MOUNT SHASTA -- A 33-year-old woman attempting her first Mount Shasta climb fell to her death Friday morning, a Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said.
The woman was climbing the Avalanche Gulch route on the southwest side of Mount Shasta in area known as the "Heart" when she slipped and fell at about 8:30 a.m. As she slid an estimated 600 to 1500 feet down the mountain, she hit several rock outcroppings, spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said.
Two men, also first-time Shasta climbers, who were with the unidentified woman clambered down the mountain. When they reached her they saw that she had suffered major head injuries and was not breathing. Their CPR attempts failed to revive her, Gravenkamp said.
They alerted two other climbers, both from Tucson, Ariz., who used a personal locator beacon system to notify authorities. Then the four men carried the woman down to a flat area just above Lake Helen, at an elevation of about 10,400 feet.
The California State Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento called the Siskiyou County Sheriff's office at 9:25 a.m. and relayed the information they received from the Tucson climbers, Clayton Mansfield, 23, and Daniel Kirk, 20.
A CHP H-16 helicopter was dispatched from Redding and picked up Siskiyou County personnel. The helicopter flew to the scene, and rescuers retrieved the woman's body from the mountain.
The woman and her two friends, all from out of the area, spent Thursday night at Horse Camp on Mount Shasta and began their ascent early Friday morning. They each had an ice axe and wore crampons but were not wearing helmets.
The woman's name will be released after family is notified. An autopsy will be performed this week, Gravenkamp said.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.