Mount Shasta (Alpine)
Mount Shasta (Shasta-Trinity NF) · near Mount Shasta City · Shasta Cascade
Rock Climbing
At a glance
- Skill level
- advanced
- Grade range
- Class 3 scrambles to technical alpine ice/rock · Avalanche Gulch to Casaval Ridge
- Best season
- Late spring–early summer (best snow) · Avalanche Gulch April–June · Summer rockfall risk increases
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Summit pass required above 10,000ft ($25) plus a free wilderness permit, both self-issued at trailheads. WAG bags required (human waste pack-out). Check avalanche and weather conditions — Shasta makes its own weather and conditions turn dangerous fast.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Rock Climbing detail
- Nickname
- California's Great Volcano Climb
- Climb types
- multi-pitch · trad
- Rock type
- Volcanic (alpine mountaineering — snow, ice, rock)
- Route count
- Numerous alpine routes on the 14,179-ft volcano · Avalanche Gulch is the classic
- Signature routes
- Avalanche Gulch · Casaval Ridge & Hotlum-Bolam
- First timer note
- This is alpine MOUNTAINEERING, not rock climbing — Avalanche Gulch requires ice axe, crampons, snow-travel skills, and fitness for 7,000ft of gain. First-timers should go with a guide service or experienced mountaineers. Altitude, weather, and rockfall are serious hazards. Not a beginner objective.
- Intl tip
- Mount Shasta City and Dunsmuir are the base towns, full of climber and mountaineer services. The mountain pairs with the Upper Sacramento rafting (rivers guide), Lake Shasta Caverns and Pluto's Cave (caving guide), and the McCloud Falls swimming (swimming guide) for a full far-north adventure. The peak holds deep spiritual significance for many.
The guide
Mount Shasta, the 14,179-foot volcano dominating far Northern California, is the state's great mountaineering objective — a mas…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mount Shasta (Alpine) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.4092, -122.1949