Novice Climber Survives 1,500-Foot Mount Shasta Fall After Clouds Delay Helicopter Rescue

A 31-year-old beginner climber survived an estimated 1,500-foot fall on California’s Mount Shasta after deteriorating weather derailed an immediate helicopter pickup, forcing rescue teams to mount a ground approach before she could be airlifted to a hospital.

The woman had been ascending the Left of Heart variation on the well-traveled Avalanche Gulch route Sunday with two other inexperienced climbers when she lost her footing near the 13,000-foot level and slid roughly 1,500 vertical feet before stopping, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Low clouds kept a California Highway Patrol helicopter from reaching her location directly, turning the rescue into a multi-step operation.

“The weather complicated the issue,” a California Highway Patrol Office of Air Operations official with the Redding Air Unit told News Agency.

With the aircraft unable to access the injured climber, the helicopter instead inserted U.S. Forest Service climbing rangers lower on the mountain. From there, they climbed on foot to reach her as the flight crew waited for a break in the weather.

After the rangers stabilized the woman, they moved her down the mountain in a rescue litter to Lake Helen, where a CHP helicopter was eventually able to land and transport her to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta at about 5:37 p.m.

The rescue took roughly five and a half hours from the initial emergency call until the helicopter evacuation.

Although the distance sounds extraordinary, Shasta-Trinity National Forest officials said the incident was not a straight free fall.

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Stokesbury said the climber’s descent was a long slide down the steep snow slope rather than a straight free fall, with the terrain gradually becoming less steep farther down the mountain.

“It starts steep and then kind of levels out a little bit,” Stokesbury told News Agency. “It does enough for them to stop.”

Officials said climbers are taught to perform a self-arrest with an ice axe after slipping, but novice climbers often struggle to execute the maneuver before picking up speed.

The woman suffered a suspected fractured ankle along with additional injuries but remained alert and in good spirits when rescuers reached her, according to the Forest Service.

A CHP aviation official also described the terrain as particularly unforgiving.

“That particular portion of the mountain is extremely steep and it kind of funnels into a little bit of a chute,” the official told News Agency. “People take a smaller slide on the upper end, there’s nothing to really arrest that descent for quite a while.”

Forest Service officials said the incident follows a familiar pattern seen during the latter part of Mount Shasta’s climbing season.

“Slips and falls happen all the time at that level,” Stokesbury said, adding that April, May and early June generally provide the safest climbing conditions.

As summer arrives, snow begins melting, ice hardens and rocks loosen, increasing the risk of falls and rockfall.

“This is not a normal hiking trail,” Stokesbury said. “You need to make sure you’re in shape, you have your proper gear.”

The Forest Service urges climbers to carry mountaineering equipment including an ice axe and crampons when conditions require, monitor changing weather and route conditions, climb with experienced partners and have an emergency plan before attempting the 14,179-foot volcano.

“Before attempting a summit, be honest about your experience and physical conditioning,” the U.S. Forest Service’s Facebook post reads.

The rescue was carried out by Mount Shasta’s specialized climbing ranger program, which spends each climbing season educating visitors, monitoring mountain conditions and responding to emergencies on one of the nation’s busiest high-altitude climbing routes.