Greetings from the Mountain! Although we’ve had a prolonged dry spell, Mt. Shasta is fully snow covered and still packing an adequate base for all winter adventures. A few passing showers and a small system dropped a couple inches of snow recently.

There was enough new precipitation to smooth out much of the surface, but not quite enough to satisfy the powder hounds. Nonetheless, the mountain has been gorgeous with the fresh snow and blue skies.

The extended high pressure, certainly not uncommon in January in California can provide excellent winter recreation. We’ve enjoyed spring-like ski conditions and were able to lead a climb this weekend that put Jay B. on the summit on a trip out from Colorado.

Congrats Jay and thanks to Joe Crawford for leading a successful climb! Nice one boys!

It looks like the next round of precip will be here later this week, just in time for our first AIARE Level I Avalanche Seminar. This should provide excellent course material and a refresh to the Mountain.

Avalanche hazard has been low but can increase once new snow arrives. There is exactly one space remaining for this weekend’s seminar if anyone is interested.

For the adventurous, there has been some excellent climbing and sliding at the upper elevations. South and east aspects were holding sun warmed snow surfaces as well as a variety of other types of conditions.

Gullies and depressions filled with some new and windblown snow to make for smooth and fun riding, you just have to poke around a bit for the best turns.

The extended high pressure has temporarlily closed the Mt. Shasta Ski Park and The Mt. Shasta Nordic Center. Normal operations will resume once snowfall returns, hopefully this weekend.

Until then, we have one more day of high pressure before the next round of storms approach. Get out and enjoy the winter, the weather is beautiful and there’s some good skiing to be explored!

The 13th annual Snowball is coming January 24th, this important event for the Friends of the Mt. Shasta Avalanche Center is key to their operation. This will help fund and support the remote weather stations in the Shasta-Trinity backcountry with a new station installment planned for Ash Creek Butte.