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Actually title is wrong . It was today 7/13/2023. The road to the summit parking lot at Lassen National Park opened a week ago . ( Late this year because of the epic snowfall we have) . Unfortunately , hot weather has caused a rapid loss of snow . Today I was able to climb from the parking lot to the summit mostly over the standard dirt trail to the summit . Close to 2000 vertical ascent. Then I was able to skiboard down the last remanent of the main snowfield which got me most of the way back down until I had to join back the summer hiking trail and hike down the final section as the snow ran out. The skiboarding descent was very tough because of major suncups on the whole slope which causes the slope to be very bumpy. Luckily the snow had softened so I could just kind of blow over the ruts and hit the mounds . It was a very rough ride . I really liked my Playmakers today , the rockered tips and tails and flat camber really helped roll over the sun cups . Sun cups are caused by the effect uneven melting of the snow and have been particularly bad this year because of the deep snow and the prolonged effect of sunny weather on the slopes before the road was open to allow access to the slope. The gaia map is overlayed on a summer map rather then the actual snow that was available today. I climbed the ridge and then descended the main bowl before joining the hiking trail where it begins the long traverse out across the slope. Lots of hikers today but no skiers. I had a pretty good audience of people at the summit watching me ride the bumpy steep slope down .
Pictures to follow.
Pictures to follow.
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