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Trip Report: Mt. Lassen, NE Face
By ccrossen | May 19, 2009
Mt. Lassen (10,457′) has been on the hit-list for a long time now, one of the iconic California volcanoes that relatively few people get after, despite amazing reports. Andy and I had been tossing around the idea of hitting it this spring; we’d driven by it on the way to Shasta and gotten the NE line stuck in our heads; it’s a quick trip from Tahoe, and snow, road openings, child-care, etc. all lined up. We lucked out, hit it pretty much right on, except for extremely high temps, which made the ski/hike out through the flats and trees a bit of a slog. Other than that, we skied primo corn, as good as it gets, on a beautiful long pitch that only a handful of people had hit recently. Overall, despite a few areas, we had perfectly smooth, buttery turns all the way down the steeps.
Lassen’s highlight is the excellent climb-to-ski ratio, one of those peaks where half-way down you can’t believe you’re still skiing and still looking at another couple thousand down to the truck. You definitely get that feeling that the climb is easy, and you’re getting way more skiing than you deserve. This aspect is what we love about spring skiing here: it’s warm, pleasant, and perfect for the Cali-ride.
Lassen is no Shasta. It’s a lot shorter and way smaller, and the skiing on the NE Face is comparable, but generally steeper than the classic West Face corn shot on Shasta. The NE Face boasts about a 2500′ or so shot off the summit; it’s all direct vert, straight down from the 40-degree or so summit to the flats and ski back out. The huge difference is the crowds. Last time we went to Shasta, Andy and I experienced quite the junk-show, with tons of people pulling into Bunny Flat at 1 am, trying to sort out how to work crampons, axes, packs, etc. Not to disparage Shasta, it is what it is when you head up Avalanche Gulch… but instead of hundreds of people on a weekend shot to Lassen, we saw five other skiers, total, and only three others while on route. We like that kindof number, it’s part of what makes skiing big peaks so alluring and special, not that Shasta isn’t fun as hell and that I’ve probably had the best corn run of my life on the West Face, but there’s a lot to be said for not as big and no people.
We left Truckee in the late afternoon, stopped by the Backcountry to hook our friend Shawn up with crampons, then hit the road north. We made a wrong turn just outside Susanville and ended up adding some extra time, but it was worth the view of the SE side of Lassen from the Lake Almanor area.
We parked it in the Emigrant Pass lot around 7:30, had a burrito, hydrated, and then hung out scoping the climb, watching shooting stars, talking smack about how little skiing we actually did these days, but actually not that bad, and wondering how early we should wake up as temps were forecasted to shoot up 10 degrees above normal - inland areas were expected to hit 100+ the next day.
The key to skiing the NE Face, if you aren’t a true-hard man, is to wait until the park service plows the road up to Emigrant Pass, which puts you at about 6,450′, right at the bottom of the Devastated Area, the blast/avalanche path from the 1915 eruption. While the approach from the South side is shorter and less steep, the skiing is too. The NE Face gives you the most bang for your buck, and when the road’s open to the pass, it let’s you do the approach/climb/ski in about 8 miles roundtrip, versus 18 miles when the road to the pass is closed and you start at Manzanita Lake. We’re pretty soft, so we opted for later in the spring when the road was open.
After a nice night in the bags, we woke up, had some food and coffee, and hit the trail around 5:45. While Lassen has a decent snowpack this year (Rt. 89 through the park will not open for another couple of weeks), we hiked by dead reckoning through the lower pine forest just southeast of the main gorge that flows down and out from the NE side (the Devastated Area is not completely devastated) until we managed to find a few tongues of snow that we could gradually link up to reach the actual blast path. Once out of the trees, the approach is very straight forward; what you see is what you get.
There are a number of different lines up Lassen. This trip was our first, so we don’t have a lot of experience, but it seems that the easiest route, and perhaps the fastest when the snow covers all the way down to the Emigrant Pass parking area, is to travel NW of the gorge, working your way up the NW ridge until you hit the main summit ridge and work your way south across the top snowfields to the summit. This route is considerably less steep, though it is exposed to a lot of potential rock fall up top. This time around, the NW side of the gorge was mostly dirt and rock, so we went for the direct route, straight up the main face.It took us about an hour and a half to get to the beginning of the steeps, where we strapped on our crampons and began the long booter, kicking into someone’s previous steps for the top.
The day was already very warm by 7:00, and fortunately we had a nice breeze down low to help cool things down. The warm temps set loose rocks here and there, which was the biggest danger on the climb. All told, it’s relatively easy, no ice axe required going direct, though it does get fairly steep the last 500 yards to the top. Andy easily outpaced Shawn and me, climbing straight up the direct line to the summit. We had met up with a group of three guys from San Francisco, and ended up following their route up and across the lower part of the main face to the SE ridge. This section had a nice steep rollover section where you definitely did not want to fall. No ice axe required, but if you’re just starting out, you may want to bring one along if you want some extra protection.
Once Shawn and I gained the ridge, we watched Andy peak-out, a great view of the nice steep line up the final triangular shape snowfield that leads to the summit. At this point, our route climbed out the main ridge until a section of rock wall forced the climb back out onto the main face, where it climbed up and under the rock walls, finally to the triangular snowfield that led to the top. Shawn opted out for the summit, so I decided to push onward and meet up with Andy. The route looked a little puckery, given the relatively firm snow we had just crossed; I expected more of the same with a lot more pitch and exposure. The going was slow. I opted for an axe and ski pole setup, and gradually worked my way upward. Climbing just below the rock walls, the snow was horrible, mucky slop that ended in a post-hole every step. Nice for security though.
After a final push, I made it, hooked up with Andy, hugged, cried, laughed, and checked out the incredible view of Shasta to the North. Zero wind up top. We had some water, took photos, and buckled down and in beside the crazy-looking summit phalus, reminiscent of some glasnost-era memorial to the fallen.
There was snow all the way to the top, and we had a decent line straight down - only problem was the top 20 feet of snow was unfrozen muck. I dropped in, suffered through the first two turns, then let it looses as the steep just carried me down the beautifully smooth top section. Ideal corn turns, an inch of soft melt on top, firm but grabby beneath - just effortless, throwing the biggest, arcing corn spray for each radius of each turn. it was hard to stop and wait as the slope just kept going and going and going. We met up with Shawn and proceeded to ski the face in a few more sections - and this is where that feeling of “wow, we are skiing a lot of vert here” kicked in, seemingly endless, great snow, perfect steep pitch, amazing all around.
Until we hit the bottom part of the steeps and every aspect turned to grabby slop. The bottom was way too warm, done an hour or so ago, and we took our time negotiating our route back down, keeping the skis flat and forward, protecting the knees and body from a smackdown power-slam. We arrived back at the car by 10:30. Getting out was a little tricky - once again, you hit the trees and it’s all dead-reckoning, unless you’re smart and take a compass reading or use a GPS. We did neither, and ended up splitting into two groups; I made it back easily somehow, exiting the forest right at the closure gate near the parking area while Shawn and Andy hiked a ways past the parking area, and had to climb back up and out to it for an extra 20 minutes of fun.Not much time left this season, especially after this week of very high temps; go get it, or put it on the calendar.
All photos/vid, Andy Scott.
Some video:
More beta:
Lassen National Park
Ski Mountaineer.com
TetonAT.com
Topics: Skiing |