“Heyy Dalton, this is EPIC BILL BRADLEY here, um, give me a call. I am looking for a camera guy who is a bad ass. Can you climb mountains with camera gear?” Bill teases me with this voicemail back in February. Now, it is May and we have three more weeks until gear check in Talkeetna, Alaska. Bill and I had not met until this point, but I was intrigued to shake is hand, see if his height matched his energy, and get on a mountain with him.

“Show up and suffer” Bill’s favorite slogan and most likely hat on a training day on Mount Shasta, CA. Photo by Dalton Johnson

“Hey Bill, it’s Dalton Johnson. Are we still on for a little training on Mount Shasta?” I ask

“Heyy Dalton!! Great to hear your voice. Yup, yup, we are good to go and I am excited to meet you.” Bill responded.

Arriving at 9:00am to Bill’s hotel room, he greeted me with a massive smile, more energy than a group of six-year-old kids, and a booming voice. “Well, are we hungry? Should we go get a bite to eat?”

Fueling for the day and quickly packing our bags after breakfast, we piled into his Toyota Prius and headed for Bunny Flat.

After a quick decision, we tossed 45lbs in our packs and headed up Mount Shasta. Unclear how far we would go, we set a time. Six hours in total. Four up and two down. To be quite honest, the miles and time didn’t matter, we where training to learn about each other, especially as we were going to be roped together for three weeks on Mount Denali.

“Whoo Hoo!” Bill shouts, “We are in the arena. There are no bad days in the arena!”

Hoping around the mountain, I snap images and record video as the two of us get in the flow. Training is always a little bit different depending on the company, but this trip was unexpected. Bill was cheering for everyone coming off the mountain, regardless if they were day hiking, going for an FKT, or gave a summit attempt. Bill didn’t care, he was happy. He was in his element. He was ready to show up and suffer.

Two days of training came and went, quickly. The two of us got along well and the excitement was high for what is to come… heading to Alaska to climb Mount Denali, North America’s tallest mountain.

Bill almost at the turn around point of our six hour day on Mount Shasta, CA. Photo by Dalton Johnson

Climbing Mount Shasta Details

Typical route: Avalanche Gulch

Trail Head: Bunny Flat

Trail type: Out and back

Elevation Gain: 7,230 feet

Distance: roughly 11 miles

How difficult is climbing Mount Shasta?

Mount Shasta is a mountaineering mountain. While climbing Shasta is considered an easy mountaineering route, you do need technical skills to climb the mountain.