Why Reaching The Thumb Is a Game Changer on Summit Day
There is a moment on every big climb where the mountain gives you something back. After hours of grinding upward in the dark, managing your layers, eating into your energy reserves step by step, you arrive somewhere that lets you stop, breathe, look around, and feel like a human being again instead of just a body moving slowly uphill. On Mount Shasta, that place is the Thumb.
A helicopter rescue from the thumb on Mount Shasta. Follow Dalton on your favorite platform: @storiesbydalton
The Thumb is a distinctive rock feature on the Avalanche Gulch route that sits above the steepest section of Avalanche Gulch. Reaching it does not mean the climbing is finished. You still have roughly two and a half to three hours of work between the Thumb and the summit. But the character of the climbing changes significantly once you get there. The sustained steep grind of the Gulch gives way to a different kind of effort, still demanding but more varied, and the psychological weight of the hardest section being behind you is real and significant. When I arrived at the Thumb I felt it immediately. My legs were tired but my mind shifted gears in a way that made the remaining climb feel like a different kind of challenge altogether.
The Thumb is also where the sun finally finds you. Avalanche Gulch sits in shade through most of the early morning hours, which keeps the snow firm but keeps you cold. The Thumb catches direct sunlight earlier in the day and that warmth after hours of cold climbing feels extraordinary. I sat down on a rock, pulled out food, applied sunscreen for the first time that day, and just let the sun hit my face for a few minutes. That fifteen minute break at the Thumb was one of the best decisions I made on summit day. Not because I needed to rest physically but because the mental reset it provided carried me through everything that came after.
My Favorite Items I Brought On This Trip:
2p Tent Copper Spur by Big Agnes; I’ve had this tent going on 5 years and still love it
Crazy Creek Camp Chair; easy and simple to use
Jetboil Flash; I’ve had mine for almost a decade and still works great
Sony a7r4; my work horse of a camera
Tamron 16-30; probably my favorite lens right now
Peak Design Tripod; a requirement for solo creatives
That reset got interrupted in an unexpected way. While I was sitting there eating, a climber approached me and asked if I had a Garmin InReach satellite communicator. Their partner was in trouble higher on the mountain. As a Wilderness First Responder, I knew immediately that this was a situation I needed to help with. What followed was roughly two hours on that ridge coordinating a rescue with search and rescue teams, the sheriff's department, and eventually a helicopter that came to extract the injured climber. It was stressful and sobering and it added two hours to an already long day. But it was also a reminder of something important. The mountains are beautiful and demanding and occasionally dangerous, and the people who spend time in them have a responsibility to look out for each other.
Once the helicopter lifted off and the situation was resolved, I talked to the climber who had asked for help. I offered to walk down with them but they were fine on their own and told me to go ahead and push for the summit. So I did. The delay had cost me time but the weather was holding and the summit was still within reach.
Passing the thumb on the way home after summiting Mount Shasta. Follow Dalton on your favorite platform: @storiesbydalton
For anyone planning a Shasta summit attempt via Avalanche Gulch, the Thumb is worth understanding before you go. It is a genuine milestone on the route, not just geographically but psychologically. Plan to take a real break there. Eat something substantial. Let the sun warm you up. Check your gear and your body and make an honest assessment of how you feel before committing to the final push. The climbing above the Thumb is absolutely doable but it demands that you arrive there with enough left in the tank to finish what you started.
Reaching the Thumb on a big mountain day feels like the mountain finally acknowledging that you showed up and did the work. Everything above it is the reward for everything below it.
Thank you for reading this journal entry. If you have enjoyed it and have something to add, send me an email: dj@dalton-johnson.com
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Gallery From Climbing Mount Shasta
About Dalton:
Dalton Johnson is a photographer, direcot, and writer (award-winning at all three) based in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Over the last 10 years, Dalton’s creative work has taken him to every continent, above the arctic circle, and below the antarctic circle.
