Here’s a slide show of my trip up San Jacinto Peak on Thursday. Speedster Brent and I went up the tram and then up the east face. Snowfall totals and icing were eye-popping higher up the mountain. Around Mountain Station and the ranger house, there was still probably a solid 2-3 feet of snow. The (more...)...
Posted in Skiing | 6 Comments
Current Conditions
Clear skies and snowy peaks is the Christmas Day forecast here in the Southland. Expect impressive coverage above 9000 feet or so, and ice forests around the snow line. Here’s a shot of current conditions on West Baldy’s face, rising high above downtown—the classic postcard view from Kenneth Hahn State Park. Merry Christmas everyone! (more...)...
Posted in Current Conditions | 4 CommentsLA Times has a story on how Mother Nature has fooled the forecasters this season. It’s a nice rundown on some of the crazy ups and downs of the end of 2010 in SoCal, including a high temperature of 113° on Sept. 27, a heat wave just a week ago, and of course the Mother (more...)...
Posted in Current Conditions | 1 Comment
Current Conditions
There are only so many days in a row I can watch heavy rain pound the pavement outside my apartment. But that stubborn snow level refused to come down. Finally, on Sunday, I decided to take the initiative and go find some snow. I drove up to the parking lot at Manker Flat (or, at (more...)...
Posted in Current Conditions | 6 CommentsIn the What I Want for Christmas department, a little snow would certainly be nice. Here’s one of the forecasts I track: San Jacinto Peak. Okay, before you get too excited, notice how low the snowfall totals are, despite what looks like 5-7 days of precip in a row. This is tracking depressingly close to (more...)...
Posted in Current Conditions | 1 Comment
Video
Maybe I needed a little space to make sense of this past winter. It seemed at the time like I just wasn’t getting out there as much as I wanted, but now that I’ve edited all the photos into a single compilation, I realize…it was an amazing year. By any measure, it was the best (more...)...
Posted in Video | 2 Comments
Gear
It’s that time again: the holiday season is upon us. Time to start wandering overcrowded malls in the hope of finding that special something for that special someone—and maybe pick up a thing or two for ourselves. As 2010 draws to a close, and holiday decorations begin to appear, I find my thoughts dwelling on (more...)...
Posted in Gear | 0 Comments
Gear
Black Diamond’s Couloir is not the harness I’d want to be wearing if I was going to be hanging around all day, but short of that need, you’ll have a hard time finding a better choice for ski mountaineering. That shouldn’t be too surprising: ski mountaineering is exactly what Black Diamond had in mind when (more...)...
Posted in Gear | 0 Comments
Film & Television
Okay, I admit it: the prospect of spending an hour watching a crew of Telemarkers dropping their knees did not exactly fill my heart with glee. Skiing is a big tent, I understand, with plenty of room for people doing things any which way they choose, but as I inserted Television into my DVD player (more...)...
Posted in Film & Television | 0 CommentsMammoth reports 3-7 feet of snow, with nearly 2′ of new snow in the past 24 hours. Locally, the last few storms have opened up Mountain High and Snow Summit, though on pretty minimal bases. I’m off for the holiday, so have a Happy Thanksgiving, and get out there and find some snow… (more...)...
Posted in Current Conditions | 9 CommentsWhen there is snow, SierraDescents is Andy Lewicky's California backcountry skiing and mountaineering website. Without snow, sierradescents becomes an ill-tempered hiking and climbing blog.
Pray for snow.
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