Cascade Gulch/Shastina

Climbing and skiing conditions in Cascade Gulch felt much more like May than March. It remains possible to ski over 5,000 vertical feet from the summit of Shastina to just a few steps away from the Bunny Flat parking lot, though snow is melting out quickly at the highest and lowest elevations. Icy conditions with slide-for-life potential exist on steep slopes.  A full mountaineering kit is non‑negotiable: 12‑point crampons (not microspikes), an ice axe, a helmet, and the skills to use them proficiently. 

Firm snow surfaces in the early morning softened as the sun warmed solar aspects. Only areas directly below trees held unsupportable crusts before 9am. Ski crampons were very helpful, if not necessary, to ascend 25 and 30-degree southerly slopes before 10am. By 1230pm, snow surfaces on southerly aspects had softened all the way up to the summit of Shastina (12,330 feet). The warming also led to shedding rime ice from Shastina's summit pinnacles. No active rockfall was witnessed, but recent rockfall was observed on southerly aspects around 10,000 feet. 

Snow surfaces in Cascade Gulch are generally smooth, with some rougher areas of previously wind-drifted snow. The West Face appears heavily wind-textured (see photos). At 1230pm, the "Goldilocks" zone for quality corn snow was found between about 10,500 feet and 9,200 feet. Above 11,000 feet, the upper snowpack was less consolidated. Below 9,000 feet, snow surfaces were mushy, but supportable on southwesterly aspects.  

No signs of wet snow instability were observed in Cascade Gulch or on the upper mountain. However, I was able to initiate a very small slide of wet surface snow atop a thin, but firm, crust on a steep, south aspect (8,300 feet) in Avalanche Gulch at 1pm.

The spring at the Shasta Alpine Hut (Horse Camp) has been dug out and water is available.