt on Mt. Shasta into June if conditions in May are too dicey.

Because there is lots of loose rock and scree on Shasta’s steep upper slopes the mountain becomes more difficult, and dangerous, to climb later in the year when the snow has melted.

Thus, generally speaking, late May is usually a good time to climb Shasta when the upper mountain is still covered in snow, the days are long, avalanche danger has abated, the chances of winter snowstorms have lessened, and the chances of summer thunderstorms have not yet peaked.

By the “standard” (a.k.a. easiest) route Shasta is still a stout climb with 7,000 feet of elevation gain on a 14-mile roundtrip that will require me to spend at least one night camped in the snow.

Once that is accomplished I will, of course, be returning to Lone Pine and, lo and behold, the route home will take me by yet another volcano just waiting to be climbed; 10,461-foot Lassen Peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is the southernmost volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range.

So, if all of this works out as planned, I will reach the summits of four volcanoes; St. Helens, Hood, Shasta and Lassen AND bag my 70^th 14er. All before Memorial Day!

FYI, these mountains are all considered to be “active” volcanoes and all of them have had significant eruptions within the last 250 years. Mt. St. Helens of course had a major eruption in 1980 that took 1,300 feet off the mountain top. Lassen Peak had a series of eruptions from 1914-1917 that prompted President Wilson to create a national monument which later became today’s national park. Hood’s last major eruption happened in 1781-82 and the impacts on the surrounding landscape were noted by Lewis and Clark when they passed by in October, 1805. Shasta’s last significant eruption occurred in 1786.

Hopefully these four volcanoes will contain themselves for at least a few more months.

If it all works out and I get back to the trailer in Lone Pine before the start of the Memorial Day Weekend I’ll probably rest up and relax (and maybe write up a massive blog post) there before moving the travel trailer 60 miles north to Bishop, on or around June 1.

Bishop is a bigger town with more services and it is closer to the trail heads for the four 14,000-foot peaks in the Sierra Nevada that I will be attempting to climb in June. 

Betsy will probably join me there right around June 10, Tex’s birthday. Of course, in the now well-established Pasley tradition, she will not drive directly to Bishop from San Antonio because we prefer not to travel in straight lines. So she'll stop in Santa Fe for a few days, then stop in BV for a couple of days to "rent a post office box" before, eventually, sauntering across Utah and Nevada.

All four of the Sierra Nevada peaks on my "to do list"  – Middle Palisade, Mt. Sill, Mt. Tyndall and Mt. Williamson – have non-technical (i.e. no ropes required) routes to the summit. But I would not describe any of them as “easy”. Middle Pal and Sill will require an overnight backpacking trip just to get to the base of each mountain. Tyndall and Williamson are close to each other but it will probably take me two days just to get to them and another two days to climb them and then a fifth day to pack out.

Tyndall is the only one of the four that might be considered a “walk up”, on class 2 talus. After crossing glaciers with 30 degree slopes the crux of the climb on both Middle Pal and Sill is a class 3-4 gully. The route on Williamson features a 100-plus-foot, class 4 vertical chute and the approach to get there through a feature known as the Williamson Bowl is long and arduous.

Suffice to say, I will have my work cut out for me in June with these four mountains.

Sure, it’s setting the bar pretty high; but they say that positive visualization can help us achieve ambitious goals!

The last week in June we are planning to venture west over the mountains to the Bay Area where we will visit two college-era friends, some National Park sites and take in a few baseball games.

When we leave Bishop we’ll take about a week to cross the Great Basin to get to Buena Vista. We’ll be in BV two and a half months but don’t have a lot of specific plans. I’ll probably hike some of the Colorado 14ers and might try to arrange for my 100^th 14er summit to be Pikes Peak where Betsy could join me. I will also be volunteering with a Colorado Fourteeners Initiative trail restoration crew in September and I am on wait lists for two other crews that will be working in July and August.

Betsy may look for a volunteer activity in the BV area and/or might return to San Antonio for a week or two.

We are currently planning to leave BV on October 1 and will take a fairly direct (by our standards) route home.

It is possible that we might go back to Guadalupe Mountains National Park to work as volunteer trail monitors in November but that is up in the air right now.

As always, lots of big plans. Stay tuned and I’ll try to keep you posted on how it all works out.

Hope you have a great summer!