450 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[March 20, 1909. 
To the Summit of Mt. Shasta 
By E. W. CURRIER 
O UR party of four, consisting of A. F. 
Benson, of Sacramento; J. J. Wilson 
and C. A. Bolander, of Dunsmuir and 
myself, left Sisson on the morning of Aug. 25 
last to climb Mt. Shasta, walking out on the 
old Sisson trail toward Horse Camp, a distance 
of twelve miles. 
We stopped on the trail, made coffee, fried 
bacon, ate breakfast and rested a few minutes, 
steel in our boots and made three candle lanterns 
from tomato cans. We were provided with 
alpenstocks about seven feet in length, and with 
smoked glasses to protect our eyes from the 
glare of the sun shining on the glaciers over 
which we had to walk for several miles.' 
Starting at 9 o’clock we lighted our lanterns 
and proceeded to climb north. After about 
three hours’ work we were well up on the slope 
Black Mountain, composed of a dark-colored 
loose shale and very hard to walk over. When 
we reached the summit of Black Mountain we 
could see across Runic Glacier, which we walked 
over, looking down on Shastina at our left, with 
its two little blue lakes frozen over, and then 
drew near to the boiling hot sulphur springs at 
the base of the summit. 
We left all our extra baggage at this point, 
taking only our cameras to the summit, which 
we reached at 11:15 4 . M., an altitude of 14,380 
feet. Here we found a rock surface about ten 
by thirty feet in size. On the highest point, 
embedded in the face of the rock, was a metal 
disk about an inch and a half in diameter placed 
there by the Government surveyors. Here also 
then traveled on in a northeasterly direction 
through thick manzanita bushes which covered 
the first three or four miles. Then the trail 
wound up the mountain through tall pine and 
fir trees, festooned with bright green moss. The 
morning was bright and still and the solitude 
of our walk was only broken occasionally by 
the flight of a number of mountain quail and 
California grouse which were surprised at our 
intrusion. We arrived at Horse Camp at 2 
o’clock, made a fire and cooked dinner, resting 
in the camp until 9 o’clock. During the after¬ 
noon I made several watercolor sketches of the 
scenery around Horse Camp and at sunset 
sketched the western horizon which was mag¬ 
nificent in its crimson and gold, with the dis¬ 
tant ranges of mountains showing a fine deep 
purple, the stately pines in the foreground mak¬ 
ing an impressive picture. 
Toward duslc we burned corks and blackened 
our faces so that we resembled natives of South 
Africa more than civilized beings, also fast¬ 
ened a number of longshoreman’s caulks of 
DISTANT VIEW OF MOUNT SHASTA IN CALIFORNIA. 
From a photograph by L. C. Cleary. 
of old Shasta and could see the lights of Sis¬ 
son’s, IvIcCloud, Upper Soda, Redding and sev¬ 
eral other little towns gleaming in the distance. 
The night was dark and chilly; the ground 
frozen solid, and ice had formed between the 
big boulders we had to climb over. About four 
in the morning we reached a point where we 
could see Thumb Rock. Our hands were nearly 
frozen, but by walking we managed to keep 
warm and at 6 o’clock we reached Thumb Rock. 
The sun was just peeping over the eastern hori¬ 
zon, casting a huge purple shadow of the moun¬ 
tain on the western sky, the morning haze form¬ 
ing a veil of mist in the west. 
After climbing through the red rocks which 
project in two ridges at the left of Thumb 
Rock, we climbed up and passed around the 
edge of the second stratum of rock looking 
down hundreds of feet on the Kanwakiton 
glacier to the north. Getting up on the summit 
of this ridge of reddish rock, - we rested and 
now had easier walking for half a mile, when 
we passed over another glacier and then reached 
for some reason unknown to us was a small 
three-legged table. Near by was a large piece 
of tin weighted down by rocks and on remov¬ 
ing the tin we found written in a blank book 
the register of those who had previously reached 
the summit. 
We registered our names and I made a lead 
pencil sketch, looking in a westerly direction. 
We took several photographs, rested half an 
hour and then replacing the box containing the 
register, we started on the descent. 
We walked down much faster than we climbed 
up I assure you, sliding for twenty to thirty feet 
on our boots, balancing with our sticks. When 
we reached our camp we found Mr. Bolander 
had fried bacon and hot coffee ready for us and 
we enjoyed the dinner. It was now 8 o’clock 
and Sisson being twelve miles distant, we were 
obliged to camp here and made up a big fire 
of old limbs around which we lay during the 
night. 
In the morning we walked down the trail 
through the pine forest to Sisson. 
