Mt Shasta - Hotlum Wintun Ridge

Drew and I returned to the Hotlum Wintun this year, one of the nicest ski routes I know of. With a cold night and low freezing levels forecast for the day, we decided for a later then usual start, left the cars at 7:45. We were able to park within 1 mile of the trailhead and cutting through the woods came upon the trailhead in about 10 minutes. The amount of snow seemed very similar to when we skied this route on July 3rd last year! Temps were cool and there was a consistent breeze, things didn't really seem to be softening.

We reached 12,500 feet at around 1:30 and things hadn't softened much. The route gets steeper after crossing the ridge here so we decided to hang out for a bit and see if things would warm up. No dice, after an hour or so it seemed to be getting colder if anything so we decided to head down.

The top 2,000-2500 feet was pretty firm, filling loosening skiing. Around 10,000 feet the skiing got pretty good and the lower turns were very nice. Perhaps we should have just lapped down lower :-)

Hitting tree line, the route right in front of us

Me skiing down in the nice snow on the lower parts of the route.

Drew

Our route down.

Shasta a year later

Hanging out in Weed watching the Detroit/Cleveland game. Checked out Steward Mineral Springs today. Check out the difference a year makes:

Bunny Flats - 5/20/2006

Bunny Flats - 5/20/2007

Lassen South Face

For our finally, Rick and I did a quick ski on the S face of Lassen today before Rick headed home and I headed for Weed (CA that is) and Mt Shasta.

Looking at yesterday's ski

Rick

Rick skiing down the south face

Eagle Peak - Lassen National Park

Today Rick and I climbed Eagle Peak from the summit trail parking lot on Lassen. It's a mellow little climb to a nice N/NE facing bowl on the top of the peak.

Looking S, still a lot of snow that could be skied!

Shasta hovering in the sky

Lassen Car Shuttle

Today Rick D and I did the Lassen summit/car shuttle ski. This is a great trip, with the road through the park opening today (actually, it was open yesterday afternoon when I arrived too) you can park a car at the Devestated Area, ~4000 feet below the summit, then drive up ~2000 feet to the summit trail, climb ~2000 feet to the summit and ski back to the car. We ended up having to hike down about ~400 verticle feet on dirt, so ~3600 feet of skiing for 2000 feet of climbing. It's a great run, nice and steep right off the summit and then opens up for some great spring corn turns.

Rick reaches the summit

Our ski run below. We went straight down, then veered right to the edge of the trees and followed that down to the road

Rick heading down

Looking back up at the NE side of the mountain, a CLASSIC!

One Last Ski in the Chutes

Sebastian and I took an early AM run in the Chutes @ Mt. Rose Ski Area today. Sadly, this was only the second time I skied the Chutes this season, once the day they opened (they were only open for about a week this year) and this time with Sebastian.

Walking up, not enough snow to skin

The very last patch of snow on the way out.