Field Notes · California · Cascade Range
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta, 14,179 feet — twice attempted, twice turned back. The North Face in 2024, the West Face in 2025. The first was the first mountain I ever climbed.
78 frames · July 2024 · 14,179 ft
The climb
In late July 2024 I started up the North Face of Mount Shasta — my first real mountaineering trip, and the beginning of the whole thing for me. We got a little past eleven thousand feet before the sky turned brown: the Park Fire had blown up not far to the south, and the smoke made the call for us. We turned around. These frames are from those days on the mountain.
Location Mount Shasta · N. California
Elevation 14,179 ft · Cascade Range
Route North Face
Dates July 2024
High point ~11,000 ft
Outcome Turned back — Park Fire smoke
Photo essay
The North Face
The 2024 climb, in the order it happened — up toward eleven thousand feet, then back down under a sky going brown with wildfire smoke.
Where it started
The mountain that
started all this.
I went back in 2025 for the West Face. My knee gave out and turned me around early; my partner Mike carried on past ten thousand feet before the daylight ran out on him. Two trips, two high points short of the summit — and somehow that's exactly why I keep going back. Shasta is where this started, and it isn't done with me yet.
Personal work · not for hire