Lassen / Shasta Conditions Anyone?

[buildakicker]

Just checking if anyone as been up North North in California. How's the conditions? Deep? Spring everywhere right now in CA.... So Sierra is looking bleak for anything after June 1st...

[jibmaster]

It will soon be time!

[meter-man]

I asked the same on the E. Sierra thread. Schralphmacchio said:

I don't have Shasta beta, but I was at Lassen 2 weeks ago and that's all in pretty good shape. I left my long lens at home so my photos of Shasta don't show much detail, and you can't really see HW or West Face very well from Lassen anyways. Snow at Lassen was down to about 6000 on all aspects that I could see, before it turned into a shrubfest. 4K continuous feet of windpacked turns on the west face, while everyone was crossing tracks in Tahoe that weekend, was pretty good! (the 5 mile flat ski back to the car was not that good!)

Just checking if anyone as been up North North in California. How's the conditions? Deep? Spring everywhere right now in CA.... So Sierra is looking bleak for anything after June 1st...

[LightRanger]

They've been getting more precip up there out of these recent systems too...

If/When my buddy sends me some beta photos, I'll post them up.

[gimpy]

i am assuming you are already checking the shasta avy advisory. they dont update often but they usually mention skiing conditions

[snapt]

Lassen NP is already working on clearing the road. Should be an early season.

[meter-man]

Here's the latest:

Smooth and very good skiing conditions were found yesterday above 8,300 feet on the south side of Mt. Shasta...however below that, while the snow was supportable, very sticky snow kept skis pointed in only one direction - down! Get your spring tune and proper wax to combat the lower slopes back to your vehicle. Northerly, upper elevation aspects may still hold some dryer snow, but warmer temps and rain as of late has the snow settling out and working towards a melt/freeze cycle. An isothermic and stable snowpack exists overall.

Temperatures yesterday reached a balmy 76F out at Ash Creek, east of McCloud/Mt. Shasta and 71F in Mt. Shasta City. At Castle Lake we saw a high of 64F and 50F on Gray Butte.

One could still ski at Castle Lake currently, however it's getting pretty thin. Rock and manzanita slalom is the name of the game up there now. The lake is still frozen and supportable of weight. Use caution near the edges.

Yesterday, 3-30-13, insignificant wet-loose slides were easily triggered off of "Criblets Ridge", the east/west facing, north/south running ridgeline that separates Powder Bowl and Sun Bowl. The slides were within the top 1" to 2" of snow and on slopes steeper than 38-40 degrees and ran only 10-20 feet. A larger, shallow wet-loose slide was viewed in Sun Bowl and is suspected to have released on 3-29-13. My guess is it was skier triggered... Sun Bowl is south facing, 35-38 degrees... The slide ran several hundred feet, though was of little consequence. Roller balls were plentiful on top end of Powder Bowl.

See http://shastaavalanche.org/

i am assuming you are already checking the shasta avy advisory. they dont update often but they usually mention skiing conditions

[meter-man]

Oh and Bunny Flat at 6700 feet has a base of 54-103 inches, which is pretty average (ie. deep) for this time of year.

[powfiend]

Anyone interested in a Tuesday pow lap on the south side? Looks to be a decent storm pushing thru this weekend

[Truckee Joe]

Any updates on how Shasta & Lassen are. We are driving back from Whister and thought it might be a good place break up the drive.

[kidwoo]

Both mountains kind of looked like ass two weeks ago as far as coverage compared to normal years. Fully skiable in the normal bowls and gullies but certainly not great. I'd get on it sooner rather than later.

I didn't ski either, just on my way north to more snow and wanted a look.

The last few weeks must have worked some magic if you guys are saying they look better.

[snapt]

http://shastaguides.com/2014/03/04/b...ing-mt-shasta/
My dad has been skiing the normal stuff in avy gulch hand says its been pretty good.

[userA]

there was some info there.
b

[Alkares]

A friend of mine lives in view of Shasta. She was posting up until a few weeks ago pics of the mountain, and it was up until then almost completely dry. Not sure how the new storms of late have changed things, but I wouldn't expect a whole lot from the few updates I've seen....

Maybe you'd be better off hitting up 3 sisters/Bachelor area.....

[LightRanger]

A friend of mine lives in view of Shasta. She was posting up until a few weeks ago pics of the mountain, and it was up until then almost completely dry. Not sure how the new storms of late have changed things, but I wouldn't expect a whole lot from the few updates I've seen....

Maybe you'd be better off hitting up 3 sisters/Bachelor area.....

I heard differently from my buddy in Burney yesterday. That part of the state has gotten quite a bit of liquid in the last five weeks. Even though the storms have been warm, both peaks are high. I'll see if I can get some photos from my friend to post in here, but see snapt's link above.

Sure, it's below average, but both peaks' averages are enormous.

[Truckee Joe]

ya the elevation was what made the Shasta idea come up, but I think tomorrow we cant get there early enough to catch the pow from today before the snow gets too heavy in the afternoon. Maybe it will already be corn when i get there tomorrow.

[Lee Murian]

Last couple weeks have been pretty awesome. Recent warm storms and light winds have made skiing from 7,000-12,000' excellent. Epic corn cycle this week, maybe some porn snow lurking in the right places...

up


down


More avy activity than in recent years. Large naturals and skier triggered with partial burials; heads up, especially with the warming temps this week.

[jibmaster]

Anyone been to the north or east sides yet. The snow coverage is perfect right now for some
Coquette Falls, North Gate or Brewer Creek action.
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/earth/


The north side access is looking especially good.

[LightRanger]

Pretty sure these were taken from the Fall River Mills/McArthur area, so SE-E side of Shasta and North side of Lassen. Hard to tell from the phone photos, but they give you an idea.

Shasta


Lassen

[Truckee Joe]

Here are a few pics of our afternoon up on Shasta. At bunny the base is about 1'-2' with much more up top ~220cm where i stuck my probe in at around 9000. We stayed mostly below treeline because of the high winds and found a mix of soft windbuff, ice, and corn depending on aspect. With warm temps coming that window to ski to all the way to the car will probably be closing very early this year.

[Truckee Joe]

one more pic from the parking lot

[LightRanger]

^^^ Hard to tell from a distance, but it looks like there's significant slide debris above Helen. Latest SMG blog post seems to indicate that's what it is: http://shastaguides.com/2014/03/11/s...-to-mt-shasta/

[Huckwheat]

Anyone have the latest? Shasta Guides saying now is the time.

What about the drive to Brewers Creek? Any beta??

[~mikey b]

Lassen Volcanic NP last weekend

[Greydon Clark]

Nice work getting out there to ski pow.