were rescued after their expedition<\/a> to the summit\u00a0went awry.<\/p>\nAccording to the Siskiyou County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the two climbers, aged 19 and 20, called for help the previous evening after one of them lost his footing and plunged 700 vertical feet down Avalanche Gulch, the major gully on Mount Shasta\u2019s southern flank.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the fall, the climber sustained significant injuries to his shoulder, hand, and ankle and was unable to descend the mountain further,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
The climber came to rest at an elevation of 11,300 feet. The incident occurred at approximately 5:30 P.M., just as the sun was starting to go down. According to Sage Milestone, a public information officer with the Siskiyou County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the two attempted to descend but couldn\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe duo shared that they had intended to summit Mount Shasta in a single day and thus did not bring any overnight gear, extra food, or water,\u201d Milestone said. \u201cThey had successfully summited Mount Shasta the previous year via the Clear Creek route, but were novice climbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Milestone said the climbers had crampons, ice axes, and helmets, but the one who fell lost his gear in the tumble.<\/p>\n
The SOS call came in at 8:22 P.M., and according to the report, winds had kicked up on the peak\u2019s upper flanks, making a nighttime rescue dangerous.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Forest Service rangers, officials from the sheriff\u2019s office, and Siskiyou County Search and Rescue ascended the route and reached the stranded climbers the following morning. According to the report, it was the first Siskiyou County SAR mission on Mount Shasta of 2026 (a previous incident did not require the SAR team).<\/p>\n
Climbing season on Mount Shasta typically starts in May, after snowpack on the lower flanks has melted. Milestone said the weak snowfall and comparatively mild winter may entice some climbers to try to ascend the peak early.<\/p>\n
But just because the peak isn\u2019t as snowy as normal doesn\u2019t mean that hazards are diminished.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may look like climbing conditions because the snowpack looks like where it typically is in May,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s really icy at the top, and there\u2019s a good potential for a fall above 12,000 feet. That\u2019s why people who have been doing their research have been staying away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Milestone said the duo did have proper gear for the ascent\u2014crampons, ice axes, and helmets. But after the rescue, the sheriff\u2019s office published a PSA to all incoming alpinists: bring up the proper gear, extra food and shelter, and extra layers for warmth. Ask the local rangers about conditions higher on the peak. Be prepared to self-rescue in the case of a fall. And time your ascent correctly\u2014climbers should begin to descend no later than noon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who stay on the mountain in the late afternoon not only risk icier conditions, they also give rescuers more daylight in which to conduct a rescue should anything go wrong,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rescue crews in Siskiyou County, California rescued two budding alpinists, age 19 and 20, after they had an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,64077,98371,98372,64078,98373,98374,64083],"class_list":["post-214453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-parent_category-adventure","tag-tag-adventure","tag-tag-alpine-climbing","tag-tag-california","tag-tag-climbing","tag-tag-search-and-rescue","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Shasta](\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Shasta1.jpg\")
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