7000' of corn.
Attachment 166823
Printable View
7000' of corn.
Attachment 166823
Too early / cold for north facing turns above 11,000', FYI. Sounds like south side is prime, though social.
Last week, I was scoping out the northeastern chutes off of Shastina above Whitney. I think they and a northside descent may be next year's goal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Incalescent
A buddy (that's telek, incalescent) skied angel wings (off Shastina's north side) on Friday and reported excellent conditions.Quote:
Originally Posted by AKbruin
Clear Creek was hit or miss Sunday. Sastrugi at top, almost suncupping in middle and need to connect things in the bottom. Mile or so hike from trailhead to snow.
Headed to North Gate.
Some patches of snow 5 minutes up the trail.
Continuous snow 2 miles later at 8000'.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7720/...c63fef36_c.jpg
The North Gate Chutes were looking good.
Gotta come back for those lines.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7776/...6d250a6c_b.jpg
Tried to go light by not bringing crampons.
Dumb idea.
Didn't get very far with just my skins.
Everything was very firm.
Hopefully, the North Gate Chutes hold.
Gotta go back!
More pics
https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=117...%205%2C%202015
hit the main trinity chute yesterday, lots of tracks and bootprints all over that side of the mountain. best corn snow down lower, terrible skiing on misery hill...trinity chute was average snow condition.
Should anyone be heading to the north side routes this weekend, here's a little beta, based on our trip up and down the Bolam Gully last weekend. Bring a 2nd axe or whippit.
http://goldenincalescent.blogspot.co...lly-climb.html
https://www.tetongravity.com/images/...148__forum.jpghttps://www.tetongravity.com/images/...161__forum.jpghttps://www.tetongravity.com/images/...175__forum.jpghttps://www.tetongravity.com/images/...180__forum.jpghttps://www.tetongravity.com/images/...513__forum.jpg
https://www.tetongravity.com/images/...(4)__forum.jpg
Nice. ^^^
That sounds like my standard Avy Gulch Trip: Firm to scary-firm snow (or wind-textured crap) about 11k, 500-800k of corn above Lake Helen, and nice corn turning to goop to Bunny Flat. As far as I'm concerned, anybody who gets more than 4,000k of good snow on Shasta in the spring has had a wildly successful trip.
Coverage on Lassen today was almost identical to Memorial Day weekend last year....but no open ponds to skim. N-E facing was silky delight!! smooth from a couple inches and wind from Friday. the SWish face of Lassen overlooking the parking lot is a few sunny warm days from being bare-- but it looks to be cold and possibly snowy this week!
Yes! Skiing quite well right now. Worth the drive up for sure. NE bootpack is pretty quick too. Get it!Quote:
Originally Posted by Lone Star
is the road through open yet on lassen?
Opened Sunday 5/3Quote:
Originally Posted by powfiend
road temporarily closed, country club on lassen for the RV campers and the whole mountain is white again!
Gonna go poke around Shasta next Wed & Thurs, anyone else be around?
Anyone headed to Brewer Creek over MMD weekend? Looks like I'm solo this year. Planning on leaving Sacto on Thu evening or Fri morning. I have room in the truck as long as you promise not to kill me.
How much snow did Lassen and Shasta get out of these last few shots of winter? Is it going to take a few days to turn back to corn like last month or will it be a quick turn back to the norm?
I attempted to summit this past weekend from the Brewer creek/ H-W ridge route.
Brewer creek is accessible to the last switchback of the main trailhead road for high clearance cars. (We cut trees and shoveled out a bunch of the snow patches. Had four guys with shovels and saws in the truck and figured we'd rather work than haul gear farther). The slightly higher / smaller jeep trail on the west side of Brewer creek is NOT PASSABLE at all. Major tree fall and deep, continuous snow.
It snowed thurs/friday. Conditions cleared for a summit attempt on Saturday. About 2-6 inches of windbuff depending on how high you go. We got to 12,800ft when you have to cut across the ridge to the glacier for the final bootpack. There was about 6 inches of windbuff on the frozen solid glacier. It was not enough snow to hold your weight, but just enough to "pad" the ice and prevent you from kicking into it. Resulted in extremely poor climbing conditions as windbuff slid out from under you on the solid ice.
We turned back. The ski down was pretty good as long as you stuck to the buff. Lower down it was soggy.
Looks like weather is going to be variable and cold; there's no corn to be had yet until this stupid late-season cold-but-not-a-lot-of-snow-because-winter-didn't-get-the-memo-it's-supposed-to-happen-earlier period passes.
http://i.imgur.com/HoU2dZL.jpg
Awesome!
Thanx for the hard work.
Excellent conditions update. Thanks. Debating between Brewer and hiking from the Devastated Area on the other Peak on Saturday morning. Useful data point.
This weather putting suncups/melting on hold is gonna make for a good June.
Had a vastly different experience on the tourist route this past weekend. The skiing on Sunday was just about the most consistent 5,000 vert of skiing I've ever experienced on Shasta. From the Red Banks to Horse Camp was a velvet smooth carpet. Top 1,000 had a layer of wettish snow on top of a slightly forgiving base with a just a few spots of ice chunks. Next 2,000 on skiers left was sublime mini golf with wet corn on sponge. No land mines anywhere. Final 1,000 was just great, again far skiers left, opposite from the normal climbing route. You can ski / bushwhack another 500 feet down the gully to cut off some of the hike to car. Camped at the lake Saturday night and there was no wind, but light wet snow on the ascent, giving way to sunshine / clear sky!
Your non-tax dollars at work, eh? Brewer creek trailhead road.
http://i.imgur.com/9nDDSgW.jpg
Skied in the Lassen neighborhood Sunday. 2-4 dense, dense inches on top of a damp and sometimes posthole-y base. Skied like a heavy almost-corn except when the sun came out and slowed it down considerably. Enough wind with the storm to smooth everything out, N through E aspects looking better than a week ago!
Thanks dude. Moved from UT to JF I see.
Any thoughts on the weather this weekend for either Lassen or Shasta? It's looking more like mountain biking weather than skiing weather.
Actually kind of looking like corn skiing weather, honestly. At least on solar aspects. Partly cloudy with highs in the 50s on Sat-Sun?
Maybe I'm just wishful thinking though.
Saturday
A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 54.
Saturday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 27.
Sunday
Some thunder is also possible. Mostly sunny, with a high near 51.
I'll be in the S of J this weekend ... but opting for Ashland bike shuttles on hero track instead of soggy snow :D
Word is that Brown Mountain singletrack has too much downed trees to ride, too bad.
Honestly, riding bikes in Ashland is never, ever a bad idea. Two places I like to eat and drink in Ashland: (1) Mix Sweet Shop for coffee and baked goods; (2) Standing Stone Brewery for beer and food (I wasn't sober when I ate there, but I recall it being very good). The brewery in Weed is a funky place worth visiting too.
Will probably try Lassen on Sunday. Might have my kid with me.
Soggy snow? You just need the right tool for the job, i.e. a snowboard. :) Shasta Sun, Ashland Mon for me.
From the highway it appears Lassen lost a ton of snow this week. Since it was socked in and cool I'm assuming it was raining all the way to the top for most of this week's weathe
South side is still looking great from Almanor
Skied like six inches of pudding yesterday. Hiking trail was mostly covered, so I booted the entire way.
Also, Lassen has been emasculated! What happened to the Summit Dong?
Any reports of conditions. How's the Brewer Creek road looking lately.
Looks like hard freezes at night and some on and off snow showers.
Probably in some gov auction soon! Keep an eye out ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by AKbruin
Attachment 167598
Attachment 167599
Was up there this past weekend. Hotlum Wintun route. Brewer creek road is fine all the way up to the trail head.
No sun cups above 9,000 feet or so. Camped at 10,500.
We got some crap weather. Sat night wind picked up then Sun was full blast. Sustained 40-50 mph. 70 gusts probably. Topped out at 10:00. Waited until 12:00 but nothing softened up at all. Made for an interesting decent.
Should be good for anyone else that partakes. Coverage is ideal.
Was up last weekend too. Avalanche gulch. Snow starts at Horse Camp. Summited saturday and rode from about 150 feet from the top. Not too bad on that side as far as softening.
Went up above lake Helen on Sunday towards the trinity Chutes but pulled the plug after it appeared the corn wasnt going to form. Got a bit over 11 K of riding in two days :biggrin:
Went back.
To the Gravel Creek TH.
Sorry for the link, but scroll down past my TR from last week:
http://www.backcountrytalk.earnyourt...sen-2015/page6
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/470/1...deb63628_b.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/396/1...f47e55ef_b.jpg
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8766/...629b0ec1_b.jpg
All the pics
https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=117...%203%2C%202015