Recent Trips to Lassen or Shasta?

[Hindfoot]

Thinking of a trip to Lassen, NE side or Shasta somewhere, for some corny tele skiing. Has anyone been either place in the last week or so, or otherwise have any relevant information to impart about the likelihood and location of acceptable corn skiing in these places?

[jfb]

I was up on the south side last weekend. The road is still closed and will remain so this weekend but I think they will open it after that. We had to walk in past Sulfur Works to get to some good turns on 600 or 700 vf of styrofoam and corn on the north aspect of Diamond Peak (9,000'). Some others were going to ride bicycles to Bumpass to ski Ski Heil but I did not see them go up or afterward. It is much bonier than usual, but still lots of good lines >1000 vf to be had even on the south side. I will try to get a photo up today.

Lassen and Ski Heil from to road just past Diamond Peak.


Brokeoff from Surfur Works

[jibmaster]

North side of Shasta last week

[PeteyPhil]

Be aware that Lassen Hwy is totally car-free this weekend, from just past Manzanita lake to the Kohn Ya Mah Nee visitor center, which makes anything without a bike somewhat impractical. From the park website: "Lassen National Park Highway (Hwy 89) is closed at the Loomis Ranger Station on the north side of the park and at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at the south side of the park. We anticipate opening this road by May 23rd, weather permitting."

[shoestring]

Anyone ski Lassen this weekend?

[Hindfoot]

Be aware that Lassen Hwy is totally car-free this weekend, from just past Manzanita lake to the Kohn Ya Mah Nee visitor center, which makes anything without a bike somewhat impractical. From the park website: "Lassen National Park Highway (Hwy 89) is closed at the Loomis Ranger Station on the north side of the park and at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center at the south side of the park. We anticipate opening this road by May 23rd, weather permitting."

Thanks PP for the warning about the road closure. I also saw that on the LVNP website. Probably does not matter as the low temperatures are not forecast to be low enough to produce much corn before the road is to open. Will watch NOAA and hope for a reinstatement of the requisite cycles of corn-producing lows, hopefully within a week or so, before the snow melts too much more.

Somewhere here someone mentioned that Lassen, in some previous year, put an end to back country skiing to prevent trail erosion where skiers were booting up the just exposed, soft, wet trails. Anyone know more about this? Could not find anything about a skiing ban on the Lassen website.

[B__]

I'm planning to hit the NE side of Shasta this Friday ...

[bobs]

Somewhere here someone mentioned that Lassen, in some previous year, put an end to back country skiing to prevent trail erosion where skiers were booting up the just exposed, soft, wet trails. Anyone know more about this? Could not find anything about a skiing ban on the Lassen website.

Lassen is closed to all access during trail rebuilding, in order to not expose visitors or workers to rockfall from workers or visitors. Details are here. Since much of the trail is on a ridge, it is possible that the mountain will be closed for trail work while there is still good skiing to be had. At times when snow cover near trails was thin, I've seen rangers there telling people to either stay on the trails or stay way off of them, but I don't recall mountain closures due to concern for trail damage.


And please report on Shasta conditions when you get back, B__!

[Hindfoot]

Lassen is closed to all access during trail rebuilding, in order to not expose visitors or workers to rockfall from workers or visitors. Details are here. Since much of the trail is on a ridge, it is possible that the mountain will be closed for trail work while there is still good skiing to be had. At times when snow cover near trails was thin, I've seen rangers there telling people to either stay on the trails or stay way off of them, but I don't recall mountain closures due to concern for trail damage.

Thanks bobs, for the clarification, the information and the link to LVNP site with info on off trail travel restrictions. Looks like when that is in effect it completely closes the good parts of the NE side of Lassen. It's unclear from their site whether off trail travel is currently restricted. It's possible, I suppose, that a call to the park,may actually put me in touch with someone who knows something about this, though it's never happened on other attempts to get information that was not already on their website. Watching the nightly low temperatures over there in the meantime.

[bobs]

Sure, call the ranger station. As far as I know, however, the whole peak is open, except when the whole peak is closed. (Looking at the NOAA snow maps, personally, I'd be more interested in Shasta from around now forward.)

[Hindfoot]

Sure, call the ranger station. As far as I know, however, the whole peak is open, except when the whole peak is closed. (Looking at the NOAA snow maps, personally, I'd be more interested in Shasta from around now forward.)

You're probably right about snow amounts at Shasta over Lassen. For me Lassen is a shorter drive, mainly because some main routes go directly there, while Shasta is closer, straight line, but the roads take the long way around, especially if I want to go to the north side of Shasta, which Google Maps puts at over 5 hours to Brewer Creek TH, while they claim to the Devastated Area at Lassen it's only 3.5 hours. When I went over to the DA at Lassen a few days before you all did, it took me 4 hours each way, and I was trying to make good time. It may follow that driving to the north side of Shasta may be up to 6 hours for me. That would make for a pretty long one day trip.

Watching both Lassen and Shasta on NOAA forecasts, Lassen has had consistently colder nights than Shasta, at comparable elevations, so the snow may be sooner to form corn at Lassen, if there's enough left.

On the other hand, the half hour hike from the road at Lassen to skin-able snow could be at least twice that by now. Don't know what the situation is at Shasta, but trailheads, are mostly higher, I think, so there could be less hiking to get to snow. Hope we will get a report from B_.

[SnowyMonk]

Did Lassen this past weekend. A lot of folks up there. From what I gathered you are allowed to be on Lassen if you stay on the snow or the trail. We skinned up to the ridge from the parking lot then hiked up the summer trail. A quick hike for some fun turns back to the car. A noticeable amount of snow had melted between Sat & Sun... and I'd guess that we were skiing on a like a foot of snow most of the time.

But the warm weather enabled us to have fun on the ponds at the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ispnsHktg

I'd guess that they are having some personnel shortages as the entrance gates were not manned when we entered, and we only saw one ranger drive by this whole weekend.... so I'm still not sure exactly what is closed and what isn't. But staying on the snow or the summer trail makes sense to me.

[B__]

Nice skim, SnowyMonk.

NE side of Shasta was good on Friday. Skinnable, continuous snow was reached about 1/2 mile away from the TH, easily less than an hour's walk from the car. Coverage was still plump mid-mountain and higher. Fun cups of any significant depth have yet to form, so the skiing is still relatively smooth. Turns should be good for a little while as long as there is a nightly freeze and fair weather. Glacial (blue) ice is still well buried along the usual paths. It is still possible to cross from the Hotlum over to the Wintun (at the ~ 12K level) without needing to step on rock.

[revloren]

^That's just about what I wanted to hear. I'll be hiking and camping out of Brewer Creek next week for a few days.

[SnowyMonk]

Good work B! Yeah I was checking this post for updates from you. Don't know when I can make it happen, but I've gotta get up there ASAP.