Lassen - Solo Camping

For this trip I was supposed to take Mudit and Bharat for their first snow camping trip. Bharat had been asking about going on a snow trip for a long time but this ended up being a solo camping trip. Both Bharat and Mudit backed out at the last minute to celebrate Bharat's birthday in SF partying late into the night. Given Priyal was in Lithuania I decided to go ahead on my own. I have gone on a few camping trips solo but this would be the first solo camping trip in the snow.

I was initially unsure where to go. I had decided going either to Shasta or Lassen given both these places do not need permits. I decided to head up to Red Bluff and check out the weather and make a call. The weather forecast for Shasta wasn't great. The winds could be up to 30mph and it was going to snow all night. I would have to drive one extra hour to Bunny flat if I went for Shasta so I decided to head over to Lassen instead. It was already raining and I had decided that if it continued to rain I would sleep in my car instead of pitching my tent.

Luckily the rain stopped when I reached Lassen. My plan was to try and summit Lassen solo in the winter. If I would have planned the trip a little better I would have found that people normally camp behind diamond peak but I didn't look this up. I ended up asking the rangers who warned me about the Avalanche dangers and asked me to camp near the parking lot specially because I was alone. I was a little dejected as I wanted to camp out in the wild but also didn't want to risk any avalanche so reluctantly went for the safer option.

Wet Lassen parking lot

Camp site near the parking lot

After setting up camp I decided to put on my snow shoes and head up the route to checkout how it would be. My plan was to head up to Diamond peak which was close to 3 miles one way. I set up camp, put out the sleeping back and mat to air and headed out. The weather was clearing up and the wind was quite low. Due to the rain and it being late in the afternoon the snow was quite soft and it was taking quite a bit of effort to snow shoe.

I have been to Lassen before a couple of times in Summer and was eager to see how the Geyser would look in winter. I was expecting it to be covered with snow and no visible activity. To my surprise that was not the case -- It was fairly! The snow around the mud pots were completely melted.

Sulphur mud pots

The hike up to diamond peak was quite easy. There was a clear boot pack that I could follow. I decided to not continue on the road given there is a avalanche warning and decided to take the ranger cut out that goes behind diamond peak crossing a small rivulet. I reached Diamond peak fairly quickly and decided to head back way before sunset for an alpine start the next day to try and summit Lassen. 

I reached back to the camp site and melted snow for water and cooking. The campsite was fairly empty so I had the campsite completely to myself. I went to sleep before the sun had completely set. It was getting fairly cold and then it started snowing.  With any snow camping tent you need to shake the snow off the tent to prevent it from caving. I have heard horror stories of people buried in their tent failing to shake the snow of the tent. I was a little worried given I was alone and also because my Hubba Hubba tent is not a 4 season winter snow camping tent. The wind had picked up quite a bit and snow was falling a lot. I made sure to clear the snow from the tent by shaking the tent from inside every 30 mins to 1 hour and was afraid of falling asleep too deeply. There was little fear of me oversleeping given the high winds were rattling the tent and any sleep was actually welcomed! 

I had initially decided to wake up and leave at 4 in the morning but due to the lack of sleep and exhaustion I pushed the start time to 6am. I got ready packed my crampons, ice axe and head off solo to Lassen. The hike was beautiful -- the clouds had cleared up, no signs of rain. I crossed diamond peak and crossed Emerald and Helen Lake. Both these lakes are supremely beatiful in winter. Also it was quite satisfying to be the first person to break snow there.

View of Lassen standing on Helen Lake

It was only 10:30 am when I reach the summer parking lot of Mount Lassen. I was monitoring the clouds and the winds. I had easily hike more than 5 miles from the camp site and knew that I had close to 4 miles more to go. I was really hoping to meet another group on the way to not be alone on this mountain. The way up on Lassen is to climb the ridge but be aware of any false ride which can happen due to high winds. The wind started picking up and I could see some clouds coming in. I had a set a return time of noon, meaning I would turn around at that time even if I was 50m from the summit and there was no way I was going to summit in that time. Reluctantly I decided to turn around. The weather was still good but  the risks of an unknown route and being solo on a mountain with no other party is quite high. The mountain will still remain! This was quite a learning experience for me in terms of risk and time management.