It’s no secret I’m crazy for SciFi’s Battlestar Galactica series. Battlestar is easily the best show currently on television, and I’d be hard pressed to name anything from the past that even remotely compares.

Way back in the day, when ABC first released the original Battlestar in 1978, the show was widely derided as an impoverished Stars Wars copy. There was perhaps an element of truth to that assertion, but the show also had an undeniably catchy premise and characters. Sure, the Cylons were kind of pitiful villains, but the special effects were groundbreaking at the time, and many of us youngsters positively fell in love with the show, corny or not.

Cut to 2003, when we learned SciFi channel was going to “reimagine” the show as an original miniseries (more…)

Well, I drove up to Lone Pine yesterday with big plans for some climbing and skiing in the Whitney Portal region, only to discover the road, which is normally “closed” for winter had been Closed.

Seems the issue is the powers that be have decided to open Whitney Portal Road (earlier and earlier each year, isn’t it?), so they graded a sand berm across the road to Close it while they’re opening it (ie, clearing boulders and snow). It all makes sense, I suppose, though I wish they hadn’t decided to Open the road (aka Close it) on the weekend I happened to be driving up. The Visitor’s Center says they expect the road to be open as early as Monday of next week, so the open-closed ambiguity will be resolved for good soon, at least until next winter.

For the record: Whitney Portal Road is closed during the winter, though it is a fuzzy closure in that the road is not gated or otherwise physically blocked. My guess would be that CalTrans or whoever maintains the road and the National Forest Service don’t want to be liable for winter maintenance, or accidents, hence the closure policy, but at the same time they recognize that people want and expect vehicle access to the portal year-round, including winter. If you do observe the closure point, you are adding a withering 2000 vertical feet and three miles, one-way, to your Whitney approach, which is easily enough to ruin your plans.

Ah well, next time…

Allow me to say I’m just green with envy on this one—a group of skiers (or perhaps more accurately, madmen) hiked from Badwater Basin, Death Valley, elevation -282, to the summit of Telescope Peak, 11,049, some 20 miles of rough country away, skied the peak, and hiked back down. My favorite part of the Trip Report: when they’re 20 hours overdue, and they decline a ride from a concerned ranger back to their car, still some nine miles away!

Read all about the insanity at TGR: Part One | Part Two

Bishop-area guide and climber Kurt Wedberg is guiding a client up Everest via the south approach this year. You can follow their progress at the IMG Website, and also the personal blog of Kurt’s client, Michael Andrews.

This looks like a really unlucky year to be paying the usual fortune for an Everest bid. Civil war in Nepal has threatened to close off south-side access, and the Chinese government has apparently closed the entire north side of the mountain as part of an Olympics promotion stunt (they want to carry the torch to the summit). Just to add to the mix, China is reportedly pressuring Nepal to close the south side of the mountain as well. I guess they need the whole mountain to themselves for the torch ceremony?

Sounds like it will be an interested time on the world’s highest peak—but then again, it always is.

This month’s Backcountry.com newsletter features an article on plastic water bottle concerns and alternatives.

Some of you may be aware that Canada’s largest outdoor retailer recently pulled polycarbonate (Lexan) water bottles from its shelves, citing safety concerns about the ingredient BPA, which leeches from polycarbonate plastics, and which acts like a hormone when ingested by lab animals.

The plastic industry (and of course Nalgene) insist that BPA-leeching is not a health concern, and they’ve got some substantial evidence to support their case, including current statements by a variety of health organizations.

Coincidentally, I’ve been putting together a section on hydration product reviews for SierraDescents, including my take on the subject of toxic exposure. That should be coming within a week or so. For now, check out the Backcountry article. Unfortunately, I think the waters are going to remain muddy on this subject for a while.

AFTER SCOUTING Mt. Baldy’s north face from Mount Waterman, I thought I’d hike up for a ski attempt this weekend.

There was no question there would be snow—lots of it.

But I was a little concerned about ice.

This has been a strange season for north aspects in the San Gabriels. Things have been persistently icy, even when temps get warm enough that you’d swear things should soften up.

To get a nice 2000′ vertical boost, I decided to access the mountain from Mt. Baldy Ski Area’s helpful chairlifts.

After all, whatever you ski on Mount San Antonio’s north face, you’ll soon be climbing. What goes down here must go back up—at least, unless you want a visit from S&R.

Via the mostly-dry backbone trail, I made great time to Baldy’s summit, arriving around 11 a.m. My plan was to ‘feel out’ the north face, hopefully finding good conditions, or else give the west face a look.

Well, despite quite warm temps, the north face looked pretty darn icy.

The snow was hard, smooth, and streaked with sheeny spots that clearly looked like trouble. I dropped a few vertical yards from the summit, and began traversing across the north face on a relatively lower angle pitch, bouncing on my edges, trying to see if the snow was soft enough for safe skiing (more…)

BUT IS THERE SNOW?

That’s certainly the question that was on my mind, so I packed up the skis and the boy and hit the road.

Figuring I’d try to find snow a little closer to home, I drove up Route 2 from La Canada.

I’ll tell you, things looked pretty bleak at first. When I passed the turnoff to Mt. Wilson, there wasn’t a speck of snow as far as I could see.

Thankfully, snow appeared a bit later, when I reached Mount Waterman (and the Mt. Waterman Ski Area – closed).

I parked the car around 6700′, put the boy in the Ergo, and did a very modest tour up to the ridge crest around 7300′ via some sort of decrepit rope tow path at the east end of Waterman.

Terrain for ski touring would be better straight up the peak from Route 2 a mile or so to the west, but I was looking for lower-angle fare today, seeing as I had a copilot.

At the crest, we played in the snow a bit, and I got to scout the surrounding area. Nearby Twin Peaks, which would be loosely accessible from the summit of Waterman, looked like it would make for a fine ski earlier in the season, when the south slopes of Waterman are covered. I’m always amazed by the steepness of the San Gabriel range, and its abundant (and technical) little summits. Put snow on these mountains, and there’s always a treat to be had.

Conditions at Mt. Waterman ski area looked totally doable. For such a small ski area, the terrain looked diverse and quite lively. I’ll have to give it a try sometime. Maybe the resort is still opening on weekends—I don’t know. Really, the only downside here (compared to the farther drive to Mt. Baldy Ski) is the slow, windy road, which pushes travel time up a bit.

I also got a chance to scout Mount Baldy’s north and west faces, which are easily snow-covered enough for skiing. Just be aware that either option requires you to summit first, then ski into no-man’s-land, then hike back to the summit to get home. Lots of work. Still, that’s probably where I’ll be this Saturday.

Bottom line: north-facing aspects in the eastern San Gabriels are still in good shape above 7000′, with a dense, 2-4′ snowpack that shows no sign of going anywhere in the near future.

The American Alpine Club has posted more information on its website about the organization’s shift from offering rescue insurance as a member benefit to a rescue ‘service’ managed by Global Rescue Worldwide.

While AAC’s original rescue insurance was hardly a perfect solution, it was one of a very few affordable insurance options—especially for climbers who live in the U.S. The original benefit was automatic for AAC members, and provided (I believe) up to $5000 in rescue insurance to pay for S&R costs associated with climbing accidents. For some climbers, myself included, AAC’s insurance benefit made the otherwise pricey $75.00 per year member dues look attractive.

Among the shortcomings of the AAC insurance was its lack of options. You couldn’t upgrade to more expansive plans, for example. Additionally, the total payout each year was capped at a specific limit member-wide, meaning if AAC paid out its limit to other members prior to your mishap in any given year, you were out of luck.

This year, AAC has dropped its rescue insurance plan. The replacement is a Global Rescue Service much like the American Auto Club. At least at first, AAC seemed a little overly enthusiastic about Global Rescue, given that it really isn’t a true replacement for insurance (more…)

The Alpinist’s web site is running an excerpt from High Crimes: the Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed by Michael Kodas.

High Crimes documents the shocking but very real emergence of theft as yet another deadly threat climbers must face on 8000 meter peaks. You’ve probably heard about the ‘borrowing’ of oxygen bottles on Everest and similar tales, but the depth of the crime on Everest and other big peaks (including K2!) is truly astonishing.

Kodas notes numerous incidents in which climbers left high camps (ie, the last camp before summit) for marathon summit pushes only to return and find their tents ransacked, with critical supplies, such as fuel, clothing, and even sleeping bags gone. Obviously, such theft is life-threatening for exhausted, exposed climbers at extreme altitude with the sun going down.

The author makes the point that in many of these cases, it would be patently evident to the thieves that their actions could directly lead to the deaths of other climbers. If you watch someone take off for the summit, and then raid his tent, what you are doing is tantamount to murder.

If that sounds like an overstatement, consider the situation Don Bowie found himself in while trying for a solo summit of the Karakorum’s Broad Peak (more…)

Palmyra Peak

I HAVE BEEN WANTING to write up a feature on Telluride for a long time now, and this year the timing seemed perfect, thanks to the opening of Palmyra Peak.

What I didn’t really expect was how much I had to say on the subject. My apologies for what blossomed into a rather long article.

Originally, I was just going to focus on Palmyra (which is stunning!), but then I started drifting into the whole history and magic of the place, and it was a lost cause at that point. For all my babbling, I do think that Telluride’s Palmyra Peak, which is now open as part of the resort’s controlled terrain, offers an experience unlike anything else any North American resorts have to offer.

High praise, I know. Time will tell as to how Telluride and Palmyra come to be viewed by the ski industry—and whether or not Telluride is even successful at keeping this radical terrain open. For now, if you can’t get there in person, you’ll just have to read about it here.