Is your campsite at 50/50 somewhere between Horse Camp and Helen Lake?
Yes, it was maybe 500 feet below Helen Lake. Quieter, cleaner... There are also some moraines in between Helen Lake and 50/50 where there were a few tents.
It looks like you had ample snow for the glissade back down. Last time I did it was in August. Not enough snow for glissading, but plenty of huge rocks and sun cups.
And in August, there was so much smog from forest fires, all we could see was the tip of Mt Lassen. June is the perfect time for Shasta.
This was my first time glissading, and the conditions were perfect. We had a 1500' glissade down from just below the thumb to Helen Lake.
This weekend was a perfect time to do Shasta. The snow was soft and you hardly needed crampons on Avalanche Gulch ... even someone like me who is at the starting end of the learning curve. But we could literally see the snow melting before our eyes. Horse Camp on the climb down looked nothing like Horse Camp on the climb up. And "sketchy" was a term I heard from time to time, particularly above the thumb, where a crevasse was starting to form where glacier meets rock, though I gather that there are alternatives.
I love that you can see Lassen so clearly from Shasta.
