Welcome to SierraDescents.com!

It's been a long time coming! When I first moved to California, merging my writing and photography into a website about backcountry skiing in the Sierra Nevada seemed a fine idea...I just never got around to actually doing it. The Sierra Nevada rightly intimidated me. Unlike the forgiving playground of my home town mountains, the Sierra are vast, remote, technical, the realm of the mountaineer.

Similarly, technology, time, and money made building a website a daunting task. And so SierraDescents.com existed only in my imagination.

So it might have remained, if not for Paul Richins Jr., who provided a much-needed spark with his excellent guidebook, 50 Backcountry Ski Summits in California.

Many thanks also to Lou Dawson, whose Wild Snow blog inspired me to finally sit down at my computer and start sharing my own backcountry skiing adventures.

A project like this owes its success to more people than I can possibly list, but I'd like to note the SierraDescents.com banner and logo were designed by Robert Kieffer, a former AOL senior software architect (I believe that means he built the Matrix) who is also my senior technical adviser and my best friend.

You can track down Bob at his website, Broofa.com, where you'll find thoughtful musings—if you're lucky.

To everyone else, I offer a hearty welcome. You're a part of this now, too. Come on in and stay awhile. Wander around. See if you can find something interesting. And don't forget: the mountains are out there right now, just waiting for us.

— November 11, 2005

Andy Lewicky is the author and creator of SierraDescents