Lassen, Eagle and Ski Heil Peak

I always wanted to go back to Lassen after turning back a little after Helen lake last year. I had Lassen at the back of my mind always as a quick up and down trip. I was initially planning to go solo again given Melanie & Christoph had some prior arrangements but JQ and Chris joined me last minute! Both JQ and Chris are avid outdoor hikers and volunteered to take care of all the food logistics :) The plan was simple but unlike last time we decided to drive up Friday night and have a good nights sleep in the Lassen parking lot. Also instead of trying to attempt the summit from the parking lot we decided to camp above Helen Lake. Day 1 hike to Lassen summer parking lot and set up camp. Day 2 summit and head back to the car to drive back.

The drive up from bay area was surprisingly fine. We ended up reaching Lassen around 11:30p which is totally acceptable after leaving the bay area around 5p and spending an hour for dinner. There was no wind so we quickly set up our Hubba Hubba's and slept peacefully till we were woken up early morning by the excitement of nearby boy scouts. Ideally we would have liked to sleep for another hour or two but given no other option we decided to head out. It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind. The snow this year was quite more then my previous visit.

We head out on the summer highway which is easy to snow shoe through the ranger's shortcut to avoid any Avy danger. In about 2 hours we were at Helen lake which looks really beautiful in summer but in winter when frozen it looks even more mesmerizing! Chris suggested we tag Eagle peak and Ski Heil peak given how much time we had in our hands. So we dropped our bags at the edge of Helen lake and ran up to Eagle Peak. It took some route finding but was fairly easy to contour to the base of Eagle peak and then plow through a gentle slop to reach the peak. Descending Eagle peak was a little tricky as it involved descending a steep short gully which was made challenging due to the slushy afternoon snow conditions. Once at the bottom it was an easy hike to the summit of Ski Heil peak. Ski Heil is massive inverted bow. It has a flat top with gentle slopes all around. We ended up glissading down which was a lot of fun!

JQ and Chris heading up Eagle peak

It took us another 45 mins to an hour to reach our campsite which overlooked a nice lake (probably Snag lake). We had an early dinner and retired by 5pm so that we could have an alpine start for the summit. It was again a surprisingly quiet night with absolutely no winds. 

Campsite overlooking the Lassen valley 

We woke up early and started hiking on the ridge towards the summit. The snow up to the ridge was quite soft so we decided to continue with our snow shoes. During the day the route finding seemed so easy but at night it was clear that without any bootpack it would be quite easy to get lost and meander. We ended up going up on snow shoes but the steeper sections seemed a little sketchy so I decided to put on my crampons 45 mins into the climb. A little later we had the first signs of sunrise with alpenglow. It looked so beautiful that even JQ who hates waking up early for an alpine start had to agree that it was worth it (photo TBD).

The hike up was quite chill not requiring any protection until we reached the last 50m. This section required traversing across the steepest side of lassen. The snow was soft but the exposure was close to 2000ft. I have personally done much harder traverses with higher exposure but for the first time I was un-roped with such a high exposure which gave me a little bit of  the Heebie-jeebies! I was playing back in my mind how to self arrest in case need be and also really focusing on my technique.

It was again a surprisingly nice day with clear weather and no wind. Also, on reaching the summit we had it to ourselves for a good 30 mins. In fact we could have stayed there all day and no one would have showed up. 

Chris and JQ on the high exposure traverse

On the way down form the summit I was quite enthralled by the possibility of hiking the whole ridge line from Brokeoff mountain to Mt Diller, stitching Ski hill and Eagle peak on the way to Lassen. The ridge line looks incredibly beautiful!

Greater Lassen ridge line that I would like to do some day! Brokeoff and Mt Diller on the right 

Day 1: 7.06 miles, 3074 elevation gain, 1355 elevation lost, covered in 6 hours (3 hours active)

Day 2 (camp summit camp): 3.04 miles, 1800 ft elevation lost and gained, 1.5 hours moving time
GPX tracks - ski & heil peak, lassen summit