---
title: "A Climber Survives a 1,500-Foot Fall on Mount Shasta"
description: "A 31-year-old woman slid roughly 1,500 feet down one of Mount Shasta's steepest snowfields and survived, rescued in a multi-hour operation by Forest Service climbing rangers and a California Highway Patrol helicopter — a remarkable outcome on a peak whose approachable reputation belies its dangers."
category: "California"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/california
author: "Valeria Ortiz"
published: 2026-07-01T01:48:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-01T01:48:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/a-climber-survives-a-1500-foot-fall-on-mount-shasta
tags: ["Mount Shasta", "rescue", "Avalanche Gulch", "Siskiyou County", "California outdoors", "search and rescue"]
---
# A Climber Survives a 1,500-Foot Fall on Mount Shasta

A 31-year-old woman slid roughly 1,500 feet down one of Mount Shasta's steepest snowfields and survived, rescued in a multi-hour operation by Forest Service climbing rangers and a California Highway Patrol helicopter — a remarkable outcome on a peak whose approachable reputation belies its dangers.

She fell the height of a skyscraper down a snowfield — and walked away, or was carried away, alive.

## The fall

On the morning of Sunday, June 28, three novice climbers were ascending a variation of Mount Shasta's popular Avalanche Gulch route when one of them, a 31-year-old woman, lost her footing near 13,000 feet, [KRCR reported](https://krcrtv.com/news/local/31-year-old-rescued-from-mount-shasta-after-1500-foot-fall-on-avalanche-gulch-route), citing U.S. Forest Service climbing rangers. She slid roughly 1,500 vertical feet down the snow before coming to rest near 11,500 feet. When rescuers reached her, she was conscious and, remarkably, in good spirits, with a suspected fractured ankle and other injuries.

## The rescue

Low clouds initially kept a helicopter from reaching the accident site, so three Forest Service climbing rangers went up on foot after a California Highway Patrol aircraft landed lower on the mountain, according to the reporting. With help from other climbers in the area, the rangers packaged the woman into a rescue litter and lowered her to Lake Helen, where the CHP helicopter airlifted her in the late afternoon to a hospital in Mount Shasta City, [KTLA reported](https://ktla.com/news/california/woman-survives-1500-foot-fall-while-climbing-california-volcano/).

## A deceptively dangerous mountain

At 14,179 feet, Mount Shasta draws thousands of climbers a year and generates a steady stream of rescues, most of them on Avalanche Gulch's steep upper section. The June 28 fall followed other recent accidents on the same terrain, including climbers who lost control while descending on snow. Rangers urge climbers to start their descent by around midday, before the afternoon sun and refreezing make conditions treacherous, and to carry — and know how to use — crampons, a helmet and an ice axe. The ability to "self-arrest," or stop a slide with an ice axe, they say, is essential; a first summit attempt should not be the first time a climber tries it. The three climbers on Sunday were described by rangers as novices — and their companion survived a fall that, officials noted, most people would not.

## Sources

- [31-year-old rescued from Mount Shasta after a 1,500-foot fall on the Avalanche Gulch route](https://krcrtv.com/news/local/31-year-old-rescued-from-mount-shasta-after-1500-foot-fall-on-avalanche-gulch-route)
- [Woman survives a 1,500-foot fall while climbing a California volcano](https://ktla.com/news/california/woman-survives-1500-foot-fall-while-climbing-california-volcano/)