This is a special climb I did to celebrate the 80th birthday
of my King, HRM King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.
Our team's goal was to carve a new and unclimbed route
up a sacred mountain, Mt. Shasta. The line of our ascent is a
bold adventure to the summit of Mount Shasta's Northwest face
at 14,162 ft. Our ascent took 13 days, from August 14th through
August 26th, to complete.
The route was a demanding, but beautiful experience,
done with grace and purity to the environment that we were in.
Reaching the summit, we were forced to navigate remote glaciers,
steep rock, and knife edged ridges. On Mt. Shasta, we climbed
steadily and forced nothing. We let the blows of our ice axes
follow the pure and natural lines that the mountain offered up
to us.
In the end, our goal was to climb this sacred mountain
in a sacred style. With our friends and with absolutely no help
from porters, we carried our backpacks and all of our equipment
on our backs. This simple style of climbing is known within the
climbing world as "Alpine Style."
On August 24th, 2007 at 1pm , after a 14-hour summit
push, we accomplished our goal of making a new route on the Northwest
Ridge of Mt. Shasta.
I have chosen to name this new route in honor of my King.
The name of the new route is: ‘Jai Tong’ - ‘Heart
of Gold.’
