Incredible! Colin Murphy and I sent the Red Dihedral route on the Hulk this week. What a phenomenal trip it was – perfect weather, long days, warm granite, and good company. Colin said it was his hardest and best alpine climb to date, and what an honor to have been there to share it with him. Enjoy the photos and hopefully Colin will share his video footage at some point too. ~ Howie July 3, 2014: the video from …
Alpine Conditions Report- Palisades- July 1st 2014
July 1st 2014. Alpine climbers and enthusiasts, we just finished a trip into the Palisades. Here is a breakdown of current conditions. Approaches and Camps: The North Fork of Big Pine Creek is dry walking all the way to Gayley camp. The sites at Gayley camp are dry. There is still water and melting snow at Gayley camp. The mosquitos are out through Sam Mack meadow. The Bishop Pass approach is dry through Thunderbolt …
High on Crystal!
Yesterday, we had a fine traverse of Crystal Crag, the monolith that towers over the Mammoth Lakes basin and offers fine, moderate, multi pitch rock climbing with an exciting alpine ridge traverse. The group consisted of Clark Harding – a writer for Outtraveler online travel magazine and Hollywood visual effects technician, and Lara Kaylor – a Mammoth local writer and media specialist for visitmammoth.com. Thanks to both Clark and Lara for being excellent climbing partners and for a fantastic day …
Mount Whitney: East Face vs. East Buttress. Which is better?
Which route is better, the East Face or the East Buttress? The classic question we get regarding technical routes on Mount Whitney. Well, do you like chocolate or vanilla? Very different flavors, both immensely pleasurable. Let’s break it down. The Line One of the major considerations when evaluating the aesthetics of a climbing route is the line. Does it appear natural, allowing for consistent and continuous climbing progress? Does the climbing finish on an obvious high point like a summit? …
Alpine Conditions Report – Mt. Whitney – June 12, 2014
Current conditions on the East Face and Mountaineer’s Routes, from June 11th, 2014. Here are the current conditions for Mt. Whitney. We just finished a successful East Face trip! We were able to complete both the climb and the descent without using ice axe or crampons. You would now be able to avoid snow completely on all routes. There is still ice on Iceberg Lake but there is plenty of open water. We had some afternoon thunder snow, so pay …
Alpine Conditions Report – June 7th
Mountain people, We have been out and about for the past few weeks. Not much new to report for alpine ice climbers. Couloirs are still quite snowy, and the firnification process has been slow due to continued snowstorms through May. Some couloirs do have patches of ice exposed due to the dry winter (see last Alpine Conditions Report). This Alpine Conditions will focus on the Mount Whitney zone and you can extrapolate it out to other areas I’m sure. Near …
Whitney & Russell – June 1-4, 2014
Vatche Bezdikian and I had a wonderful trip to the Whitney zone this past week. Conditions were excellent, weather was crisp yet accommodating, The rock was dry and warm in the sun, and the company was top shelf. We climbed the East Buttress on Mount Whitney and the Fishhook Arête on Mount Russell with the alternate 5.7 start. Good climbs, good times.
Frogland (III, 5.8+)
This spring Alex Stepanek and I reconnoitered in Las Vegas for a couple days of rock climbing in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on some super classics that he had always wanted to do. One of these was Frogland. If you like POV footage (and who doesn’t?), if you want to get a sense of what the route is like, and if you want to listen to some groovy music, check out his final cut just released here: Thanks …
A case for guide certification from the Sierra
Today I ran into a local climber and mountain enthusiast in the Black Sheep Coffeehouse in Bishop. She worked for us as a porter and as a camp cook last summer, and I asked if she might be interested and available for some of that work again. She said “yes” but she explained that she just took a Wilderness First Responder course and has been hired by another local mountain guide service as a guide, specifically for trips on Mt. Whitney …
Packing for a Multi-day Ridge Traverse
reposted from January 2014 By IFMGA Mountain Guide, Jed Porter So, something about a multi-day ridge traverse has captured your attention. Maybe it’s a 2-day itinerary on Lone Pine Peak, the 4 day version of the Palisade Traverse, or something bigger and further out there. In any case, you want to cover some ground and be ready for technical climbing. You will spend cool nights at altitude, burn lots of calories, and carry all of your gear the entire time. …
Backcountry Snow Report – May 13, 2014 – Season Wrap-up
Well, it’s an early wrap-up for this season’s edition of the Backcountry Snow Report. We may update again if something noteworthy happens with the weather, but overall things are settling in to their predictable spring patterns. Expect sunny warm days with cool nights to provide epic corn skiing above 10,500 to 11,000 feet for a little while yet. So far, we are not seeing any major sun cups or penitentes forming, which means I, for one, have not necessarily hung …
Alpine Conditions Report – May 13, 2014
Hi there mountain people! It is that time again when we start getting calls and questions asking us about mountain conditions for alpine climbing and general mountain access. We have been running this report for the last 7 or 8 years, but we hope to up our game this year with this new website format to give you the best, most useful, and most up-to-date information on the web about conditions in the High Sierra. History & Background After …