chasing_adventure29
ROCK!
One of the more popular things to do when descending from the summit is to glisade - slide down the mountain's glacier on your feet/butt using your ice ax as a brake. Unfortunately, this was not an option for us. Trying to maintain control on gravel coming down the mountain takes probably more focus than you want to give it. Especially after spending nearly 8 hours going up. Even if you give it that attention, your safety is not guaranteed.
Andrew and I found ourselves working our way through the boulder field quite a bit faster on the decent. We may have been a lot more accepting of gravity's assistance than the rest of the group at this point. Working our way down we ended up in one of the unstable sections we attempted to climb earlier. With gravity helping us, we proceeded, and so did the rocks. It didn't take long before I found myself yelling "Rock!" In an instant Andrew hid behind the nearest boulder allowing the rocks to fly by his position. This clearly was not going to work like we had hoped, so Andrew split right while I split left. We finally cleared the boulder field when we heard a yell from above. It was Ryan. "Help!" Without even looking it was obvious something had gone wrong...
(Entry continued on The Wrath of Shasta)
Waiting for news on the situation above, Andrew found protection behind the largest available rock, shown in this photo.
ROCK!
One of the more popular things to do when descending from the summit is to glisade - slide down the mountain's glacier on your feet/butt using your ice ax as a brake. Unfortunately, this was not an option for us. Trying to maintain control on gravel coming down the mountain takes probably more focus than you want to give it. Especially after spending nearly 8 hours going up. Even if you give it that attention, your safety is not guaranteed.
Andrew and I found ourselves working our way through the boulder field quite a bit faster on the decent. We may have been a lot more accepting of gravity's assistance than the rest of the group at this point. Working our way down we ended up in one of the unstable sections we attempted to climb earlier. With gravity helping us, we proceeded, and so did the rocks. It didn't take long before I found myself yelling "Rock!" In an instant Andrew hid behind the nearest boulder allowing the rocks to fly by his position. This clearly was not going to work like we had hoped, so Andrew split right while I split left. We finally cleared the boulder field when we heard a yell from above. It was Ryan. "Help!" Without even looking it was obvious something had gone wrong...
(Entry continued on The Wrath of Shasta)
Waiting for news on the situation above, Andrew found protection behind the largest available rock, shown in this photo.