Lassen National Park

Still hoping to get my 100 days in for the season I thought I'd head home from Shasta through Mt Lassen National Park (making it 3 weekends skiing in the park in a row) and stretch the legs a little after yesterday's big climb/ski. The weather was looking kinda iffy as I headed out from Shasta City but I decided to go for it and was rewarded when I discovered it was one of the "Visit Your National Parks for Free" weekends and saved the $10 entry fee.

I'd been eyeing some short steep lines across the street from the main summit on previous trips and decided to make a quick run up one I haven't skied before. Good snow, legs feeling good!!

Hard to believe Rick, Erin, Adam, and I skied this face 8 days ago. A bit of new snow up high!

There's a bunch of short steep lines like this one across the street from the peak. I hadn't skied this one before, perfect for stretching the legs!

Mount Lassen 6/12-14/2009

Rick, Erin, Adam, and I decided to brave the rain/thunder showers and headed up to Mt Lassen for the weekend. We were chased off the mountain on Saturday by weather moving in but skied a great run down the South Face and then skied a couple fun runs across the street from the summit parking lot (as featured in the video below).

Despite some threatening weather we made it to the top on Sunday and were able to ski the NE face back down to the car we had left in the Devastated Area parking lot. We had to hike down about 1000 feet from the end of the snow, so around 3000' of skiing!

As always, we ate extremely well, this trip's menu included grilled chicken salad with peanut sauce; scrambled eggs and sausage; buffalo burgers; marinated flank steak, corn cooked over the fire, sauteed veggies with peanut sauce, and potatoes; and sourdough blueberry pancakes and bacon!

Mt Lassen - East Couloir

The road through Mt Lassen National Park opened last Thursday afternoon so a bunch of us that were on the ill fated Mt Lassen trip last Memorial Day weekend planned to head up for a weekend of skiing. Unfortunately, the weather around here has been rainy with thunder showers and more of the same was forecast through the weekend.

As the weekend approached the weather forecast started looking more promising. Snow was forecast for Friday/Friday night, 50% chance of showers on Saturday, and partly sunny for Sunday! Saturday's forecast held, 10% chance of showers on Sunday so I decided to head up, although no one else seemed inspired to leave with me in the rain on Saturday morning.

Well, the rain stopped before I got to Susanville and I didn't see any more rain for the weekend. Coverage is great in the park, the skies were sunny, and the snow was great. I decided to ski the East Couloir which isn't often skiable by the time the road opens. It involved some slide slipping over rocks 1/3 of the way down, but was a great ski!

A damp Manzanita Lake campground, this seem familiar

Blue skies @ the summit trail parking lot!

Knee deep powder :)

Up top, Shasta looking good!

I'm sure there's a way through those rocks!

The East Couloir

Lassen - Take 2

Rod suggested we ski Lassen on Saturday, after not getting a chance to summit a couple weekends ago seemed like a great idea!

Heading towards the mountain on Friday

Great AM for climbing, cold night before, nice breeze. Summit self portrait.

And Rod almost there

Looking back up

Mt Lassen Skiing

Finally, what we came for:

Mt Lassen Camping

It's been one of the driest springs in recent history, of course, the weekend we have 17 people heading for Mt Lassen it decides to rain and snow. They even reclosed the road Friday night. Still, we ate VERY well and had a great time "luxury" car camping.

Use #2 for air mattress pump

Lassen South Face

For our finally, Rick and I did a quick ski on the S face of Lassen today before Rick headed home and I headed for Weed (CA that is) and Mt Shasta.

Looking at yesterday's ski

Rick

Rick skiing down the south face

Eagle Peak - Lassen National Park

Today Rick and I climbed Eagle Peak from the summit trail parking lot on Lassen. It's a mellow little climb to a nice N/NE facing bowl on the top of the peak.

Looking S, still a lot of snow that could be skied!

Shasta hovering in the sky

Lassen Car Shuttle

Today Rick D and I did the Lassen summit/car shuttle ski. This is a great trip, with the road through the park opening today (actually, it was open yesterday afternoon when I arrived too) you can park a car at the Devestated Area, ~4000 feet below the summit, then drive up ~2000 feet to the summit trail, climb ~2000 feet to the summit and ski back to the car. We ended up having to hike down about ~400 verticle feet on dirt, so ~3600 feet of skiing for 2000 feet of climbing. It's a great run, nice and steep right off the summit and then opens up for some great spring corn turns.

Rick reaches the summit

Our ski run below. We went straight down, then veered right to the edge of the trees and followed that down to the road

Rick heading down

Looking back up at the NE side of the mountain, a CLASSIC!