The Idiot took time off between his recent 800-kilometer MedTrek outing in Crete and his planned August 30 swim across the Bosporus Strait to summit majestic Mount Shasta in northern California and obtain material for the “Homeward Bound” and “Getting SideTrekked” chapters of “The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean.”

Approaching Mount Shasta

The climb up the 14,162-feet (4,317m) magic and mythical mountain was an arduous delight and glorious grind (if the words aren’t contradictory) in the company of experienced mountaineer Reinhard Hohlwein, the son of the founder of “The Readers of Homer” (http://bit.ly/d5erYK). The summiting occurred on Friday, June 24, after a snow-covered pathless ascent that began at Bunny Flat and continued upward through Horse Camp, Hidden Valley (the base camp for two nights), the West Face and the aptly named Misery Hill to the summit (http://bit.ly/jWiyBk).

The West Face of Mount Shasta.

Although The Idiot never doubted he would make it to the top, he definitely had to stop more frequently than he wished to catch his breath before continuing a step at a time up a usually steep pitch. Outfitted with crampons, a helmet and an ice axe, he also proceeded with caution due to a number of recent accidents and helicopter rescues on the mountain and the omnipresent threat of avalanches, rock falls, hidden crevasses and boilerplate ice.

The two mountain trekkers, alone atop the sunny peak for an hour, relished the excellent climbing conditions, marveled at the 360-degree views (The Idiot couldn’t see the deck at his home in Redding, where he attended school from kindergarten until he left for college, to the south nor the Pacific Ocean to the west) and listened to the stunning silence as a gigantic ravenous bird (an auspicious omen, as any Homerphile knows) flew over.

The Idiot also cautiously entered a rabbit-sized tunnel at the summit and descended into the secret city of Lemuria for another thirty minutes. The inside of the mountain consisted, as novelist Frederick Spencer Oliver described it long ago, of “walls, polished as by jewelers, though excavated by giants; floors carpeted with long, fleecy gray fabric that looked like fur, but was a mineral product; ledges intersected by the builders, and in their wonderful polish exhibiting veinings of gold, of silver, of green copper ores, and maculations of precious stones.”

The Idiot at the summit.

“It was an inspirational trip and one of the very best climbing days in memory,” Reinhard Hohlwein told The Idiot. “We really got the blessing of the powers that be in every way.”

Text: Joel Stratte-McClure

Photos: Joel Stratte-McClure and Reinhard Hohlwein (1)

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."