December 17th, 2014 Howdy backcountry skiers and snowboarders, The backcountry season has begun! Rarely have we seen such consistently inconsistent weather forecasting here as we have this month. The snow amounts have been way off almost every time, some in our favor and most not. Fortunately there have been enough of those disappointing little systems to leave us with a little backcountry. The December storms started warm and helped to pack in a good base. The more recent storms have …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – December 15, 2014
Howdy ice climbers, Temps have been dropping so we went to Lee Vining Canyon to have a look see. The ice is a bit anemic this early season, but better than last report and well attached to the rock, even in the thinner areas. Climbing quality is very good. Bring short screws. Try not to knock down the tender icicles forming over the rock bulges. These will be fun to climb in the near future. Chouinard Falls is really the …
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Snow Report – December 13, 2014
Mount Tom near Bishop, CA at 8:30am on December 13, 2014 Hi bc skiers and snowboarders, This is a quick post-storm morning update. Classically, this storm was overhyped by forecast models and discussions, at least for this part of California. That said, we ended up with 1-2 feet of dense snow at the upper elevations, which is a decent start. We now have a backcountry, though not the coverage that we would expect to enjoy after what was hailed …
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Snow Report – December 8, 2014
Bishop Skyline 12/7/14 Howdy Backcountry Skiers and Snowboarders! Hope you are all well this holiday season and looking forward to more snow. We are all due for it here in CA. Nature owes us big time. That said, the last 3 years of drought have provided a few of my best Eastern Sierra ski days ever. Just imagining what a return to average might yield is as exciting as anticipating the coming storm. But before I go into that, here’s …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – November 22, 2014
Howdy ice climbers! It’s been a while, how have you been? It’s fall and we have emerged from a bit of a cold spell. It is no surprise that we receiving inquiries on ice conditions. We are excited about it too, but this is the time of year when options are limited and young ice is at it’s most fragile. In Lee Vining Canyon the Chouinard Falls has a bit of climbable thin ice. We don’t recommend people to go there …
Preparing for a Season of Decision Making
It was exactly a year ago that I stood ski guiding on a 45 degree virgin slope on the Antarctic Peninsula in a decision making quandary. Doug Stoup of Ice Axe Expeditions had put together another one of his outrageous cruise ship assisted Antarctic ski mountaineering expeditions together and invited me to bring guests along. There were 20 of us guides, including some of the most accomplished, most experienced, and most well known ski guides in the country and internationally, …
Trip Report – Red Rock, Nevada | November 2014
It’s only “Snow-vember” in the High Sierra shade right now. Thanks to high pressure and record warm temps, the high sunny places have felt more like “Rocktober.” Down in the desert, the conditions have been as dreamy and perfect in both sun and shade as they can be this time of year. With the assistance of our friends at Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, their guest guiding program and one of their top local guides, Josh Janes, we commenced our semiannual (spring …
Alpine Conditions Report – November 2, 2014
Split Mountain and the Big Pine skyline emerge from the clouds on November 1, 2014 Well mountain lovers, another summer has gone down in the books and autumn is in full gear. The High Sierra has just received its first fall storm, late enough where the short days, cool temps, and low sun angles will cause it to stick in high and shady places. For most people this marks the end of the high elevation hiking for the year, …
One Weekend in Autumn…
It was good that Alex had the wherewithal to contact me last week about a climb of Charlotte Dome over the Columbus Day weekend. We enjoyed comfortable temperatures, a kiss of westerlies, and all the gloriously textured and featured granite that one can dream of. Charlotte Dome captivated our entire day, stopping time like mug of hot coffee or a snifter of fine brandy, and our cups raneth over. This October, the month of harvest, we reaped peaceful rewards after …
Featured Alpine Route: The Southeast Ridge of Mount Russell
The Southeast Ridge of Mount Russell (III, 5.9) is a classic alpine gem of a route that gets relatively little traffic or mention by guidebook authors. There are 7 different guidebooks for climbing on Mount Russell in my library and the route is listed in 3 of them. There are surprisingly very few details about this route that I could discover in these books, or from internet searches, so I figure this might be useful for someone. A conversation …
45 Pitches
At Sierra Mountian Guides we connect people to the mountains. There is a variety of ways to get this done. This July / August 2014 John B. came out from Chicago to the Sierra to get connected to some of the best alpine crack climbing the Sierra has to offer. When the dust settled, and the tape came off, we had done 45 pitches of Sierra granite crack climbing. Whew, what a trip, and way to go John! …
Alpine Conditions Report – September 5th, 2014
Hi Sierra scramblers and ramblers, After a busy Labor Day weekend here, we are coming into our favorite time of year in the Eastern Sierra. The aspens are beginning to turn, the fireweed has gone to seed, the night air is getting crisp and cool, the sun is getting lower in the sky, the days are getting shorter, and the sunlight sparkles a bit more against the granite. These changes signal the coming of fall and we are pretty excited …