April 26, 2016, Green Butte, Mt. Shasta

The weather forecast was for sun until noon and then clouds arriving. We met Bryan and Carol at Bunny Flat, and they were planning to tour towards Lake Helen.  They toured up Avalanche Gulch in the sun €“ very hot.  Jill got a few pictures of Mt. Shasta €“ with blue sky, then a few clouds, then surrounded by clouds.  We decided to tour up towards Green Butte. We have skied this route 4 times previously, and it is a fairly deserted destination with trees, bowls, and great views to different routes. We toured up the tree route above Avalanche Gulch. It was comfortable in the trees and the snow was soft enough to use skins without crampons. A split-boarder was following our track, and we chatted with him a bit. He mentioned this was his first trip on the split-board, and he was only using crampons and shorty skins.  He said he learned to tour watching a video. Wow.  When we come to the steep terrain we used our €œold type€ turns with the longer routes up.  He tried the direct approach and had 3 different downhill slides.  I finally convinced him to use his regular skins with his crampons.  He became a jet tourer; he was fast and soon gone from sight.  It was great to see him learn to use his skins on the split-board.  Later in the afternoon we heard  him yelping as he boarded down through the trees.  Jill yelped back; he stopped and Jill gave him a big cheer and he waved before moving on.

Our climbing route was skiable around the trees, but there is so much more as you go higher.  After climbing 1200 vertical you get out of the trees and there is an open boulevard with a few small trees on either side, plus 2 large bowls, Sun and Powder Bowls.  By the time we reached the boulevard the sun was no longer visible and the clouds had arrived, covering the top third of Mt. Shasta.  If you continue further up Greene Butte, at about 9200 feet you can ski over to the Old Mt. Shasta Ski Park (it was closed in 1978 due to an avalanche).  The new ski area is further south.  If you really want to get some exercise, you can go down and then tour up towards to Shastarama Point.  The snowpack was smooth corn but there was flat light.  The bowls were not the place to be so we skied the edges of the bowls in the large trees with plenty of room for great corn turns.  Jill was right behind me, and when we stopped a third of the way down she said €œthat was great terrain through the treed area€.  I forgot to mention that her boots were worked up in Mammoth, and she has happy feet again.  I still can not convince her to break trail.  The rest of the descent was all tree skiing, but you need to keep skiing to the right to get to Bunny Flat.  Going straight down (which is very tempting) will take you to the snow-covered  Everitt Memorial Highway where you will have to do some X-country skating to get back.  It was a great tour despite the stormy day. ;)