20-30" of new snow on Mount Shasta!!

PS. That lame "smiley" pops up with the year 1998, but not here.??

<br><br>You need to check the "Disable Smilies" box to prevent this, because "" forms that smiley:<br><br>('98)<br><br>Or leave a space after the 8 if you want other smileys to appear: ('98 )<br>

Thanks Amar.

A friend and I just returned from a rained out trip to Clear Creek. We knew about the plane crash, but never saw anything on the Konwakiton other than a sizable release of snow below it. Plenty of signs were pointing to unsafe conditions there on Shasta with plenty of snow from the previous week as mentioned above and warming temperatures. The first night it did not freeze below 11,000 ft. Not good. Despite this we hoped that the cloud cover expected to come would keep things cooler. Not to be the case.<br><br>We were planning to spend three days skiing and climbing but as we approached our base camp at around 10,000 ft it began raining with increasing clouds and thunder. We got our gear and bodies covered with water proof material and had faith that it would be a passing shower and hoped for minimal water on snow.<br><br> It got worse, heavy rain and more thunder with approaching visible lightning strikes every few minutes. After about 35 minutes of waiting it out we decided that this was such poor conditions now that the warm temps and rain had been there for too long to stay. Rock fall drew our attention towards Mud Creek Valley just at the same moment a powerful fork of lightning struck the ground in semeingly the exact location our eyes were fixed. That was the tops of it all so we bailed at top speed down down down. The rain continued for over two hours turning our retreat into almost a swim in slush on slush. <br><br>Thus I think the window of good snow conditions has closed a bit on the mountain until things stabilize and temps cool down a bit. However there is a lot of snow over on the east side so I bet Hotlum-Wintun ridge will be decent for months to come.<br><br>We'll be back to that side for more.<br><br>

OK, It's gonna cost me, but I bargained for taking my skis to Northern Cal on our "family" vacation trip. I'll be skiing the Hotlum-Wintun Ridge route either July 11 or 12. Matt? Others?

Giddy Up!<br><br>Ya, I'm down for that route...so is my new digi cam. I'll drop you a PM.