Pear Lake Hut?

by fdk (with a few comments by CR)

Unless you count three-sided shelters in the Catskills I’ve never done a proper hut trip, and as I’ve been dabbling more in winter sports I’ve been increasingly interested in the promise of a lovely little shelter out in the wilderness surrounded by snow to play in. You don’t have to carry a ton of stuff or sleep on the snow, and there’s a stove and wood? Too sweet! So, back in November 2017 when CR started planning a trip to Pear Lake Hut in the Sequoia National Park backcountry I was in. People love Pear Lake for the lovely alpine skiing around the hut, but I figured I’d try to apply my nor-dork skills the best I could, and get to hang out around the hut either way. This is not how it all shook out.

The old saying goes that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This weekend it was more like if life calls to say there are no lemons to be had, you’d better start planning some tasty non-citrus beverages, because you’re still gonna be thirsty! The planning went awry from the beginning, with the seven initially interested people slowly winnowing down,  with some additions and substitutions, to three. There was so little snow through February that we thought the whole thing might be a bust, but then a miracle March and April brought a good late snow pack. But the final blow to the plan came on Friday afternoon when CR received a call from the NPS informing her that the Pear Lake Hut would be closed this weekend for “classified reasons”, and that no one had died, but giving no more information to protect the identities of the those involved. The speculation was endless: wild party? Broken snow bridge? Hantavirus? (CR:Interestingly, GG wants to add that we should add carbon monoxide poisoning to the differential diagnosis, maybe the hut is having a ventilation problem.)

By then I was already in the Bay Area enjoying a lovely cruise up Mt Tam with Billy

and then popping up at the Palo Alto train station. CR and I picked up some backcountry XC skis for me and called the third member of the weekend crew, the lovely Rachel, to tell her the bad news about the hut. We met in a Stanford parking lot and pulled up a mental map of the state of CA to decide what we were going to do instead! After considering preferences (thumbs down on winter backpacking, skiing over climbing,thumbs down on crowds) and available gear (thank goodness for CR’s gear closet) we had a realization: Spring is volcano season! So we headed north to some of our favorite volcanos.

For almost six months of the year the main park road through Lassen is closed for snow, and you can camp for free on the snow at the visitors center and travel by foot into the huge park. We decided to drive out there Friday night and then climb the highest point in the park, Mt Lassen, on Saturday. It bears mentioning that on the way out there we got some really delish Indian Pizza. If you have not experienced this delicacy I cannot recommend it highly enough. The butter chicken pizza is quite a treat, and will still be welcome the next day. Also, Lassen is in the middle of nowhere and the stars are amazing.

With the road closed the trip up to Mt Lassen is long— 13 miles, much of it on snow, with ~5000ft of gain. We suited up with our skis only to discover that the road after the locked gate started out very plowed.

After schlepping skis ~3 miles up a plowed road (including some cool geothermal features) (CR:BOILING MUDPOTS!! The name is worth mentioning)

we finally hit snow, and skiing up this road was the only time I managed to put my Nordic skills to any use, and even then it was a mixed bag!

After coming to Helen Lake we turned to head up the mountain for real. CR and Rachel were doing well skinning up, and I put some skins on my XC skis for a while, but at some point I bailed, ditched my skis, and proceeded to boot my way up. Honestly, it was more efficient.

The climb was serious business and I found myself wishing, not for the last time, that I had brought an ice axe with me. CR says a ski pole is a poor man’s ice axe, but I went to school for a long time to be able to buy such luxuries as an actual ice axe, which was back at home, because the hut trip wasn’t supposed to include much actual mountaineering! (Of course CR had an extra ice axe, which I made sure to bring along on day two.)

Rachel is smarter than the average bear and wanted to save some energy for the way down, so she paused part way up the final ridge while CR and I continued to kick steps up to the summit to take in some really lovely views including the neighbor to the northwest, Mt Shasta!

Summit Selfie

Then CR put her skis on, and I continued to walk, now downhill. What can I say, I don’t have a lot of skills.  The snow had softened a lot, so plunge stepping was more secure than I expected, but I was still paying very close attention to my steps when CR swooped up behind me, sending a few little snow wheels cruising past me. Wheee! Rachel dropped into the gully and skied down with CR, and I finally stopped being such a weenie and sat down to glissade the last few hundred feet. It really was a lot of fun, even if I felt like I was my own personal wet slide. Here's Rachel doing some actual skiing.

After finally making it back to the parking lot we saddled up and headed off to get milkshakes en route to volcano number two— Mt Shasta!

We decided that the crowds on avalanche gulch didn’t seem that interesting, and I wanted to try some very easy AT skiing, so on Sunday we worked our way around to the west side of Shasta, up into Hidden Valley below the junction between Shasta and Shastina, at about 9000ft. We headed up through Horse Camp with me on snowshoes and CR and Rachel skinning. We moved up as we worked around the mountain and started traversing some big gullies, switching to crampons and ice axes as we moved higher up, with gradually increasing exposure, and beautiful views.

Trinity Alps in the distance

Rachel with the Trinity Alps.  She's quite fond of those mountains!

We met a very cute Australian Cattle Dog that seemed to be having no trouble at all in the snow!

Blue loved to fetch snowballs

For as long as you would throw them. 

Hidden Valley is a lovely little gem of a spot, and we should plan to camp up there someday.

Walking into Hidden Valley

CR was so excited that she raised her arms. 

While we hung out and enjoyed a little piece of paradise I borrowed CR’s skis and tried downhill skiing for the first time in ~15 years. It was fun! And even though I couldn’t figure out turns on my backcountry XC skis I was able to handle a few gentle ones on AT skis.

Isn’t this how everyone learns to ski?

We made our way down on softer, easier snow with a combo of crampons, skis, glissading, and running, and really enjoyed losing all that altitude we had worked so hard for.

Now, Mt Shasta is the point on the N/S line where I start to feel the pull of Oregon, and while we were gear sorting in the parking lot I realized that I could just make the Greyhound bus headed up to Portland. After a little bit of rally car driving by CR I got on a northbound bus headed home, still buzzing from the sun and snow.

I think we managed to make some really delicious volcano snow punch (which should be a tiki drink) out of this weekend, and we get to pick a weekend for Pear Lake next winter without entering the lottery! Clear your schedule now! Here’s the real question: What happened at Pear Lake Hut??

Thanks for a great weekend, ladies!