Trip Report

The Hotlum-Wintun Ridge

California's Premier Backcountry Ski Descent

The sun sets over 14,162-foot Mt. Shasta's Hotlum-Wintun Ridge. Dividing the Holtum and Wintun glaciers, the ridge offers perhaps the finest backcountry skiing in North America.

Soul Skier's Paradise

MOUNT SHASTA, CALIFORNIA — It feels like a dream. I am camped around 8000 feet, watching the sun drop behind Mount Shasta's Hotlum Ridge.

The Hotlum-Wintun Ridge splits the divide between Mount Shasta's Hotlum and Wintun Glaciers, offering 7000+ vertical feet of spectacular skiing right from the mountain's 14,132-foot summit.

Unlike the popular—and crowded—Avalanche Gulch climbing route, you may well find yourself alone on Shasta's northern aspects, making this route a Soul Skier's paradise.

Military Pass Road

the Brewer Creek Trailhead

Base Camp

The Hotlum-Wintun Ridge is accessible once Military Pass Road opens, usually in mid-April.

The road to the Brewer Creek trailhead, however, may not be fully open until June or even July, depending on how much snow fell the previous winter.

Driving the 590 miles from Southern California to see Mount Shasta in person for the first time, I really had no idea what to expect.

After the seemingly endless stretch of the Central Valley, I at last passed Redding and entered an impressive stand of Pacific Northwest forest.

Another hour farther, and I got my first glimpse of Shasta.

To those who have not yet stood before this magnificent mountain in person, I will say only this: go now, and be awed like all the rest of us.

Once I'd collected supplies and the requisite Summit Pass from the Ranger Station in the tiny town of Mt. Shasta, I hit the road once more, plunging into Shasta's seamless forest via Military Pass Road.

I don't even want to think about how lost you could get in the woods here. A maze-like network of dirt roads spider out in all directions, and even Shasta itself does not present a reliable landmark.

Happily, at least at the time of this writing, the roads were dusty but well-signed, and I arrived at the Brewer Creek Trailhead, elevation 7200', with no great difficulty¹.

The amenities at the Brewer Creek Trailhead include a parking lot and a restroom, and a sign reminding you that you need a Summit Pass if you intend to climb above 10,000 feet. Unlike those delightfully dry Southern Sierra approaches, you may well encounter snow right at the trailhead—assuming you haven't been stopped by snow even lower.

Arriving in late July 2005, I hefted my pack and hiked into the Brewer Creek Drainage, finding snow less than a thousand vertical feet from the parking lot. I had not expected to reach the snow line so quickly or easily, therefore I found myself in the unusual but welcome position of having an unexpected abundance of free time.

My plan was to camp low and wake early for a summit bid, so I set up a quick base camp at the snow's edge, somewhere around 8000'. Afterward, I amused myself by melting snow for a while, though this took care of perhaps barely an hour. For the many remaining hours of the day, I wandered about the lower reaches of the Brewer Creek Drainage, taking pictures, scouting the mountain, and enjoying the day.

When you drive nine hours to reach a mountain, weather is naturally a concern, but the sky was clear and dry from horizon to horizon. It looked like I had picked a perfect time to climb Shasta. Everything looked good. The weather looked good. The snow looked good—especially considering it was only days away from August.

The Route looked good: it was massive, a dramatic spine and a triangular spit of snow dividing two bona-fide glaciers, with numerous tempting variations.

I found a nice warm rock and sat back against it, gazing up at Shasta, basking in the mountain's incredible magnetism. Tomorrow, if all went well, I would stand upon that summit and experience a vista I'd never seen before. And, as if that weren't incentive alone, I would then snap into my skis and begin a 6000 vertical foot descent.

¹ Note: for detailed road & route information on Mount Shasta, I recommend Paul Richins Jr.'s excellent guidebook, 50 Classic Backcountry Ski Summits.

Next: Scouting the Ridge »