Last weekend, I drove up to the Oregon border and I climbed Mt. Shasta with Shasta Mountain Guides. Here are the pics. It was an awesome adventure but the high altitude is no joke. It really does affect you. Above 11k feet, my heart would not slow down even when I took breaks. We had a good group composed of two doctors (Andrew/Jeff), two lawyers (Dave/Kevin), two guides (Natalie/Jamie) and me. We made camp at Horse Camp which has water and a toilet and at a place on the mountain called "50/50" which had nothing but snow. At 2am on Sunday, we got up and began climbing to the summit. After a very long slog and altitude sickness, everyone except one of us summitted to 14,179 ft. Only after reaching the summit did Natalie tell us that we had rushed up it in 7 hours, ninety minutes faster than they had planned. No wonder I was out of breath the whole time. If I had to do it again, I would sign up for a 2 day trip and bring skis for the descent. However, it was a great climb and my first above 14k ft and I feel much more prepared for my Mt. Hood trip in July and Kili in October. All in all, for beginnners looking to get into serious mountaineering, I would definitely recommend Shasta and SMG.