Several other climbers were injured, one seriously, in a series of incidents for 24 hours
YREKA California 24 hours. said the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday.
Jillian Elizabeth Webster, 32, of Redmond, was tied to two other climbers climbing the summit of Helen Lake when one of the climbers lost her foot and dropped all three, the sheriff’s office said.
The three climbers slid on snow and ice between 1,500 and 2,500 feet upright on the mountain, deputies said. The incident was reported at 8:35 p.m.
Webster did not respond after the fall, while a man in the climbing group was in critical condition with a lower leg fracture and head trauma and a woman was alert and oriented, with a lower leg fracture. , said.
A nurse walking upstairs administered CPR to Webster, who was flown by a California Highway Patrol helicopter to Mercy Mount Shasta, the hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
At about 12:30 p.m., a climber was injured when he fell about 1,000 feet above Lake Helen. Around 4 p.m., a woman who had previously been climbing with that male climber was injured when she lost traction and slipped about 1,000 feet.
Another climber was injured late Tuesday morning and rescue work was reported in the Avalanche Gulch area.
Due to the unstable and risky conditions, the deputies asked the climbers to consult with the Forest Service climbers before any attempt to climb the mountain.
Mount Shasta rises to 14,180 feet above sea level in the Cascade Range and is usually covered in snow all year round. There are several non-technical routes that travel to and from the summit, and Avalanche Gulch is the most popular and offers the easiest access, the U.S. Forest Service told sfgate.com.
Spring, when temperatures start to heat up, is a popular time to climb Mount Shasta, but sheriff’s office spokeswoman Courtney Kreider said conditions were dangerous Monday after the weekend’s cold weather it gave fresh snow.
“What makes it dangerous right now is the shift from very cold to very warm,” he said. “We had snow over the weekend, just a little bit of snow, and it created that thin layer of ice in Avalanche Gulch, and when it warms up, that thin layer of ice clears, so you have to have a very good climbing equipment … climbing boots that can really dig into the ice.