Lassen / Shasta Conditions Anyone?

[snapt]

How is coverage down to Bunny after this last storm? May make a trip back in a couple weeks to see a terminal grandparent in Mt Shasta, will likely bring skis. Castle Lake zone have enough coverage to be a go?

[buildakicker]

How is coverage down to Bunny after this last storm? May make a trip back in a couple weeks to see a terminal grandparent in Mt Shasta, will likely bring skis. Castle Lake zone have enough coverage to be a go?

Bunny Flat was looking good as of the 1st. Check it out the reports here: http://shastaavalanche.org/observations

Fresh and Deep.

[sruffian]

Looks like a foot of fresh at 8k feet around shasta by this weekend and fairly nice weather on Saturday.

Planning to head up Friday night and pound out some decent vert Saturday - hmu if you want a touring buddy. Probably starting early and skiing whatever looks good off the bunny flat trailhead - avy, sargents, or casaval.

Also, was out at crater lake of presidents day weekend for a pow trip and it was thin down low but has probably filled in considerably by now

[buildakicker]

Looks like a foot of fresh at 8k feet around shasta by this weekend and fairly nice weather on Saturday.

Planning to head up Friday night and pound out some decent vert Saturday - hmu if you want a touring buddy. Probably starting early and skiing whatever looks good off the bunny flat trailhead - avy, sargents, or casaval.

Also, was out at crater lake of presidents day weekend for a pow trip and it was thin down low but has probably filled in considerably by now

Yup, the coverage is good now at crater lake. Though did get attacked by a couple sharks...

Fresh and Deep.

[pajamas]

are you guys skiing Garfield Peak? Driving through and hope to get some turns there.

[sruffian]

are you guys skiing Garfield Peak? Driving through and hope to get some turns there.

Yeah I was up in that whole garfield applegate area parking near park hq

[buildakicker]

Yeah I was up in that whole garfield applegate area parking near park hq

Same. Lots on lines off that ridge. Watch that sun working on the snow on that West face...

Fresh and Deep.

[CuriousGeorge]

Lower NE Lassen access coverage earlier this week.



Dropped from the top at 10:30, skied to the road using the furthest left drainage with just the creak crossing at the bottom.

Thin at the road, won't last long.

[SchralphMacchio]

Anyone poke around Diller, Hidden Valley or Cascade Gulch lately? I wonder what the road situation is to Diller right now ...

[Lee Murian]

pretty rare to get such epic pow above 12K on Mt. Shasta. Sunday was outstanding

[Norseman]

Sick.

[abraham]

pretty rare to get such epic pow above 12K on Mt. Shasta. Sunday was outstanding

Even for someone who lives in the mountain??

Looks amazing

[SchralphMacchio]

Bra-freaking-Vo!!!

Even for someone who lives in the mountain??

I laughed, that screen name is amazing.

[meter-man]

Even for someone who lives in the mountain??

Lee-murian slayage. ETA: schralphy beat me to it!

Where did you skin up? Behind Casaval? I don't see a track going up right of red banks.

Saw this pic on the gram, and noticed my pants were especially tight. I guess it was my homing device pointed NW to the Shasta Vortex.

[jorion]

Jesus, that is a sexy photo.

[thefrush]

Wow, nailed it.

[Greydon Clark]

Might be in the area around Memorial Day… Any predictions on Bunny Flat having snow or the north side roads being open?

[Lee Murian]

Lee-murian slayage. ETA: schralphy beat me to it!

Where did you skin up? Behind Casaval? I don't see a track going up right of red banks.

Saw this pic on the gram, and noticed my pants were especially tight. I guess it was my homing device pointed NW to the Shasta Vortex.

This isn't the Trinities, it's off Sargent's ridge. Skinned up the gulch to Thumb rock.

Just skied primo corn, Shasta is firing

[meter-man]

This isn't the Trinities, it's off Sargent's ridge. Skinned up the gulch to Thumb rock.

Just skied primo corn, Shasta is firing

Well that explains why I didn't recognize it.... Nicely done and thanks for the reports!

[SchralphMacchio]

Horrid cold winds up high today on Shasta. Went for Shastina thinking Diller would be protected from south winds, but winds were so strong they were running into the crater and shooting downslope. Didn’t get to top out, about 800’ of survival skiing below the crater, but once we got down to 10.5k or so the corn was money.

Snowline in Diller is almost at 8000’ (7700 maybe?) road is clear but definitely pinstriping your car is cost of admission.

Always a good time in the land of Lemurians!

[Paul Blart]

I've wanted to hit Shasta for about two years now. First time I saw her I fell in love real quick. Finally got the chance to get up that way and give it a go this Thursday and Friday. Started hiking at 3AM Friday morning and got to the summit at 1PM via Avalanche Gulch. Dropped from just below the summit pinnacle at 2PM. The skiing was very firm and rough above 13k but everything from there down to 8k was primo. Could've dropped an hour earlier for "best run of all time conditions" but I was feeling it after the climb up so I wanted to relax for a little while. Honestly got a perfect weather window as the early morning cloud cover broke for a great afternoon of mostly sunny with minimal wind. Bunny flat is starting to burn out right at the trail head but coverage was ample above that. There was a decent amount of rime falling on the way up the gulch and a gal ahead of me took a softball sized chunk to the cheek. Lots of ice left in the Red Banks/Trinity Chute area still waiting to come down. Great trip all around and I can't wait to get back to try a different route.

Photo Dump:

[BGnight]

Damn, Bunny Flat is burnt in early May!

[Paul Blart]

[margotron]

these are fucking sick

A few more from Friday:
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[mr. hankey]

Skied Lassen N side on Tuesday 5/8, Shasta Hotlum/wintun Wednesday, and the S side Thursday.

Lassen N side: Could still patch things together w/o taking off and ski to ~6600ft, only a 20-25 min walk to the Devastated area parking lot. That will move up quick and in another week(?) you’ll be skiing/walking to around 7k instead. It softened really early that day- I was able to skin all the way to the summit plateau and that was 8:30-9am. Great corn from ~10.4k down to maybe 8k at 9:30am, then all mush below that. It was really smooth for the most part (some limited avy debris). On that day the window was 8am-8:30.

Shasta Hotlum/wintun: good balance of access (6450ft) and skiable snowline (6800ft), maybe a 15-25 min walk on the road to snow with minimal cross country – see map below. So that’s a nice ~7.4k ski descent. Some of it hasn’t gone the cycle up high and hasn’t smoothened fully yet (wintun above 12.5k and hotlum snowfield above 11.5k still need more sun). Still skiable and fun, but just not the hero corn that we find there when we typically go in June. Below that It’s really smooth. I’d bet the Northgate side is further behind on the cycle, but with warm days and higher sun, all of the above should hopefully be great soon.

Shasta S side (Bunny flat/Gulch/Sargent’s/Mud creek glacier). Great access yesterday, you can skin/ski right down to the first turn out of bunny flat(~5 min walk). But it’s pretty patchy below 7500ft, so there will be a lot of taking off/on soon, and by memorial day I’d guess you’ll be dry walking on the trail all the way to horse camp. Coverage above 7500 is really good, no sun cups yet, but the snow from ~7700 and below is getting dirty, at least on the E side of the gulch where you ski down to catch the skiers gully (wind event?).

Pics below:
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LASSEN TUESDAY


Shasta, > 100 miles to the north:

My first of 4 Arby’s(high altitude climbing fuel) purchased on Monday night and consumed over the following 3 days. Gross? perhaps. I read that Ed Viesturs likes SPAM on his climbs, and so this is my equivalent. I think both come from the same part of the cow (testicles? Tongue? Hoof?).

Looking at the N side from the top:

SE side looks good:

Road plowing zoom in on S side:

Where i took my skies off on tuesday:


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Shasta, Brewer creek Wednesday.
After having great weather on Lassen Tuesday, Noaa was calling for Rain/lightning on Shasta Tuesday night , with clear but high winds for the rest of the week (Summit forecast was 20F high with 40Mph winds with gusts to 70, but supposed to lower to 40MPH gusts by late Wed). Got there on Tuesday afternoon and rain/lightning, could no longer see the mountain. But It cleared so we went, but decided to do a non-alpine start to have some hopes of it softening up high by late afternoon, and hopefully melt off the rain/snow from the storm and have the wind reduced in the afternoon. Wrong call. No wind at all. So by the time we skied from the top at ~3pm, everything below 10.5k was mush. really smooth mush.

Pics:
Map – you can drive to the black dot next to the X, the a dry walk on the road/woods until you ski/skin with great coverage at the “O” dot.



smooth on the hotlum snowfield ~10k. Could skin all the way to the cross over pt at ~12.6k, but the hotlum side of the ridge is more northerly and more textured.


Zipper rain crust from the night before(?):


Lunch on the cross over point. Clouds kept coming then clearing. Alternating between 0 vis and what you see here. The H/W ridge is a great guide in a white out.


The final gully – notice the slight texturing. It was ok to good skiing, just not corn. Lots of tiny pebble like snow chunks kicking down when you ski.



Misery hill/Whitney from the top:


Looking E towards our descent through the clouds


Sherpa1 starting the 7.4k of skiing:


some of the pics look similar, but you can see the difference in the snow. some places better than others. btw, the very top above 14k was bullet proof until you go over the roll-over.



Still 5000ft to ski:


Looking up from ~10.5-11k. this was soft but with a zipper crust



Back in the clouds, moments later.


Below the clouds, ~10k. This part has gone the cycle and was perfectly smooth. Would have been great corn if we started in the dark.

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Shasta, S side from Bunny Thursday.
Was planning on a short day with the goals of getting home early and just to get the best corn. Was gonna do giddy giddy or maybe hit the SE side of casaval, but it was much colder that day so even with our late 7am start we kept climbing since it was still too firm to ski. Kinda nice having no agenda and just going with the flow w/o a timeline. Ended up crossing over to Sargent’s ridge and skiing off the SE side down to the Mud creek glacier, then down Sargent’s to ski bowl, and back over GB ridge to the gulch. Fantastic corn almost the whole way as we changed aspects from E to SW, to W as we descended (E aspect from 11.7 to the glacier was perfect at noon, then SW from Sargent’s to the ski bowl was good from 10.5 to 9.3, still firm from 10.5 to 11k but skiable. The W face of GB ridge down to the gulch and the gulch down to 7.7k was great, until you hit the dirty snow).

Gulch.




After crossing over GB ridge to the ski bowl, skinning towards Sargent’s Ridge.


Looking down on the mud creek glacier after climbing over Sargent’s. The "pinky chutes" both still go from upper Sargent’s ridge and are clean. If you ski the Konwakiton gully or Thumbs down chutes you’ll either have to cross that thin rock band or ski down below it. But all of it is still in play with great coverage with minimal rock crossing to get back over to sargent’s from the Mud creek glacier. I wouldn't wait until june though. FYI, it's safer and easier to climb to thumb rock from the gulch directly. Thumb rock is not visible here (hidden behind the lower stuff on Sargents ridge, but you can see the top of the Konwakiton gully (rimy part looking futher back in the center, starting from the summit plateau).


Getting ready to ski down to MC glacier (left) Ski bowl/GB on the right.


peaking over Sargents ridge looking down at ski bowl, gulch(right) and if you zoom in you can see bunny flat.


This was fantastic at noon. E facing, 11.7k. usually this side is corn by 10am, but it was cold that day.



Looking down from Sargent’s to the ski bowl (and gulch in the right). The top 500ft from 11k to 10.5 was still firm (SW facing), but 10.5 to the cross over at 9.2k was great.


Sherpa1 dropping the W face of Green butte to the gulch. Great corn. Great day.


This trip was special. After having kids i really didn't ski for 6 years and last year when i got back into it i found out i couldn't do any big trips > 3k due to foot pain having to take my boot off. That and the 30 extra pounds. Still rocking the dad bod today, weighing in at my late 80's ski size (need to lay off the Arby's) with another 10+ to go, but the podiatrist fixed me up (Mortons's neuroma), so i feel like i got my mojo back this year. This is probably my last hall pass from Mrs. Hankey, and it's a low snow year in CA, but just so thankful to be out there again...