Summer Snow Storm Leads to Man's Death on Mt. Shasta, California

Originally posted on Powder | By Izzy Lidsky | Last updated Aug 22, 2025 3:10 PM ET

A man died after sustaining injuries while climbing the 14,162′ peak of Mt. Shasta this past weekend.

On Saturday, August 16, 2025, the 50-year-old man, whose name has not been revealed at this time, was climbing Shasta near Clear Creek Trail with a partner. Shortly after the pair summited and began their descent, a storm moved in at higher elevations. The storm, which brought rain and snow, created poor visibility and increased the difficulty of their descent significantly, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. The pair of climbers were not equipped with wet weather gear and one of them had begun showing signs of altitude sickness.

While descending, the pair became disoriented and separated at around 11,000 feet. One of the climbers reached their base camp and tried to contact his partner by phone and was able to talk to him, saying he sounded disoriented, but was unable to reach his location. He eventually called 911 to report his partner missing.

Siskiyou County Sheriff Office deployed a search and rescue team, as well as the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center on Saturday, but snow and rain delayed the search for the missing climber until Sunday.

At around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, a helicopter deployed from the search and rescue unit located the missing climber, who had become wedged between an ice sheet and a rock slope. Rescuers reached the man at around 3 p.m., who at that point was in and out of consciousness and was a few hundred yards off the trail, roughly a thousand feet below their basecamp.

The man was airlifted off the mountain for treatment, but later died of his injuries at the hospital, according to a report from SFGate.

According to a Facebook post from the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, this was the sixth rescue call for service the Sheriff's Office has received on the Clear Creek route in the last two weeks.

Despite the Clear Creek route being classified as one of the 'safer' routes up the mountain, the Sheriff's Office reiterated that it still needs to be approached with 'significant preparation and caution.'

Hazards such as rock fall, exposed cliff edges, and difficult to navigate terrain are all present along with the possibility of quickly changing weather and the Sheriff's Department encourages those attempting to summit to carry an SOS beacon, gps device, and one or more climbing partners.