Lassen / Shasta Conditions Anyone?

[gageyk]

So not able to bike to the Summit lot at Lassen?

[SchralphMacchio]

^ The road is plowed from the South to Lake Helen. You really can't get far on a bike past the closure @ Bumpass Parking Area. The climb from Helen Lake to the Summit Lot is still under several feet of snow.

From the north you can get from Devestated to Summit Lake, which is still like a mile to Reading Peak.

[jorion]

NE face of Lassen skied great yesterday. It's definitely holding up way better than Eastside stuff at much higher elevations. It would have been a little bit better at noon, but it was just a little on the thick side at 2PM. We were able to ski within ~1000' vertical of the Devastated Area parking and walking out down the creek drainage wasn't bad. Suncups weren't an issue at all until the bottom and even then it was just mellow straight-lining.

What's the preferred way of climbing from the north side? We ascended via the north ridge and had to do a lot of somewhat sketchy scrambling up the ridge. I think it was nearly 800' of vert worth and really slowed us down. Having minimal climbing experience on rock I found it a little spicier than I'd prefer. Next time I'd try just booting straight up to the ridge. Is that the norm in summer?

[jorion]

The Hotlum Wintun Ridge was glorious today. I was pretty shocked by how good conditions were.

The road is now open to the Brewer Creek trailhead, although it was just barely passable in my old Outback in a few places towards the end. There's continuous snow to at least 3/4 of a mile from the trailhead, maybe closer if you're more clever than we were.

We starting skinning at 3 under a crazy bright full moon and summited at 11 with some long breaks. The bootpacks are in excellent shape. Dropped in at 12:30 and found good to great conditions the whole way down. A little firm up top and a little heavy down low, but the snow is in relatively great shape. Suncups are just barely starting to show up. There were some runnels in one section that were easily smoothed out.

Night and day difference from the end of June last year. I'm planning on heading back in a couple weeks and checking out the north side.

[jorion]

Lassen coverage:



Dawn on the HW:





Looking down at where your car is parked 7000' below is pretty wild.

[Paul Blart]

NE face of Lassen skied great yesterday. It's definitely holding up way better than Eastside stuff at much higher elevations. It would have been a little bit better at noon, but it was just a little on the thick side at 2PM. We were able to ski within ~1000' vertical of the Devastated Area parking and walking out down the creek drainage wasn't bad. Suncups weren't an issue at all until the bottom and even then it was just mellow straight-lining.

What's the preferred way of climbing from the north side? We ascended via the north ridge and had to do a lot of somewhat sketchy scrambling up the ridge. I think it was nearly 800' of vert worth and really slowed us down. Having minimal climbing experience on rock I found it a little spicier than I'd prefer. Next time I'd try just booting straight up to the ridge. Is that the norm in summer?

How long did it take you to get to the top? I'm thinking about heading out that way this weekend and I'm glad coverage is still looking good. Appreciate the picture up above as well!

[jorion]

We were feeling better than we expected and did it in 8 hours with an hour or so of extra rest. (we didn't want to top out too early and have to sit around in 40 mph winds for a few hours at the summit while waiting for the snow to soften more.) Really though, it would have been fine to drop at 11, and it also turned out there was a wind-protected spot to hang out on the summit ridge. If we had descended earlier the top 1000' would have been less forgiving but the maybe the lower mountain snow would have been a little less thick. Conditions were absolutely nothing to complain about though, especially for July! A lot nicer than this time last year.

As for coverage, only about 15 feet of the traverse from the snowfield onto the upper glacier was on rock on the way up, and we were able to ski all the way down to treeline without taking skis off by staying skiers right past the climbing traverse and then cutting left through a small section where the snow connects halfway down the glacier.

This pretty much shows the whole route:

[TEXASS]

Closed out my Season this last weekend with a Lassen/Shasta double header. Drove up Friday from San Diego Solo. Its a Looooooong ass drive from my house to NorCal

Saturday Morning Park fees



Just a heads up as of July 9th its a two mile hike to snow






Finally a view of the peak



On the up



The skin begins




Storn on the way up



Hi Mount Shasta



So, I started skinning with ski crampons on . I like skinning in steep terrain so I wanted to challenge my self. Can I skin this whole bowl? Well, the snow was getting softer but my skins and crampons were holding well so I thought I would be able to make it
The photo below tells the story. You can see my skin track above the top rock on the slope. I almost made it. The slope broke around me and I was caught in the worlds slowest wetslide. Not in danger, but getting pissed as the vertical feet I was supposed to be riding slid by me . I finally got my whippet to garb just past the rock. You can see the slide path.
I regained composure and started booting up . Made it to about 50 feet from the top , heard a thud and looked down to see on of my bindings rolling down the slope . DAMMIT. I down climbed the slope and retrieved the binding.
Back up. Once more. But now the slope is getting rotten and I don't have boot crampons. It becomes obvious I wont see the top of Lassen Peak today










Now for some Riding

Storn





Buffy







On the way out I had to point out to Storn my ass slide/ shwack path and why I didn't top out.





On the drive from Lassen to Shasta we stopped by Burney Falls. Never been there. Was really cool






Sunday - Shasta

Original Plan was to go up Diller Canyon. But Jim W had just arrived in camp with the bad news that the snow was missing from our intended area. It was also getting late, so we opted for a run down the old Ski bowl from Shastarama point



Damn this place is big



A few hours later



Plant Life



And....the last run of the season










So that's it. 2017 was a great season. I didn't score as much powder as I wanted , and I didn't get as many days as I wish but Im safe and sound with tracks on the ground

Thanks to all my good partners. You are a family to me

[liketoride]

Dude that woulda been redunculous if you skinned all the way to the top of Lassen. Good times splitbooting, splitboarding, and riding snowboards with you guys Tex!

[Paul Blart]

Did lassen and the snow is going quick but it's still so damn nice. More details to come ..

[gimpy]

Is lassen rd open to top yet?

[~mikey b]

July 27 full opening

You can get to Peak trailhead now

[Paul Blart]

So overall the snow was great. I would highly suggest getting up to Lassen within the next week or two before the suncups grow some more and ruin everything. Made a little edit from this weekend.

[Dark Energy]

Shasta on 7/23. Hotlum/Winton from Brewer's Creek. Serious mosquito swarm in the late evening/early a.m. About 1 hour hike to hit snow. Lots of butterflies on the summit, and 5 other skiers. Top 2K on Winton from the top was fairly smooth on the down, next 4.5K on Hotlum was sun cupped but soft in the afternoon. Overall two thumbs up for 6K+ of continuous turns in July!

[splat]

Lassen's latest opening to date.

[Mtndaddy]

Hi, anyone have any beta on current Lassen conditions? Still holding snow on the north face or Eagle, Loomis or Reading Peak?
thanks

[buildakicker]

I was just up at Burney falls and could see snow on the North face still... Can't say how far towards the devestated area it goes.

Just adding for others: North Gate TH on shasta is about 4.5 miles of dirt before skinning.

Sent from my Pixel using TGR Forums mobile app

[PutYourDukesUp]

Was just up at Lassen. From Hat lake the snow line on the NE face looked to be around 8600ft so unless you like scrambling it's done. I found a nice thinly continuous patch above Emerald lake that skied alright. Everything is pretty well cooked.

[Mtndaddy]

It sounds like Lassen Peak is done, anyone have information on the surrounding slopes? My son and I "need" to get some turns this month to keep our streak going at 12 months. Any suggestions?

[buildakicker]

It sounds like Lassen Peak is done, anyone have information on the surrounding slopes? My son and I "need" to get some turns this month to keep our streak going at 12 months. Any suggestions?

Just saw a report on the North gate area on Shasta. Still turns available. 5 miles plus to skinnable snow I bet.

Fresh and Deep.

[h-atlas]

It sounds like Lassen Peak is done, anyone have information on the surrounding slopes? My son and I "need" to get some turns this month to keep our streak going at 12 months. Any suggestions?

Lassen wasn't bad on Aug 21. Got about 3000 vert of good turns with minimal effort. Hiked the summit trail. Skied down the north side until it flattened out and then booted back up and skied 2 patches down the south with an easy traverse to the trail. Pretty good September potential. First 3 pics are from the north side and the last one is from the south heading back to the TH. Some other guys did the NE with the hike out to devastated and hitch to the summit TH and they were pretty close behind to our 2 runs.

[jfb]

Well done! I particularly like this outfit. I will have to wear mine next time I hit Lassen.

[Skiwald]

Skied the north side Sept 3rd. Continuous Snow for 2400+ ft. Still some good sized patches on the east face next to the summit trail also. Snow was sun cupped but not bad. Snow was good at noon. Finally got 12 months straight this year!!! What a season this was.




Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[TurxSki]

bump for gimpy

[jskierpx]

Lassen must be getting hit with some legit snow up high with these AR’s?