FKT: David Sinclair - Mt Shasta (CA) - 2024-04-23

Decided to give Shasta a speedrun despite slightly heavy 🦵’s from skiing for my first time yesterday.

Absolutely perfect conditions and I think I nailed the timing. Not icy anywhere but also no wet sticky snow on the ascent at all. 

I was able to skin quite a ways up above Lake Helen (near 11,600) and then just booted to ridge at Thumb Rock (12,900). The bootpack lane I chose was well worn until a few minutes before I got to the ridge so I probably made decent time there. 

On Misery it was windcrust without a well-defined bootpack so I ended up skiing on the best snow I could find the whole way until the final little push to the summit. 

I was surprised to hit the true summit in just under 2 hours which I think was a few minutes under Jack Kuenzle’s ascent record. Lost a few seconds as I was too gassed for a double skin rip at the top 😂.

I kept it pretty under control on the descent and was rewarded with some really nice turns as the snow was just starting to soften but held firm. 

Made the parking lot in just under 2:17 according to my watch. Used the IPhone for GPS since the watch battery 🪫 was very low. 

I’m a little torn on these Wilderness FKTs as I feel as they get more competitive it encourages us go lighter and take more risks and we don’t have the medical resources that would be available at a race. I went light with just avy gear, helmet, skin suit, 1 pair of skins, a light jacket, sunglasses, sun hat, 200 calories and 250 mL water but I felt confident in the weather and snow conditions. Still I made sure be under control on the way down and wouldn’t want to feel like I had to send it on the descent or do this as a race effort in anything but perfect conditions. 

Super psyched to finally get up to Shasta and that the conditions worked out for a really fast lap.

No photos as my phone was locked out until 2 hours after I finished from bouncing around in my pocket the whole way.

Unofficial splits off my watch from on snow adjacent to the toilets to the true summit:
Up: 1:59:50
Down: 2:16:36 (16:46 split)

Prettty psyched with such a smooth and fast effort on my first attempt at an FKT. It’s definitely an iconic route that would reward getting to know the mountain and route well so I think I might have just lucked out with conditions being historically fast.