first time post after lurking here for a few months. I climbed part way up Avalanche Gulch May 3-4. May 3 was warm (t-shirt hiking weather) and the hike in late morning/early afternoon was very soft with a lot of postholing up to at least 8000 feet. The first part of the trail from Bunny Flat was almost completely melted out and above that snowshoes would have made it a lot easier - skiers definitely had the advantage over hikers. May 4 was cold and very windy as a storm front moved in (est. 30+ at Helen Lake and was told 60+ above Red Banks), but the snow above 8500 feet was firm and made for good cramponing early morning (too firm for safe glissading until later in the day). I don't think there were any summits that day due to the wind and the hike out was low visibility with some hail/snow flurries. A group from Bay Area Mountaineering Meetup were up there that weekend as well and posted a video
Mt Shasta Avalanche Gulch May 3-4, 2014 which will give you a good idea of conditions and coverage (but that was almost 3 weeks ago now). Shasta Mountain Guides blog on May 13 also had some info and photos and check the weather forecast here:
Shasta Weather Forecast. We've had some warm weather in Northern CA the past 2 weeks so conditions may have changed. Go soon and good luck.
