The 2025 season on Mt. Shasta produced high activity, two fatalities, and rescues across multiple routes and drainages—a reminder that no route here should be underestimated. Response involved repeated coordination among the US Forest Service Climbing Rangers, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office SAR, California Highway Patrol air operations, and CAL FIRE.

Spring drew the usual Memorial Day crowds; this busy weekend in late May produced two separate rescues in a single morning on different routes. As snow receded, rockfall and route-finding hazards increased on the south side, particularly Clear Creek and Avalanche Gulch, where loose terrain on the upper mountain contributed to a fatal slip by late summer.

The season also included the unresolved missing-person case of Lesner Cardenas; a stranded climber on Shastina with snow blindness; a father-and-son team rescued from the Hotlum-Bolam Ridge after a glissade went wrong, and two glissading accidents in Avalanche Gulch. (See this report about one of these glissading incidents.) A leader fall at Castle Crags Wilderness was also handled by Mt. Shasta rangers. (Source: Mt. Shasta Climbing Rangers.)