Lassen / Shasta Conditions Anyone?

[Shug]

nice, thanks all. Will be up there Fri/Sat, will gravel bike and Super73.

[fleaches]

Great snow on both the SE and NE sides today!

For anyone interested road is plowed to Helen Lake

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[Shug]

Lassen > parked the bikes at Lake Helen Saturday. Skied south through chutes seen from road. Scree walk after dropping west to get to line. 11:30 was a little late but still skied well. W-SW was still transitioning and a little hard.

[fleaches]

A couple of pics from Shasta last weekend.

Skied Hotlum Wintun on Saturday in superb conditions. Super long approach from the road, but we camped at treeline on Friday night. At the moment you can ski down brewer creek almost to the car and walk for like 5-10 minutes.

Skied Shastina on Sunday. The very top didn't really soften, but in exchange we had perfect corn from just below the summit until we dropped back into avy gulch. West face also looked great.

Avy gulch was hilariously crowded, as expected, but both hotlum wintun and shastina were practically deserted.



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[tang]

Thx fletches… in case you see this, for hotlum winturn, did you park back at military pass road? And long approach from there but on exit you were able to get pretty to car on skis? Aiming for there tmrw night, to ski Fri AM. Thx!

[fleaches]

Thx fletches… in case you see this, for hotlum winturn, did you park back at military pass road? And long approach from there but on exit you were able to get pretty to car on skis? Aiming for there tmrw night, to ski Fri AM. Thx!

Yeah we couldn't make it very far past the turn off from military pass, although it might be slightly better this week. We probably walked for a half hour or so down the road and went off trail when it made a big oxbow. We were able to start skinning shortly after that.

On the way out we skied down the creekbed to within a 5-10 min walk to the car. The creekbed might be marginal now so you could also retrace your route up and the walk wouldn't be that much longer.

Here's the beginning of our route in case it's helpful

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[tang]

^^^ bingo, thx brother!

[Dark Energy]

Fleaches way to get after it and thanks for sharing some stoke. Skied Lassen on Sunday from the Devastation Area. Counted about 2 dozen skiers on the hill. I remain unable to post pictures from my desktop, but can report lots of tracks skier's right of the boot pack. Skier's left of the boot pack was smooth, untracked and well worth the park entrance fee. Suncups on the "flats" before treeline were managable and the snow not too sticky. Could almost still get back to the car with skis on, but can't really call it skiing. More reasonable maggots probably would have just walked the last 1/4 mile. Then headed over to Shasta. Lots and lots of big and small deer on 89 at dusk enroute. Yikes, and apologies to the line of cars behind me but I have a thing about striking deer when on a ski safari. Got to the turn-off for military pass road and stopped to see if the Shasta Climbing Rangers had updated the distance to Brewers Creek TH. No internet connection, so continued and stopped in McCloud to check. No change in the distance reported. Too much for a single day assault on the HW, so proceeded to the full parking lot at Bunny Flats. It then rained hard, or at least it seemed that way attempting to sleep inside my car. Monday avoided the crowds in Avi Gulch with a plan to check out the Hidden Valley and Shastina. Ended up just skinning to the base of the Casaval Ridge for a pleasant untracked and suncup free ski down Giddy Giddy. It softened up about noon from the prior night's rain that had put down a frozen crust. Below ~8,200 ft., the suncups were huge and the snow was sticky and unsupportive.

[jibmaster]

Watch your back out there... Looks like there are wolves in the Shasta area!
During the first quarter of 2025, CDFW confirmed the upgrade of three Areas of Wolf Activity in Shasta, Tehama, and Lassen counties to Pack status. The three packs are the Ashpan pack (eastern Shasta County), the Ishi pack (eastern Tehama County), and the Tunnison pack (central Lassen County).
https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation...f/Location-Map

[tang]

Skied H-W on Shasta on Fri (5/30). Got in 9 ish Thurs night, parked 3 miles out from brewer creek trailhead. (Prob open further now.) Hiked over mixed dirt and snow to TH then switched to skins. (Coulda switched earlier.) Skinned in up to 8500’ in the scrubby trees and cowboy camped. Started back up around 5am. Could skin with ski crampons to 12.5k. Was hot, no wind! Booter was exhausting, put boot cramps on but didn’t really need, soft enough for purchase but also rarely punched in deep. Skied off top around noon. A little earlier would’ve prob been a bit better but honestly it skied great - 3-4” soft on top, then firm enough under to not bog down. Just some small roller balls but no sheeting. Some grabby spots lower but still pretty darn good. Collected pads and bags at camp and then skied adjacent to creek most of way to the car. Two other groups went up/down the east side. A few more came up from Av Gulch, but fewer than I’d have guessed. Driving in, the north side via North Gate was questionable - looked like no clear path connecting summit to Bolam glacier top, but not certain. Glad we did the brewer route.
Great day! Whatta mountain!
Thx again fleaches and others for the intel.

[bobz]

Anybody doing Lassen this weekend? I'll be there & camping at the south entrance. Road is open to Bumpass, so a short walk to the Helen trailhead. It's supposed to cool off a bit.

[bobz]

Good stuff still at Lassen! South side was nice, though soft already at 10am. As is usual this time of season, it was the west face that had the goods, fine firm corn snow (if a little lumpy) at noon.

[byates1]

Nice Bob!!

[bobz]

Surprisingly firm today on the NE face; I’m used to that slope being slop in June.


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