Dates: February 21-22, 2015 Duration: 2 days, 1 night Mileage: ~9.5 miles Group Members: Nick McGuire, Molly K. Pack Weights: Nick (~50+ lbs), Molly (~35 lbs) Contacts: Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center - Southwest Park Entrance, Hwy 89 (530)-595-4480 Notes: $10 7-day parking pass and Wilderness Permit (free) obtained from the Visitor Center. Outbound Travel: Davis, CA to Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center = ~2.5 hours; Left Davis ~8:30AM Day 1: (~4.3 miles) Left the Lassen Nat. Park visitor center (Elevation: ~6700 ft) at 12:30M and snowshoed up the road (Hwy 89) for a couple miles before taking the Ranger Cutoff. The cutoff was steeper than I remembered from 2009 but saves quite a bit of distance. Probably could have gotten away without wearing snowshoes as the snow was pretty firm in most areas but they helped with some of the steep slopes on the cutoff. We then reconnected with the main road (2:15 PM) before taking a small but very steep shortcut to bypass one of the road switchbacks. Took one more shortcut to bypass the road section that swings towards Emerald Lake to head straight to Lake Helen which we reached around 3:30PM (~3 hrs). The approach for the most part was very warm (only wore shorts, shell pants & a t-shirt) but it got very windy and cold only a few hundred feet from Lake Helen that required us to stop and put gloves and jackets on. Set up base camp (Elevation: ~8200 ft) near some trees just west of the lake and dug into a hillside to make a tent platform and a small kitchen area. Made dinner, melted snow for water (brought 2 Jetboils) and stayed up to watch the stars for a while. Wind was intermittent but not too bad given we were sheltered by some trees and a short ridge to our east between us an the lake (wind was coming from the northeast). Went to bed ~8AM - wind definitely picked up during the night and was gusting pretty heavily at times but the tent was anchored well and didn't move much at all. Had most of the vents open in the tent but it got really cold at night (may have dropped into the teen's - wore long underwear tops & bottoms, fleece pants and jacket, used sleeping bag liner and did not have the bag vented at all - still slightly cold) so I partially closed the one in the rear door as it was letting some of the wind in. Molly had a -15 deg bag rented from OA which was definitely necessary, even with all our clothing layers. Day 2: (~5.1 miles) Woke up a little after 7AM but stayed in the tent till after 8AM because of the cold and wind. Eventually ventured outside after the sun came up more and the wind had subsided a bit. Made breakfast and melted more snow for water. Hiked across Lake Helen to the eastern shore to glissade down the tall slope that leads up to the road. Broke camp and packed up, leaving by about 1:10PM. Put crampons on because the snow was pretty hard in a lot of areas, especially in the shade. The weather was still a bit windy and chilly (wore long underwear underneath shell pants for the whole hike and rain shell top over a t-shirt) for the hike down. Decided to stay on the road instead of taking the Ranger Cutoff. A large area of the road was melted out on one of the south facing slopes so we took our crampons off and just hiked in our boots. Reached the southern turnoff for the Ranger Cutoff around 2:45PM. Made it back down to the visitor center by 3:25PM.
