Lassen Volcanic NP

Clark and I kicked off our three season adventures in early April with a visit to Lassen VNP. We traveled shorter distances than expected, experience more cold than desired, and came home early when we realized we didn't have enough fuel to melt snow for water. Here are some pictures.


Gearing up in the parking lot


Climbing over the shoulder of diamond peak


scenery


The heel lifters on my snowshoes actually helped with the climbs.


brokeoff mountain


diamond peak, looking back


scenery


Mt Lassen


Sunset


Morning


Campsite


Firm snow, decided to take my snowshoes for a walk


Scenery


gear photo


Scenery


Scenery


Diamond peak and road


Brokeoff mountain


rocks


me


geothermal activity


vent


vent


The new visitor center at the end of a low snow winter.

Red Peak Pass

Towards the end of season I tried to squeeze in one last trip, here are some photos.




I'm not a weatherman, but I think the forcast just changed from sun to something else.


Campsite near merced pass


Deer


Things look better in the morning, but still pretty grey.


Oh wait, it is clearing up !










Almost to the pass


At the pass


Oh boy, I'm about to get soaked


Here comes the rain !


Looking back at the lakes



Sunrise


Good morning half dome !

Chicken Tikka with Coconut Masala

Hello internets !

I took advantage of a recent trip's lack of distance, and short duration to make real food instead of dehydrated.

First, the chicken tikka.


I'm starting with a skin-on, bone-in, chicken leg.


Which I skin, and then cover with spices. I'm using black pepper, cumin, coriander, salt, and cayenne pepper.


I marinate the chicken in a puree of yogurt and ginger, with garlic.


After an hour or so, I put it into the over set for broil.


After broiling, it should look like this.


My sauce starts out with a simple mixture of chile, onion, and garlic.


I add in a can of diced tomatoes, and some crushed ginger, before cooking. I like smooth sauce, so I used the hand blender to smooth it out.


I condense the sauce down to the consistency of tomato paste over low heat.


I carry it all in a styrofoam cooler. 50mL of Coconut milk, the chicken(shredded), and sauce all fit nicely.


I cook it up on the trail with fresh cauliflower and broccoli, and finish with coconut milk.


All the effort pays off !

Cheers !

Coming Soon

I know, I know.

I've moved, and once I get settled in, I'll write up the trip report on my latest yosemite adventure, a killer curry, and the BPL gathering at Pt Reyes.


Here is a teaser from the yosemite trip


And this is the curry

Avoid Salomon gear

Salomon is a company that makes gear I find comfortable on my body.

Unfortunately I had two backpacks fail this season, and one pair of shoes that only covered 75 miles.

Failures in gear is unavoidable. I don't use bomb proof gear, I know stuff fails. This isn't a rant about the failure of the gear. This is a rant about the failure of the company to be accessible to its customers.

Salomon goes out of their way to hide contact information.. There is no easy path to let them know about your experiences with their products. They seem to have no interest in receiving feedback on design failures from customers. I find the complete lack of customer service and support to be reason enough to avoid using Salomon products in my future travels.


75 miles and the super expensive and hard to replace lace system failed.


The attachment of the hipbelt is a design failure.
I've had two packs fail like this.

As a counter example, MSR, thermarest, and platypus are easilly reachable via the prominently placed "Contact Us" link on their web page. Click it, and they break support down into questions and feedback, repairs and replacement, and other categories. This shows an interest in receiving feedback, and helping people out with faulty gear.



Time yourself, see how long it takes you to find the contact information in Salomon's customer service hell.

And when you do find the contact email, be prepared to hear this from their customer service department :
This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:

One or more of the recipients of your message did not receive it
because they would have exceeded their mailbox size limit. It
may be possible for you to successfully send your message again
at a later time; however, if it is large, it is recommended that
you first contact the recipients to confirm that the space will be
available for your message when you send it.

User quota exceeded: SMTP contact@salomon-sports.com

Please reply to postmaster@salomon-sports.com
if you feel this message to be in error.


Happy New Year, Another Yosemite trip report and photos coming soon !