Lassen / Shasta Conditions Anyone?

[Paul Blart]

Just got back from Shasta. Had to dig our way into Brewer Creek TH on Saturday. Got stuck trying on Friday. Had to dig out in the pissing rain, no fun. Camp about a mile town the road in the pissing rain, no fun. Saturday we were determined to get to the TH, and after helping to get a Subaru unstuck in the same place we stuck a Silverado 4x4 we headed up and had to do a little road work, but made to the end. Soon after the hoards started to arrive. Skinned up to about 10K the first day and camped at the TH. Skinned in to last decent trees to camp, then skinned up to about 11K. Wind was pretty brutal, and summiters said the top was horrific. Monday we started about 4 AM and the wind was slightly better but still high. Have it up at 12,800 and skied a mix of wires and variable snow. The rain on Friday went to at least 12,800', so made for a very funky snow pack on the Wintun glacier. Lots of mani on the way out, but did get about 1,000' of good corn. Wired weekend for sure.

White Silverado? If so I saw you guys back there and was impressed you were camping out in that rain Friday night. I'm also amazed that anyone got to the summit, that wind was brutal.

[SchralphMacchio]

The snow however was destroyed from the masses post holing so skinning was quite a bitch. Opted for the bootpack after a little while and should've made that call a little earlier.

That brings back memories from years ago in that gully ... it's even worse trying to skin the refrozen bootpack-mess on a splitboard. You're never quite sure when you'll just lose all grip from your edges getting high centered on bootpack chunder! Definitely best to boot the chunder until you can get up on the flanks above the gully!

I'm glad people were getting after Shasta this weekend despite suckass weather ... we opted for a day of shuttle-served on Mount Ashland, and the north aspects of Shasta were still looking super fat! (Primo dirt on Ashland right now btw, everything was raked out perfectly for Spring Thaw and nothing is really beat up yet)

[hutash]

Yep, we were the two idiots camping in the rain.

Winds were howling at altitude. At least the sun was shining so it wasn't too cold, but it definitely funked up the snow pack.



Shadow of Shasta extending across the valley was nice to enjoy along with a flask of single malt scotch.

[hutash]

btw, does anybody know how to get pictures to load correctly?

[North]

HW was in good shape yesterday. Blue skies and no wind. Brewer TH is open and skinnable about .25mi in. Good corn from summit to about 10K. Ideal drop time probably 11-1130 on a day like we had.

[hutash]

^^^Missed it by a day.

Glad you had a good day. We had fun on Monday, just didn't have great skiing conditions.

[Ptown13]

The Avalanche Gulch route was great on Saturday, 6/2, albeit a bit busy! Dirt up to Horse Camp and frozen bootpacking shortly after that. I started skinning at about 9,700' and switched to boot crampons above Helen Lake, around 2/3rd of the way to Thumb Rock. 11:30-12:30 seemed to be the ideal time for corn. It was a bit rocky on the summit pinnacle, so I dropped from the top of Misery Hill after snapping a few pics on the summit. Smooth conditions and as expected, total mash down near Horse Camp later on in the afternoon. Here are a few pics:


View from Bunny Flat on 6/1


Following the rest of the climbers up towards Red Banks


Looking off towards Misery Hill from the top of Red Banks



The home stretch!


View of Hotlum-Wintun Ridge area from summit

On the way home, I drove through Lassen Park. Here's how the NE face is holding up:


and finally the SE Face:

[Mtndaddy]

A little late getting posted and pictures up, but for those of you thinking about heading up to shasta this weekend, it was amazing last week and should still be good. Last week probably had the best conditions I've ever had (over 20 years of skiing Shasta) on the east side. We went up from Brewer Cr Trailhead and were on snow within 20 min's. Camped at the moraine and summitted around 10:30. Hung out for a while up top (and forced to listen to some idiot's backpack boombox!). We chose to ski down a "spicier" line skier's left of the usual ramp. It drops onto the Hotlum-Wintun snowfield but the fall line drops to the cliffs above the Hotlum. It was untracked and fantastic. No sun cups all the way down to camp!

[hutash]

Man! that is some aggressive skinning


It is interesting how much snow there is up high, yet down below is well burnt.

[rod9301]

What day was it? The week before they got a foot of snow and I was wondering how long it took to corn up.

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[hutash]

We were there Memorial Weekend, just after the storm, and the corn was not very well formed. Seems like by Tuesday/Wednesday it was much better.

[fool]

Awesome beta, Mtndaddy & Ptown - thanks! Thinking of heading up there Wed-Fri this week.

[pogs4ever]

awesome photos guys; looks like still good coverage!

headed up this weekend to brewer creek th; curious on road conditions currently. Can a low clearance vehicle make it? thanks in advance.

[rod9301]

You can get there in a regular car.
Last mile a little worse, but still doable

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[rod9301]

From today, Brewer Creek. Go ski it, it's really really good.

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[viglio]

Skied HW route from Brewer Creek on Thursday 6/14 and it was still in great. ~45 min of hiking before we hit snow, initial section was suncupped, but everything from 10,000-14,000 was awesome. Road was a breeze even in a heavily loaded down Suby. Left the TH at ~6:30AM, summited around noon and dropped right away; we were maybe 20 minutes late but the snow was still super good. Shoot for 11:30 for perfect probably.

[Ptown13]

Great shots and info on the HW route - thank you! I'm hoping to get one more trip in for the season if the weather will cooperate with my schedule!

[fool]

Did Avy Gulch on Fri (6/15). Good, long day starting at 1:30M from Bunny Flat: put skins and ski crampons on at around 8800' and kept them on to below Red Rocks. Switched to boot crampons and left the skis near Thumb Rock. Summited around 10AM, came down to Thumb Rock and started skiing around 11AM or so. Snow wasn't great - kinda crusty due to light winds and clouds - but it was also a bit early still. I would expect 12800 to 10k to be good skiing on a good weather day. Below 10k was pretty sun cupped and more survival skiing, but still better than walking (barely).

Good, fun day to be out there. Thanks for the kickass thread of pics and beta!

[CelebratedSkier]

Heading down this weekend from the Hood River area and looking to spend a week or so in the area with a ski of Shasta somewhere in there. I did Avalanche Gulch years ago and am looking at HW this go around. I noticed about a 45 minute walk to snow currently from Brewer. Should I expect that to change significantly by the start of next week?

Definitely going to spend time looking more through this thread for suggestions but happy to hear any tips on stuff to see/do in the general area...

[B__]

I doubt it will change too much over one week. Take the time to scope the low drainages from above once you gain some elevation. You can usually work it on the descent and stay on snow longer than may be apparent from near the TH as you climb. Dropping skier's right in a narrow snow gully then hanging a left and
walking back to the TH usually pays off. Just don't go too low. GPS helps.

[SchralphMacchio]

Once the snow level gets to bottom of the ramp up to the Hotlum Hotel (the big hump with the spring that splits the HW route drainage, on top of which everyone camps) the snow retreat really slows down. However the transformation to suncups and penetentes really picks up at that point ...

I think if you go with low expectations for quality turns and Type 2 fun below 11k then you will have fun

[SchralphMacchio]

From today

[jibmaster]

Excellent info Schralp - Thankyou!

[jimw]

If anyone happens to be up on the south side, lemme know if you run across an Arcteryx shell that looks like so:



Lost it up there first weekend of June. Well, maybe "lost" isn't the right word. More like the Lemuirans stole it. I think they were pissed about my butt-naked chute descent!



OTOH, streaking past all the surprised campers at Helen Lake was, uh, liberating so to speak.

This was like 3 weeks ago so the south side it probably close to done unless you like a lot of dry hiking, though I gotta say the snow up high was impressively good.

Left some of my mom's ashes up there, so I can visit her from time to time.



Got splitboot??



The road to old ski bowl was still closed at Bunny Flat (supposed to open in a week), but the road was clear. I discovered that my e-skateboard can blaze up that road no problem... hmm, ideas for future missions... Anyway old ski bowl area was also melting out down low, probably a lot more now, here's what it looked like then:



Bike trail was in great shape. Sport #2 for the day. All riders were fully clothed.



Ended at the skate park, for sport #3. Good times.

[jibmaster]

Ha! Nice jimw!
Got some POV of your liberating descent?
Wanna see the looks on everyones faces at Lake Helen.