Regional discussion and conditions reports for the Golden State. Please post partners requests and trip plans in the California Climbing Partners forum.
The Shasta-April post seemed outdated but was very useful. I am planning Casaval Ridge May 20-22. We will also go Hotlum-Bolum June 10-12. Did anyone go up last week? How were the conditions? It's snowing right now in Klamath Falls so I recognize conditions will change but it's nice to get recent reports.
Robin- How difficult is the ski descent on the west face? Thinking if theres good coverage, why not schlep the skis up if people are glissading this thing
We were just on Casaval on Thursday (5/13). First time I've been on the route, so I'm not sure what the typical conditions are. Going through the hourglass, it was unconsolidated powder on top of loose rock (we went up the right side). The catwalk seemed a little thin. You could walk across the beginning of it without any trouble. The middle (where it's heavily wanded) was pretty thin, we front-pointed and daggered our way across the most exposed portion. It then went back to decent coverage for the exit.
Mountain was empty! There was only one other group up there, and only one of them summited. Took us 8 hours from our camp to summit, and another 4 hours to get down via Avalanche Gulch. We managed to glissade almost all the way from the Red Banks to Lake Helen.
Summited 3 days ago. Weather was great. Light wind, clear skies. Saw avalanche in avy gulch come off casaval and almost into the tent city. Tons of snow. Was really melty by midday. Tons of skiers coming down misery hill all the way down[/img]