Lassen
Lassen Volcanic National Park near Redding, California.
230 photos
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The trail approaching Cinder Cone from the west.
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Rachel, seeking shade under the only tree for miles in...
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Fantastic Lava Beds. Near Cinder Cone.
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Rachel starting the hike up Cinder Cone. Snow-covered...
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Nothing but ash. Looking up towards the top of Cinder...
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John at the top of Cinder Cone, in front of the crater.
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Rachel and John in front of the Fantastic Lava Beds.
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Rachel boulder-hopping in the fantastic lava beds.
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Lassen Peak, reflected in a lake.
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Some guy had a heart attack on the trail to the top of...
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So apparently they don't have chipmunks in Europe. That...
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John enjoying the view east from the top of Lassen Peak.
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John and Rachel at Bumpass Hell.
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John and Rachel at Bumpass Hell.
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John and Stephan at Bumpass Hell.
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Alison chilling in the driver's seat of the green machine.
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Somehow this looks like a bad photoshop job or a...
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Lake Helen. John would camp here the following winter.
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Little black bugs in Lake Helen that would float on the...
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Looking towards Bumpass Hell from the parking area.
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John and Alison at Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
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Alison, making a candidacy for a Darwin Award. (Zoom in...
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Alison and John on the southern entrance road of Lassen...
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John and Niels climbing Diamond Peak.
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Dr. Lance performs an emergency anti-blister operation...
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Niels finding a short-cut on CA-89.
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Lance, headed toward Bumpass Hell on CA-89
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John and Niels dig a snow column to learn about avalanche safety.
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Lance prepares to teach us a thing or two about avalanche safety.
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Niels, having just dug his own grave, gives a sign of approval.
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Sun rise against Lassen Peak, as viewed from John's snow cave.
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Good morning campers!! - John
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Lance, headed up Lassen Peak.
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Niels, trekking onward and upwards.
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Lance, pausing for a moment, to survey the...
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Note in the right of this picture is evidence of a...
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Niels, having reached the highest point of our ascent...
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Approximately 4.5 minutes and -800 feet after we...
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The snow brick quarry.
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The man and the mountain. Niels readies his gear for...
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Niels, Catherine, and some guy hike up the (closed) road...
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Catherine hiking uphill, new snowboard on her back. ...
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The group (including cgh) hiking up the bottom of...
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John and Niels have a midmorning snack (chocolate and...
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Continuing up the mountain...
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Pausing just below the final path to the top. The snow...
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John, Niels, and some ski poles.
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Catherine at the top!
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The very top of the mountain
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Still at the top.
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Pausing on the decent back down. You can't really see...
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The benchmark at the top. Do not tamper with it. Elev:...
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What makes it all worth it: on the way back down.
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Pausing to take of the board for easier traversing... A...
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Happily booting back up (we're near the top again!).
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Pausing before the final switchbacks to the top.
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The view in the other direction.
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Chaos Crags, from the top of Lassen.
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Smaller mountains near Lassen. We skiied one of the...
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The top of Lassen
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More of the top of Lassen
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Looking down on the Chaos Crags
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Self-photography at its best.
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The top of Lassen
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Chilling on the mountainside. The gloves were only...
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Catherine beginning her descent.
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Heelside edging...
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...a turn or two later...
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On a short traverse below a rocky outcropping.
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Riding the toeside. Check the consistency of the snow...
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Finishing the run. Again, check the snow.
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Happy kid, with a lot of mountain left to ski.
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These are kind of blurry, but... John starting his run.
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Coming out of a turn.
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And another turn.
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John dropping a knee.
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About to start another run.
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Catherine avoiding the rocks.
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Looking for fresh corn snow.
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Attempting a knuckle-drag...
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...and almost being successful...
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Finishing the run.
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Of course, the mountain just keeps going down.
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The surrounding scenery was insanely gorgeous.
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John starting a run.
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Reaching for a pole plant...
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Coming over a small ridge.
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Making a turn.
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This picture would be cool had I not been far too zoomed...
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Happy happy.
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Scoping the trail below.
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Turn and go!
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Surveying what lies ahead.
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The answer: a lot of mountains.
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John, mid-turn.
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In the foreground: the reason John should be wearing kneepads...
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Superstar tele skier.
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Volcanoes: very rugged mountains.
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Portrait of a snowboarder who doesn't want the day to end.
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Checking out the view.
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Psyching up for the next run.
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A nearby mountain face, calling our names, and the pass...
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Catherine disassembling her board.
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Color-coordination is important on a ski slope.
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Booting over the pass.
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A change of wardrobe later, skiing down to the car.
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The girl. The mountain. The board. Etc.
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Strapping back in.
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Foot number two.
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If the snow is called corn snow, then those are corn rows.
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Passing the lake near John's February campsite.
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Taking the board apart once more.
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Proof for anyone who says there can't be snow left, even...
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Climbing it was difficult...
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John's outfit was goofy, and admired by all.
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Realize that he's standing multiple feet away from the...
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John in front of Lassen. Tired but satisfied.
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More snow than you can shake a stick (pole?) at.
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After the final descent Sunday - check the wider tracks...
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Catherine finishing up loading up her bag (from afar),...
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John helps Monica set up her snowshoes in the parking...
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Vinnie trying on his rented snowshoes with plastic...
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Yang's ride.
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John, getting ready to leave just as the snow was picking up.
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Vinnie, starting out on the trail.
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Hiking along CA-89.
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Monica, during a brief moment of semi-sunshine.
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Yang, trekking along.
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Vinnie, climbing the steep mountainside as we left the...
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Yang, trekking uphill.
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Vinnie, stepping carefully.
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These trees got seriously covered in snow.
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A few weeks ago I threw out the idea to a few friends to...
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Making things even more interesting, the week before our...
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With so much new snow, the going was slow, tiring work....
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John, on the ski in, while we still had tracks to...
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It was a bit incongruous to see bubbling mud pits and...
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This was the most challenging part of the climb: trying...
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Still climbing up...
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Crossing an avalanche gully one at a time.
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The road switchbacks up the mountainside endlessly, so...
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The group takes a rest as we regain the road on the...
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The clouds break for a moment.
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Slow but steady progress.
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John and Vinnie somewhere around the south flank of...
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Cresting the north ridge of Diamond Peak we are offered...
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In camp the next day, Monica helps prepare breakfast....
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View of Lassen Peak from my sleeping bag.
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Monica, enjoying the sunshine and relatively warm temperatures.
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Waking up the next morning, we were met with a bright...
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John digs a pit around a block of snow to perform a...
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The weekend involved a lot of shoveling of snow.
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A rutschblock test is a test of a column of snow to...
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An attempt at showing the layers of snow - they're all...
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Blue skies and snowy trees. We had gorgeous weather on...
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Clouds starting to materialize. The flat cut you see in...
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Digging our avalanche test pit. Yang at the left, John...
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With 5-6 feet of snow in the last storm, we had a lot of...
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Snow cave where John and Monica slept.
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John testing the snow column we dug.
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John standing on the snow column to test it for stability.
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Jumping up and down on the snow column to test the...
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Column finally collapses.
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Yang snowboarding.
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Vinnie snowboarding with poles (Monica watches from right).
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Vinnie snowboarding with poles.
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Group shot in the snow cave.
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Yang, inside our main snow cave. Check out our custom...
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John, inside our snow cave on our second night out.
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Monica tries to take a photo without flash to capture...
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Monica and Yang, cooking dinner on our second night out.
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Vinnie and John.
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Yang and I went snowboarding / skiing on our own on the...
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Yang snowboarding.
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Yang keeping his front tip up. My tracks are at the right.
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Yang, on the hike back uphill.
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John, hiking back to camp.
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Yang, just about back at camp.
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Yang, packing up and getting ready for our hike back to the car.
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A picture of Vinnie emerging from the entrance to our...
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Zoomed out shot showing our chimney, capped with some...
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Monica, Vinnie and Yang.
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John and Monica, as we pack up and get ready to head...
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View down our chimney.
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Yang and Monica, snowshoeing away from camp.
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Diamond Peak, in the snow.
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Hiking out.
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My turns.
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Crossing one at a time, again.
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Yang, with snowflakes and sun.
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Snowflakes and sun.
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Monica trudging along.
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Vinnie, on the hike out.
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Yang, crossing a great looking slope.
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Abbey Road-esque? Need two more people...
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Monica, posing.
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Vinnie.
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Yang, on the steep downhill section.
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Yang, pretending to tele-turn.
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Group shot.
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Termales!
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John, on the ski / hike back to the car on our third day.
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Back at the road, we find many broken trails...
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... including separate tracks for skiers and snowshoers.
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Monica smiling to be on the home stretch.
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John on the ski out. This was a bit unfair as the grade...
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Making some turns on the way out.
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John, on the ski out.
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Snow falling heavily.
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Only problem was that if I dropped a knee too low, the...
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Skiing across a small gully we took one at a time.
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Snow still coming down heavily.
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John, with the Lassen Sulphur Works in the background...
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Group shot, back at the car.
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Crazy clouds driving down from the mountains on the road...
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Tom, one of my classmates, takes a measurement of slope...
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Mara, one of my classmates, and the only other...
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John's snow pit, with pencil (for testing snow hardness)...
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Richard, our guide, at the right leads us to a place...
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Interesting needle shaped snowflakes that had been...
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Richard shows how to use a plastic card to measure snow...
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Mara and Julie examine layers in our snow pit.
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On Sunday, we self-planned a full day ski tour using the...
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At the top of our first ski hill.
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Classmate John Huang took a tumble down the hill.
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After skiing to the bottom, we skinned back to the top...
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Richard, our guide and instructor.
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Here is the hill we skied down. It was actually 30-35...
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Julie, my carpool partner, rides down on the second or...
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John Huang has another wipeout.