To Mt Shasta

Well, time to put all the training into real work. I am leaving for Mt Shasta tonight. I will stop for the night at Redding, a small town roughly an hour away from the mountain. I could drive directly to Shasta, which is only 4 hours 30 mins away but the hotel cost is almost double for the same chain. I will meet up with the group at 9am tomorrow, not too early (albeit I have gotten out of bed very late these days), so I have plenty of time in the morning.

I packed last night, only bringing the essential stuffs for the trip, and the weight of everything is less than what I have trained for (40+ lbs). I was glad for a moment but realized that that's not all I will be carrying. There will be tent, cooking stuffs and food for 3 days. Will see if it is a back-breaking trip :).

The plan to meet up with the group and guides at 9am. We will go over what we have and rent what we don't. I will need to rent crampons, ice axe, trekking poles and sleeping bag. I am bringing along my sleeping bag, but have no idea what sort of temperature rating. I bought this bag like 13 years ago for a summer camping in Algonquin Park in Ontario. It is required to have at least 20F bag. I doubt mine can cope with this temperature. I was looking to buy one online, man, they're no cheapo. I should know what I am getting into.

Anyway, once we're settled with equipments and all, we will start hiking to our first base camp. the guide will teach us some basic mountaineering techniques. The second day is pretty much the same, hike to a higher camp and learn some skills. On the last day, we will start the climb to the summit early, at 1 or 2am and hope to get back to the entrance by late afternoon.

It should be fun and I'm excited about it. And this time I will post some pictures (if I don't forget to recharge my camera battery). The blog must have been quite boring, all text, no photos, no sound and no bling bling :)