Lassen Peak was by far the busiest of the hikes thus far. I started around 8:30 am and was never alone more than 5 minutes for the ascent. For the descent the crowds became more pronounced with what looked like more amateur hikers.

The trail immediately started with I a steady incline wrapping up to the top. The path was fairly good for the most part with towering views of below throughout the climb. Snow was observed at the beginning, but never was part of the journey until the just before the death defining (slight exaggeration) scramble to the very top where it was a mere crossing from a lower peak to the highest peak.

I took the advice of bringing plenty of water for the hike, which served me well. It may have been somewhere around 1.5 gallons. This was quite a bit and was great until I had to make the journey back down. Unfortunately this trail made it incredibly challenging for taking care of business. Somehow I survived.

I heard stories about elevation sickness for this journey, so I made it my duty to breath good and steady throughout. I did get slightly dizzy towards the top, but it wasn’t enough to stop me.

Once at the initial summit for a brief second I thought I was done; however, I quickly realized I need to trek down through a small snow section I head for the ultimate ascent to the top. Upon reaching this final stretch, it became apparent that not everyone was doing it as it did not have a very well defined path and had loose, scattered rock with a very high incline. The look of horror and terror from an older hiker who was beginning to evaluate if it was doable made me think that taking this final ascent was more of a risk than anything else I encountered during the day. Nevertheless, I traveled too far and commuter myself to making it up despite the danger it imposed and was glad I did it.