July 7, 2005, Mt. Lassen
7/7/05
US elsewhere
2071
0
Two days after skiing at Mt.Shasta (see TR report dated July 5th) I was ready and eager to climb/ski Mt.Lassen. When I had visited the park for the first time last summer I had immediately announced to my wife that I would be returning with skis. I wasn't really surprised but I was still very pleased with the additional snow volume. I will let my photos at
http://gallery.telemen.ca/main.php?g2_view=core:ShowItem&g2_itemId=2315
tell most of the story. (I can handle a camera better than a pen.)
Clouds were threatening to whiteout the peak as I left the parking lot at 8:30. They were being whipped across the mountain by fairly stiff winds, which also hit exposed climbers on SW facing aspects. While the clouds did disappear by the time that I reached the summit, the wind did not.
Two AT skiers arrived shortly after me, having chosen to skin up the southern slope. Their plan was to ski the backside before returning. We were the only skiers on the mountain.
While I sat enjoying the views in the wind shadow of the false summit, I witnessed the apparently usual assortment of ill-prepared hikers walking by. No one in beach shoes and swim wear this time, though. I guess that I got some pretty strange looks too as I got set to ski down the main tongue. After a hesitant first turn on the crest, it was a delightful fall line ski to the prominent rock on skier's left. From there I angled over to pick up what I thought was a connecting path over to the other tongue which extends to the parking lot.
I have to admit that I carefully crossed a bit of land to reach my second run. With this narrow 800'+ drop I got around 2,000' of vertical on another spectacular summer day. There were plenty of opportunities to cut turns on the neighbouring slopes. Since I had some energy left and my wife was not in a hurry to leave the bug-free, beautiful surroundings I took advantage of the situation. Then it was time to return to our tent at Summit Lake campsite for happy hour and to regretfully put away the ski equipment for the balance of the trip through northern California.
http://gallery.telemen.ca/main.php?g2_view=core:ShowItem&g2_itemId=2315
tell most of the story. (I can handle a camera better than a pen.)
Clouds were threatening to whiteout the peak as I left the parking lot at 8:30. They were being whipped across the mountain by fairly stiff winds, which also hit exposed climbers on SW facing aspects. While the clouds did disappear by the time that I reached the summit, the wind did not.
Two AT skiers arrived shortly after me, having chosen to skin up the southern slope. Their plan was to ski the backside before returning. We were the only skiers on the mountain.
While I sat enjoying the views in the wind shadow of the false summit, I witnessed the apparently usual assortment of ill-prepared hikers walking by. No one in beach shoes and swim wear this time, though. I guess that I got some pretty strange looks too as I got set to ski down the main tongue. After a hesitant first turn on the crest, it was a delightful fall line ski to the prominent rock on skier's left. From there I angled over to pick up what I thought was a connecting path over to the other tongue which extends to the parking lot.
I have to admit that I carefully crossed a bit of land to reach my second run. With this narrow 800'+ drop I got around 2,000' of vertical on another spectacular summer day. There were plenty of opportunities to cut turns on the neighbouring slopes. Since I had some energy left and my wife was not in a hurry to leave the bug-free, beautiful surroundings I took advantage of the situation. Then it was time to return to our tent at Summit Lake campsite for happy hour and to regretfully put away the ski equipment for the balance of the trip through northern California.
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