Road Trip!: Skiing Shasta, Lassen, and McLoughlin
Just the facts: NE Face (1,700', ~40°) on Mt. McLoughlin , 9,495', Oregon Cascades NE Face (2,200’, 40-45°), Lassen Peak , 10,457' California Cascades Hotlum-Wintum Ridge (3,250', 40-45°) on Mt. Shasta , 14,162, California Cascades A spring volcano road trip is somewhat of a rite of passage for anyone serious about backcountry skiing in the PNW. Highway 97 runs just east and parallel to the Cascades for their entire extent in Oregon and then partway into California, making it the perfect corridor to tick off a few new peaks on a weekend of high-pressure weather. None of the crew—Axell, Camden, Zach and I—had explored the bounty of 97 much further south than Crater Lake, but we had heard whispers of a mountian more massive than Rainier and with much, much better weather to boot. It took little convincing to get the guys to load up in Axell’s Explorer and put Mt. Jefferson in our rearview. Strictly essentials. Day 1: 4,280' of elevation gain, 11.4 mi I walked out
