Speaking of Lassen...

[Hindfoot]

All this recent interest in Lassen got me curious, in terms of finding a place to go corn hunting that is do-able for a spring day trip. Previously I had been thinking that Lassen is too far, but Google Maps tells me it is only 3 hours twenty minutes from home, so it's closer than Shasta and scarcely further than my favorite BC spot at three hours, which has the uncertainty of the road being open yet to the TH at 7K. Plus, Lassen seems to have more snow than either, so will be available longer into the Spring.

Am wondering if anyone has any experience with accessing some good higher BC from the park's North Entrance. LVNP site says that the road from the North Entrance is currently open ten miles, as far as the pleasant sounding Devastated Area. From here it looks to be a fairly open slope directly up to Lassen Peak, on a good NE aspect . Has anyone gone into the higher country this way? The South Entrance road is not open as far, but still gets you into pretty high terrain, which looks promising, but going to the south side of the park adds about an hour each way for me, which makes the north side more realistic, if possible.

[Baaahb]

Lots of people access Lassen from the north but I have not.

[bobs]

Devastated Area is the better trailhead for going for the Lassen summit early spring, once the road is open to there (as it is now), which is typically well before the road is open to the other side of the hill. However, (1) Once the road opens even as far as Bumpass on the south side, that's a better trailhead for the peak, in my opinion, and (2) South side has a better variety of options other than Lassen Peak itself (and, arguably, better convenience for variety even on Lassen Peak).

[fogey]

The north side of Lassen has more sustained steep (but not extreme) skiing off the peak and more vertical peak-to-road than the south. My impression is that more people ski the peak from the south because the approach from the north is longer, with more climbing and less obvious route-finding, and because the drive from the Bay Area is shorter (though not by much if you look at it). I have only skied the north side from the top (and made the correspondingly steep climb back up). For years I've wanted to get over to ski the whole north side when there was still snow coverage all the way from the road to the summit--but since my annual trip has been too late (over Memorial Day weekend) I haven't had the chance.

[LightRanger]

http://www.skimountaineer.com/Cascad...hp?name=Lassen

[bobs]

Note that Lassen is a small enough peak that any of the descent lines can be accessed from any side. I've descended the NE face several times after climbing the summit from the south side. You can either re-ascend, or traverse around the peak clockwise. Similarly, it would be perfectly fine to climb up the north ridge from Devastated Area, and then descend the very nice west side, reascend from the south, then do NE face back to Deva-area.

[lightskier]

It is normal for people to come around to the north side when they starting cutting the road on the south.
This year the snow level is about 1,000 feet higher than normal.
Manzanita Lake never got a real snow pack this year so most likely going in thru the devastated area is going
to take much more travel on dirt than normal.
The south has been good and will probably corn up well by this coming weekend, so brokeoff area may be very good.

[Hindfoot]

Thanks to everyone so far. Getting some great responses that give me a pretty good picture of choices. Wondering if anyone knows how far from/above the road access at the Devastated Area any snow cover starts?

[LightRanger]

Thanks to everyone so far. Getting some great responses that give me a pretty good picture of choices. Wondering if anyone knows how far from/above the road access at the Devastated Area any snow cover starts?

See the last few posts here: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ditions-Anyone

Dostie said in the Lassen trip thread that he was going to reconnoiter, so keep an eye on that.

[bergbryce]

I've been perusing TAY and the skimountaineer site recently gathering some info for some upcoming outings. That dude gets after it and I'm very grateful for all of the info he has posted. He's turned me onto many lesser known peaks and some of them I'd like to check out this year, if there is enough snow in a few weeks.

I'm also looking for partners, so check out the dates and lemme know if anyone is interested...

April 17 (evening) April 18th, Lassen. Would like to hit it from the north side but am open to all ideas as I've never skied there. I'd show up in the evening, bivy, ski the next day an have to head home to Tahoe (south shore) that same day.

May 5th -11th/12th. This is pretty wide open but my greatest aspirations include a road trip hitting lots of spots in Northern CA and So Oregon. Lassen, Shasta, McLoughlin, Bailey, Thielson, Oregon Sisters (?) Bend area stuff? Need to be back in Tahoe on the 11th or Bay on the 12th. The sage Ed told me the other day (~1 week ago) there was snow down to Bunny Flat after our last round of snow, but I know it's been warm at Shasta this year too. So many of these objectives might not have much snow down low.

Does anyone know what the snow situation is like up in Oregon? It's warm here and snow is melting fast. I'm not sure if things will hold up there or not. I don't mind some hiking and or biking to get to snow but if it's an excessive amount, maybe this type of trip needs to wait for another, more typical snow year. Open to other ideas too although those volcanoes have some sort of strange draw for me.

thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[LightRanger]

Oregon and Washington got a crapton of snow in February and March. When the ridge built back in and disappointed on our storms, it stopped building so far north like it did in January, so they got hit. There'll still be plenty of stuff on the stratovolcanoes in early May. Brewer Creek was still good on Memorial Day last year, and that's despite not having major snow for months prior. Oregon, even Southern, is going to get snow this week.

Check the Google Earth overlays: http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/earth/

[Matt J]

It has been warm this week and the forecast is more sun in southern Oregon. Night time lows have been in the mid to high 40's, but maybe the high peaks could get some snow if we get a cold snap. I hate to disagree with you LR, but I'd like to see what you're seeing and don't see it.

BB, I've got a few irons in the fire right now to get out and check some stuff out so I'll keep you posted. I might be able to sneak away and join you for a peak or two in early May.

[lightskier]

Figure the snow level on Lassen is at about 6700.
I expect you would have a good mile to 2 miles of hiking to find it from the road at the devastated area.
just guessing though, have not heard of anybody going.

[Hindfoot]

Figure the snow level on Lassen is at about 6700.
I expect you would have a good mile to 2 miles of hiking to find it from the road at the devastated area.
just guessing though, have not heard of anybody going.

Thanks lightskier for addressing my question directly. That seems pretty reasonable to me, especially with all the heat there's been in the past week or so. If the snow level is not that far away now, it will be soon. Too bad there is no real time sat imagery available. If we have to load up and hike quite a ways it becomes more realistic to drive all the way around to the south side of the park where the road goes much higher and we can likely skin up from the road. Maybe Craig will take a look at the north side in his recon, and report.

[jibmaster]

Kind of hard to tell where the road is, but here is some real time satellite imagery (almost - photo taken several times/day).

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/imag...D=ca-north-000

According to this:


-there is still snow on the ground at the Devastated Area
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/earth/