"Record Climb was for Women"
Reprinted by permission from the Mt. Shasta Herald

Dated August 12, 1998, excerpt from the Mt. Shasta Herald

Laurie Bagley, a special education teacher and mother of a 16-month old daughter, spent little time preparing  for her speed ascent of Mt. Shasta last Wednesday. Nor did she need to. Bagley, age 37, made it from Horse Camp to the mountain's 14,162 foot summit in two hours and 52 minutes, the fastest time ever recorded by a woman.

"Sloggin' it" is the way Bagley described the combination of running and hiking she used without any advance route preparation...Bagley ran in running shoes, shorts, and a lightweight shirt all the way up to Lake Helen, where another member of her support team, Linda's husband Rick Chitwood, was waiting with her heavy boots and crampons.

"It was real hot, but then it changed at Red Banks," Bagley said. "There was a 20 mile an hour wind and it became very cold. It went from 70 degrees to 30. That's real common for Shasta. I used all the clothes I was carrying...It was an incredible experience. It was difficult. You have to have a lot of respect for the mountain. You can be in really good shape and still the altitude does things to a person's body; it's the luck of the draw. There were times during the ascent when I felt terrible. But if felt wonderful to reach the top and know someone was up there counting on me."

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