Summer Shredding on Lassen Peak

Last weekend I hiked Lassen Peak with Galen and Johan for some pretty-good-for-July corn shredding. When we started the summit trail in a stiff gale (with practically no visibility) at 6:30 am, we weren't sure what to expect, but hoping for the best. As we summitted at about 9 am, the clouds began to dissipate, leaving us with spectacular views and -- thanks to the wind-dried snow -- some pretty epic July skiing. 

Lassen's summit crater

Shasta!

Finally! After three years of discouragement (last year alone I was foiled by weather on not less than three planned attempts), Galen, Phil, David, and I summitted Mount Shasta on June 21st via the relatively untraveled Hotlum-Wintun Route on the mountain's northeast side. Here are a few photos from our climb:

Secret Beach

A couple of years ago I spent about six months living and working in the small coastal town of Brookings, Oregon. Located in the far southwest corner of the state, Brookings is so remote that coming from the west side valleys of southern Oregon you have to drive through a small corner of northern California to get there. Although it's well off the beaten path, it is also one of the most beautiful coastlines anywhere, featuring temperate rain forest, waterfalls, sea stacks, arches, rocky cliffs, and secluded beaches. One of my favorite discoveries was a small, unnamed beach that can only be accessed by a very steep trail just south of the Thomas Creek Bridge, less than 10 miles north of Brookings. I call it "Secret Beach" because I never saw another person there.

Crater Lake Christmas

Anxious to burn off some holiday calories, Lucy and I used the promise of this winter's coldest storm (so far) to entice our friends Galen and Alyson into driving to southern Oregon from Reno for a ski tour at Crater Lake's Garfield Peak on December 28.

I don't have time to write much (and, frankly, this blog has featured plenty of write-ups on Garfield Peak), so for now I'll leave you with a few photos.  Enjoy...

Winter, we meet again ... (and Garfield's west face is AWESOME)

After a very busy November that had me traveling virtually every free moment (and therefore not skiing), last Saturday I finally made it up to the hills for some turns. Early season weather in southern Oregon has been wetter this year than it was last year, but due to warm temps the result is much the same: What little snowpack we have is confined to Oregon's highest terrain. (Damn you, El Nino!) So off to Crater Lake I went.

Afterglow

If you haven't yet seen Sweetgrass Productions' Afterglow, check out the trippy (and mesmerizing) lightsuit segment below... and get stoked for winter!



It's without a doubt one of the most innovative ski segments I've seen in a while. View the full twelve-minute short here, and read articles discussing its logistical challenges here and here.

Mount McLoughlin

Once again, I had big weekend plans to climb Shasta. But, as UW meteorology professor Cliff Mass writes in his popular weather blog, we seem to have a weekend weather curse going in the Pacific Northwest. By my count, it was the fifth week in a row southern Oregon had some sort of weather system move in on a weekend (despite perfectly clear weekdays). And for the second time in three weeks, one of those systems intervened with my weekend plans to summit mount Shasta. 

Mount McLoughlin from the Dead Indian Memorial Highway