SierraDescents | 2008
May 17, 2008
How to Melt Snow for Water
With oppressive temps currently baking Southern California, I thought I'd escape for a moment by listing a few tips on melting snow for water that I've learned these past few (more)
May 16, 2008
Pine Sap Party
Climbing Mount Williamson via Bairs Creek leaves you with a lot more than memories (and scratches): you also get gummed up with quite a bit of pine pitch. It gets on your (more)
May 11, 2008
Williamson Still Hard
This just in: Climbing Mt. Williamson is still Hard. Really Hard. SierraDescents personally verified this yesterday, with an ascent and ski of the south-facing couloir between Mt. (more)
May 8, 2008
Female Athletes and ACL Tears
The New York Times is running an article on the epidemic of ACL tears and other injuries in U.S. female athletes. Female participation in sports in this country is exploding, (more)
April 27, 2008
Birch Mountain Marathon
Saturday I skied Birch Mountain with a group of skiers from the Angeles Sierra Club's ski mountaineer's section. I don't get the opportunity to ski in groups that often, thanks (more)
April 22, 2008
Update: Quantum Love Affair Continues
Just made a few quick edits to my Black Diamond Quantum review. I've now had the pleasure of using both 45 and 55-liter versions of the Quantum. I like the extra volume of the (more)
April 21, 2008
Williamson: Notes from the Field
Today's Notes from the Field come courtesy of my friend Bill, whose adventures on Mount Williamson served as an early inspiration to me on my own quest to ski California's (more)
April 21, 2008
Nalgene Phases Out Lexan
Nalgene has just announced the phase-out of BPA-containing bottles from its product lineup, including all polycarbonate (Lexan) water bottles. Any way you put it, this is a (more)
April 15, 2008
Tandem Skiing
Flagstaff had a great ski season this year, though, like California, the traditionally-big March ended up high and dry. Still, there's enough snow to ski on the mountain right (more)
April 10, 2008
Lone Pine Peak – East Couloir
Sometimes as a writer you just don't know how much information to give. It would be easy to present this as a dashing adventure in which I fearlessly charged into the unknown and (more)
March 29, 2008
Whitney Portal Road: ‘Closed’ vs. Closed
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 (more)
March 23, 2008
Mt. Baldy – North Face
After scouting Mount Baldy's north face from Mount Waterman last week, I thought I'd hike up for a ski attempt this weekend. There was no question there would be snow—lots (more)
March 20, 2008
Route 2 – Mt. Waterman Report
But is there snow? That was the question, 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 (more)
March 15, 2008
Skiing Palmyra Peak
I am standing on Palmyra Peak's summit ridge with two Telluride ski patrollers, and they seem every bit as amazed as I am to be here. From our perch at 13,150 feet, we can see (more)
March 12, 2008
Mountain High Avalanches – Incident Report
This morning, I spoke with Jeff Pierce, who was the Site Commander for two of the three avalanches that took place in the vicinity of Mountain High ski area on 25 January 2008 in (more)