Lassen Peak and 4th of July Chutes
On Wednesday I head back to Reno, and along the way will meet up with Mike Scott and Cale Rogers for an attempt at one of the 50 Classic Lines in North America, Terminal Cancer Couloir. Just off of Interstate 80 near Elko, NV in the Ruby Mountains, this beauty makes perfect sense to line up while driving back to Reno. Plus, just like I ended last years Ski Mountaineer season with Mike Scott, better late than never, I get to open it this years with him, along with the addition of my great friend Cale Rogers. This should be fun, and I am excited to the extent that I finally felt compelled enough to write about the end of last years season. Below are the trip reports from Lassen Peak and the Fourth of July Chutes.
Lassen Peak:
Back in June my buddy Mike and I skied a couple of late season lines in California. Though the 2020 season was nothing special in regards to snow totals, we got enough late season snow that skiing was an option all the way into mid/late June. After returning from my Cascade Volcano ski trip, I just couldn’t quite hang the skis up yet. My favorite thing to do in the world is to ski a long descent, only to end up at the base where it is 70 degrees and sunny. In the US, this is unique to the West Coast, and why it is my favorite place to be a ski mountaineer. So with skiing still on my mind, I asked my buddy Mike if he would like to give Lassen a go. I love skiing with Mike, a light hearted New Hampshire guy that moved to Tahoe after college, we seem to have a lot in common and see life in a similar, comical, way. He said yes, and it was a go.
With full on summer heat and sun in Reno, I packed up my mountaineering gear in shorts and tank top and picked Mike up on Sunday afternoon (June . Mike is quite the chef so he prepared a couple pizzas for us (crucial for the next day!) and we drove in my car about two and half hours to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The drive is quite easy from Reno. You head north on 395 all the way to Susanville, Ca, and then make the remainder of the drive through the beautiful Northern California evergreen forests. The road is a tunnel through pine trees and its not until about the last twenty minutes that you finally see the beautiful volcano, Lassen Peak, and its skiable NW and NE faces. At 10,457ft, this cone-shaped beauty stands proud as the highest peak between Lake Tahoe and Mount Shasta. Uniquely white compared to the green sea that it rises from, Lassen is easily seen from Californias Central Valley, and is one of the iconic Cascade Volcanoes.
As we got near the park, we started eyeing up camping options near the entrance and continued into the Park to do a little scoping for the morning. Going into these things, I always like knowing exactly where I am going to park, how much time it takes from camp, and the what the weather is looking like the day before and what it will be the day of (these things don’t always happen but I sure love when they do). I am a little obsessive, but it helps me manage the risks and calms me down. After finding the lot for the next morning, and getting eyes on our line, we drove back out of the Park to a NFS dirt road and pulled into camp for the night. It had just snowed lightly up on Lassen, and it had rained lightly down low where we were. We got out of the car to set up camp and I asked Mike, “Hey, are you chewing something super minty or do you smell any mint??” Indeed, we had just pulled into a meadow of fresh mint, and the whole area was freshened with a misty mint smell. Quite beautiful, its these little things that really pull the trip together.
The next morning we woke up at about 7am. Later than we would usually start, but the temps were actually cool, and we needed some extra sunlight to soften up our descent. We had a quick bite then hopped in the car and drove to our start point at the Devastated Area. Its a little tight for about a mile and then you pop out into the wide open terrain with views of Lassen’s north side. It is absolutely stunning. The pumice and sands of the lower elevations are contrasted with some snowfields and vibrantly green manzanita, all set before the huge white slopes of Lassen. We both took a second to break and stare at the beauty, and to assess our lines, both up, and down. The line is pretty straightforward with a couple options.
In this photo: Mike Scott with Lassen Peak in the background.
We decided it would be best to avoid the sluff on the NE slopes and to go for the NW slope instead. So we kept skinning towards the NW slope, then straight up the open slope towards the steeper uppers of Lassen, ultimately switching to bootpack and ice axe for the final pitch. This final climb was fun, and a bit more technical than some of the other options, but it was also faster and I really enjoyed being on hands and feet climbing to the summit. I have a great image in my head of Mike making the final push towards the top. Ice axe in hand, steep slope below, it was really awesome to watch from above as my friend just hammered up this monster of a peak. I think it was his focus that drew me in, and his face was a beaming reminder of some of the reasons we do this..determination, focus, exhileration, all of it. It builds self-confidence and minimizes the chaos of the average world. The exhaustion, fear, early mornings, long days, and all the planning, are well worth the reward.
Mike joined me beneath the summit at a large rock band above the NW slope that we planned to ski. Standing up here was spectacular. Full sun and almost no wind, we had clear views of Mt. Shasta, and the snow surface was a perfect California corn. Mike is an excellent skier so I offered him to go first on the descent so that I could take photos and videos of him skiing. Without hesitation, he said something cliche like “dropping,” and started carving beautiful turns right off the summit ridge. We shared a series of figure eight turns and skied the 3,000vft cornfield all the way back down to the Devastated Area. Back to 65 and sunny, we hung out in the lot for a minute and ate some food. In the meantime, my friend Mike from my avalanche education course pulled into the lot and we realized that it was him that we had heard hootin’ and hollerin’ while splitboarding the NE slope. We watched him set off a big sluff run and were happy the person was down safely. Niche sport or small world? Both. It was great to share the mountain with both Mikes that day.
Lake Tahoe, Fourth of July Chutes:
I often use the phrase, “It’s a great day for a Great Day,” and on June 14th Mike Scott and I snuck in one more Great Day (for a backcountry day). After Lassen, I was stoked to ski another line with Mike, and this time we kept it even more local, and planned for multiple lines on Tahoe’s west shore, known as the Fourth of July chutes. Facing north and directly off of the Pacific Crest, these short, steep, chutes, hold snow well into the summer, hence the name. Like a lot of the west shore lines, they can be long approaches in the middle of the winter, but once spring arrives, the roads start to melt out, and with the help of a bicycle, your day can become a lot more enjoyable.
We showed up to Barker Pass Road just outside of Homewood, CA at about 8am and started pedaling our bikes with ski’s on our backs. I love this part of the lake. The trees are huge and many of them are plastered with some psychedelic green lichen. The weather was great this day too, as it usually is in California, and the vibes were nice and high. This trip is nothing technical and is very easy to plan out, so with little stress and the summer sun above, we kept cruising on our bikes for a couple of miles before we chucked them in the woods and hit the Ellis Peak Trail up to the top of the Fourth of July Chutes.
Once we got out of treeline and above the chutes, we analyzed the different options, weighing in on which ones we thought had a enough coverage and were worth our time. We decided on three of them and started working our way towards the southern end of the ridge. We were lucky enough to have a chilly night before, and equally as lucky to have the strong sun around during the day to soften the snow surface into a nice California corn. As we got near the first chute, I noticed a nice little out cropping to stand on to film Mike skiing. He agreed to go first, and from there the days fun had commenced.
Skiing perfectly controlled turns down the chute, it was pretty damn beautiful to watch Mike just cruise it slow and steady with Lake Tahoe in the background. I was so stoked to go next, but at the same time, it was just great to watch from this angle. Either way, the day was getting off to a fine start, and we were just getting started. I radioed down to Mike and let him know I was going to ski down, but really, I could have just stayed there and taken in the moment for what felt like hours.
Who am I kidding, time to ski, I walked over to the chute, clicked in, and had a nice hoot-n-holler all the way to the bottom where I met up with Mike. From there, we decided to move further down the wall and take another run, which was a little more wide open but still great. After this run, the option that made most sense was to re-ski the chute we skied first, then move on the next one, and egress out from there, creating a nice loop. At this point I let Mike know my plan…I had to do a naked run on the first chute. It was about 55/60 degrees out, and the famous BN (Butt Naked) was calling my name. It’s an incredible feeling of freedom, I suggest trying it. Anyway, we climbed back up, and it was on. Without hesitation, it was time to strip down and click in. Just like that, I was skiing down one of the Fourth of July Chutes naked, and yeah, it was damn worth it! Perfect corn snow all the way to the bottom, and no falls, which is pretty important in the buff.
We capped off the afternoon with one more chute, then found a nice line out which allowed us to ski nearly all the way back to our bikes. I can’t emphasize enough just how fun it is to ski early summer snow, especially with good friends. Full of stoke and red with sun burns, this was the perfect way to end an awesome ski season!
As always, I’m grateful to the greatest extent for these experiences.