TR: Mt. Shasta – Jibbing from Coquette Falls

Skiing Mt. Shasta’s Bolam Glacier – 30may12

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Contemplating the world below.

Terry wasn’t satisfied with the view, so she skinned up a bit farther and skied back down.

Too Tall Terry tearing it up!

By now it was around noon. Time to ski!

Looking back to our tracks

We skied down to where we crossed over from the first snowfield. The snow was amazing! Very smooth. We couldn’t tell if the snow continued and hooked up with the first line that we had cramponed up earlier that morning. So we traversed over the rocks and dropped the second snowfield.

My new skis, the Voile Vectors skied very well. The brand new Plum bindings were nice as well. Especially appreciated that set up when it was on my back!

We hiked down through the little trees and found a gully that held snow for quite awhile. Real simple getting out of there. Just follow along to the right of the Bolam Creek Canyon.

Got to watch several folks dropping off the top.

Busy day on the Bolam Glacier.

It looked like they all headed back to the North Gate TH. And missed out on the last several thousand feet of epic corn! The North Gate TH is over rated. Too much weaving around to get back. Next time you hit up the north side of Shasta use the Coquette Falls TH. You won’t be disappointed.

Or you could use this TH to access the north side of Shastina. These guys had to skin/hike back up to get back to Bunny Flat.

Shastina's north face slayed by some locals

Back up they go

Made it back to the vehicles in just over an hour from snowline and drove out.

I was wanting to take road 42N18 on the way out, but missed it. So we were committed to the Bolam Road exit. Took 42N33 to 42N21 (the road to the Bolam TH), which led us right to highway 97.

Looking back to our route from where Bolam Glacier Logging meets Hwy. 97.

Got dinner at Lola’s in Mt. Shasta where we met the boys that had dropped the north side of Shastina. They were Shasta Guides on their day off. They said they had left Bunny Flat around 8am. We watched them ski Shastina at 1pm. They said they had skinned back up the north face and ended up booting the last part and went back to Bunny Flat. We met them at the restaurant at 4:30. Nice job guys!

It was an awesome day. Really good to meet you Glen and Terri.

The Coquette Falls TH is the only way I’ll be accessing the north side from now on. It provides DIRECT access to the bottom of the Bolam Glacier with a straight line to the summit from there. The road isn’t that bad. Glenn proved a Subie can make it. It does take awhile however. Our drive time from Mt. Shasta City to 7300′ was two hours. Totally worth it! Still some time this spring to head on over there.

Full set of photos:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=11744399@N08&q=Coquette Fall TH

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Shasta the Masta
Sick trip the Shasta’s N Side
W-Face of Shasta

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