[markv]

Hi. Time for my annual visit to the northwest, and my annual vague and stupid questions! This early August i'm in southern Oregon for a change. (curses on the people at Olympic for not hiring me back...maybe they figured out i was using their "work" pretty much as a base camp. ) I gather i'm a bit past ideal season for the 3 volcanoes i mentioned, but i'm looking into climbing them anyway. Does anyone have any advice? Is Clear Creek up Shasta going to be as miserable as the guide book suggests? Will Avalanche Gulch be a bowling alley? Are there other viable 1-day routes for semi-experienced solo glacier climbers. (have done Hood and Rainier by the standard routes, but not solo.) Any tricks to climbing the Thielsen pinnacle without flying into a vertigo-induced panic? Any other things absolutely NOT to miss in the area? I have plans to spend a little time around Crater Lake, but all in all i'll be limited to about 3-4 days of fun. Thanks!

[Chief Paulina]

I haven't climbed Shasta or McLoughlin, but I remember a real nail biter while trying to free climb back down off of Thielson. Twas the last tall mountain I climbed.

[Brain]

I was on Shasta two weeks ago and it was already too soft and becoming a bowling alley...I'd wait until next year as even the temps at night weren't getting low enough to freeze the mountain up to stop the rockfall.