Hey Ice Climbers….we have another dynamic week of ice climbing to dive into with this weeks report!!! Check out our video below…Highlights include the Narrows Getting thinner and hooked out, Bard Harrington climbable on many different routes, Mainwall being fat, and Chouinards being hooked out and filled in nicely. Avy danger has been real, and many inexperienced parties have been walking through terrain traps and not carrying avy gear or floatation for the approach. Please remember if you are top …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – January 27, 2017
Hi Ice Climbers – Sorry for the delay of our weekly Ice Conditions Report. We have been busy shoveling and digging out from our epic record setting month of snowfall. Conditions have been perfect for Ice climbing formation, and there has been a lot of changes in the past 2 weeks. The big news is after the past several years of dry conditions…the Bard Harrington Wall has Ice – YEAH!!! Check out our Lee Vining Ice Conditions Video Report… June …
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Snow Report – January 20th, 2017
Good day to you backcountry skiers and riders, And a good day for all of us. We did it! Our collective pleas to the snow gods have been answered. A little late, but wow. The call has been answered in force. As I write this during a much needed rest day it is snowing huge flakes at around 2″/hour at 4000′ elevation in the town of Bishop. It has been a while since our last report, but I think everyone …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – January 17th, 2017 ***Post Snow-pocalypse/ Rain-ageddon report
Hi Ice climbers Welcome to our first report since our big early January snow dumps. It has been a wild past week since our last report. Mammoth pass hit 20 Inches of water that fell from the sky in all forms. Heavy wet snow, flood causing rain, and light fluffy powder. Luckily the eastern sierra has the elevation to have more of the latter than other parts of the west coast. The good news is that the 5 days of …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – January 8th 2017
Greetings Ice Climbers….What an exciting week of weather for California Ice climbers and backcountry mountain users. The conditions are constantly changing during one of the wettest winter months that we have had in a long time. Since our last report we have had nice well forming ice on new years day with lots of folks out climbing at Horsetail, Roadside, and Lee Vining Canyon. I spent my New years Day climbing pitches on the Main wall which has been fattening …
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Snow Report – January 2nd, 2017
Happy New Year backcountry skiers and snowboarders! Early season snow conditions have been great and it was a wonderful holiday season… yadda, yadda. The relevant thing to be talking about though is not what has been (check out our earlier reports for that), but what is to come… Our New Year’s resolution is to ski more powder, and more powder we shall ski! At least if model forecasts have any credibility in this decade. The NWS is calling for over …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – December 29, 2016
Hey there Ice Climbers. Welcome to another week of conditions updates. Since our last report we have had a small snow event that put almost 3 ft of New snow up in the high mountains that gave us a “White Christmas” here in Mammoth. The snow came in with colder temps than the last storm and deposited lighter more faceted snow on top of the old snowpack. what this meant for ice climbers is that the approaches got a little …
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Snow Report – December 23rd, 2016
Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays backcountry enthusiasts! This installment of the BC Snow Report comes after an excellent week plus of early season backcountry skiing and riding. The last storm came in last Thursday wet and heavy with rain up to 9000’+ before cooling and amounting to more than 3.5 feet of snow in 24 hours at 9000′ on Mammoth Mountain. A record 14 inches of liquid water equivalent fell in this period but, unfortunately, a large amount of …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – December 22, 2016
Hey there Ice Climbers…Happy Solstice and the celebration of days getting longer!!! This week we have had some ever changing conditions in ice all over the range, and the high pressure and warm days has caused wet ice and dripping to start to form water ice over the layers of snow that we had last Friday. This week we have 2 separate videos in our report for Lee Vining and June Lake Ice, and we also have a report from …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – December 17, 2016 ***Special Video Update***
Hi California Ice Climbers!!! Welcome to the ever changing saga of ice melt and growth….Finally we have some good conditions for the ice to thicken and form with exciting new drips all over the place. We have our first Video ice report for the season with special footage filmed by SMG Guest Joost Daniels from our Ice 101 this weekend. Lee Vining Canyon Our in depth video report from today….Check it out!!! Details about: Snow amounts Avalanche observations Approach Climbing Conditions …
Eastern Sierra Ice Report – December 15, 2016
Howdy Ice Climbers…It was an EPIC week to be a Whitewater Kayaker in California!!! – The Creeks were going off… There have not been too many great days for ice since our last report. Last Saturday we moved our Ice program down to the Owens River Gorge…70MPH gusts and all day rain and 40 degree temps were not ideal for first time ice climbers (though climbing in a T-Shirt on sunny sport climbs was a good consolation prize 🙂 There …
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Snow Report – December 11th, 2016
This installment of the Report will be by video… Here are some other images for your added information and enjoyment…