Two experienced mountaineers trying to summit Mount Shasta and snowboard off it triggered a wind slab on the Avalanche Gulch route on April 27, 2024, near 13,000 feet, left of a feature called The Heart. One man rode the slide close to 1,000 vertical feet. The other self-arrested. Neither was buried. At 12:21 p.m. one of them called Siskiyou County dispatch from about 12,200 feet.
Wind and cloud kept the CHP helicopter from plucking them off the slope. The bird later dropped a team at treeline, about 3,500 vertical feet below. Forest Service climbing rangers, sheriff’s SAR, and volunteer guides walked up and reached the men around 6:20 p.m. One had a wrecked knee. The other had a broken femur and a crampon puncture, plus frostbite and hypothermia. The femur case was carried about 6,000 feet down in a four-hour litter haul to Bunny Flat. The other snowboarded out once the team was on him. Names were not released. The sheriff’s office said experience does not cancel a wind-loaded slope.
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