Lassen Park Snowcamping, 4-6 Mar 2006

Unlike the trip to Duck Lake, at the start of this trip the weather was quite sparkly... at least for a while!

Saturday:

Broke-off Mountain

The road from the parking area down to the trailhead was icy, leading to a fall and sprained wrist that immediately reduced our number by two.

Up the hill, towards Forest Lake and Broke-off Mtn

A late start prompted us to (thankfully!) only hike in a short distance, so that everyone would have more time to build fancier snow shelters.

Fast forward to Sunday morning - It started snowing somewhere around 5 am., and didn't stop until late Monday afternoon... Expecting snow, we had built a snow kitchen that was covered by a tarp, but the worsening conditions and the size of the kitchen required an extension and extensive remodel.

Note the snow accumulating on the tarp - this translated to a sagging roof that needed to be whacked every once in a while to get the snow off... until the snow on the side of wall was at an equal level, after which it required someone to actually shovel the snow off and throw it farther away.

The camera flash highlights the falling snow better

The snow was extremely light/fluffy, which made saucering ... challenging!

With 6+ stoves going in the kitchen, things got kind of steamy! Hot soup = happy smiles

Fast forward to 11pm Sunday night - after giving up on my hammock, and after having the backup tent collapse (due to snow load resulting in a broken pole), John and I commandeer the snow kitchen for sleeping quarters (injured tent at back left) - John slept on the table, I took a bench.

Very happy I brought the 0-degree non-down sleeping bag on this trip...

~1:20 am - rising snow forces Maria to abandon her hammock and join us in the kitchen...

~3:20 am - despite our efforts to shovel the snow off the roof every hour or two through the night, the roof of the kitchen addition collapses (middle of picture)

Assessing the situation during a brief break in the snow - note that all of the tents were originally on flat ground, and are now thanks to all the new snow quite low in comparison to the rising snow level.

Ah, the joy of clothes solidly frozen into odd shapes...

Jamsheed's tent, tips of his snow shoes visible in front.

Jamsheed getting ready to dig his tent out.

A cold breakfast, followed by (an attempt at) a quick escape

Breaking out through deep powder is NOT easy

(photo credit: Mitch Polinsky)

Barely got to use my new saucers at all, unfortunately...

The faint line in the snow across upper portion of this next picture is the tip of the snowbank next to the road.

What we thought was the last hurdle - getting down the embankment to road-level

This is the parking lot... where are the cars? (hint - the bumps on the right) As if we weren't tired of snow & digging already!

License-plate imprints left in the snow

Sometimes salvation comes in the form of a big yellow Caterpillar :P