6/25, Lassen, West face !

- this side of the mtn. is hard to view. You can see it at the North entrance, at Manzanita Lk. You have to walk to the lake's shore, that's lined with trees. at the summit area it's even harder to see. when you arrive here, there is an area which is roped off as it can easily be trampled with the receding summer snow. on this day, I had to answer to 'nature's call' and I skirted by this part, and found myself looking at a pristine, smooth surface of snow ! I immediately thought, this is the West face !
  so I found a new section to play on - and I skied the top 500 vert. and booted, and hiking shoed back up the ridge. it is a neat feeling to catch new views. this aspect is lined with black lava on the north side, and the other side is normal rock. the view of Shasta was very prominent as Lassen lies further east.
  other things that occured was a Russian guy who took a 15 mile hike at a lower elevation, and after, swam out to the middle of a small lake and dove down to touch the bottom !  he grew up by the Caucauses range.
I took a couple short skateboard laps (not snowboard) at 8,000 ft, cuz they repaved the park road last fall.  real smooth turns !