Lassen Volcanic National Park

This was my 3rd winter attempt to reach the summit of Lassen Peak. It is not a daunting peak by any means. The ascent is a gradual ridge to the summit at an elevation of 10,457′. The typical plan has been to snowshoe about 6 miles from the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor to Lake Helen, set up camp and spend the night, and climb the summit early the next morning, which is about 3 miles from Lake Helen with a 2000′ elevation gain.

My first trip in 2016 ended about 0.6 miles from the summit. The morning had started off with no wind, a clear sky, and moderate temperatures. But by mid-morning, the wind picked up near the summit and 40mph gusts were moving snow and ice all around limiting visibility. The day of the 2nd attempt in 2017, was a bluebird day: sunny, blue cloudless sky, warm temperatures, with snow covering the entirety of Lassen Peak. But, the trip ended halfway up the summit because one of my climbing partners was experiencing a headache which kept increasing in magnitude. So we to turned around back to camp.

This year, 2018, the result would be the same, but we never left camp at Lake Helen. All night long, the wind blew furiously across our camp. At 4am, our planned departure time for the peak, the wind was still blowing and the sky was overcast. It did not look promising. Even by 9am, clouds and a large thick bank of fog was obscuring the summit, and the temperatures were still hovering around 30° F. We called it a day and headed back to the cars.