NBC has an unusually good online video of a K2 expedition—the ‘Shared Summits’ attempt, which was captured in Hi-Def.

Hi-Definition footage is really changing how I think of television. Previous to the technology, you’d need a virtual army to take a 35mm Panavision camera on a trip like this. Now, with tiny HD cameras, even a small expedition can return with theater-quality video that gives the viewer a vastly more real experience.

That makes it possible for us to see video like this: a fast-and-light team trying for a new route up one of the world’s most dangerous and deadly peaks.

Truly tragic news here: on Saturday I lost my Spot tracker while testing the device in the San Gabriel mountains.

I’ve been continuing to try out the unit’s ‘track’ function, which automatically sends a satellite ping every 10 minutes with your current location & time.

Unfortunately, to get the track function to work, you have to keep the unit in a position where it has a continuous good view of the sky. To do this, you can clip it to your belt—though the clip doesn’t look very secure (there is no loop for a more secure attachment). I was worried the thing would fall off my belt if I tried clipping it on, and that’s exactly what happened.

Funny thing is, since the Spot was in Tracking Mode, it continued sending out pings giving out its location—and did so for 24 hours, until the Tracking function timed out. I wasn’t able to go back and find it because I don’t have a GPS, but I figure I know its location to within a 30-60 foot radius or so, probably giving me decent odds of finding the thing. Unfortunately, this week’s storms are all but certain to bury my Spot. So, I guess I’ll go looking for it once summer rolls around.

Interestingly, if you look at the spread of the tracking pings (more…)

No photos this time, but yesterday I climbed up West Baldy with a partner and then skied down to the hut. We started the day around 7:30 at Manker Flat, carrying skis on packs to the hut, for a nice 2000 vertical foot warm up hike. From the hut, we were able to skin up the rest of the way, zig-zagging up the south side of Baldy Bowl to the ridge and beyond.

Conditions were quite warm. Even in January, solar radiation on the Bowl’s easterly and southeasterly aspects had triggered a few wet slides. With current temperatures, you probably wouldn’t want to be up there after 2 p.m. or so. More interestingly, we observed numerous slab avalanche remains from the past storm. These formed overwhelmingly on northeasterly ridgetops where wind-loaded snow had piled atop an obvious and very slick ice crust in the 9000′ to 10,000′ elevation range.

Based on our very informal tests, the snow has since bonded well to the ice, making for a stable snowpack until the sun nukes it. But this would likely be a layer worth watching as the season develops. Perhaps more importantly, it was certainly eye-opening to see so many naturally-triggered slabs. I don’t expect that when I’m in the San Gabriels. To be fair, these slabs were all quite small in both volume and area, and very localized. But there were many of them, especially along West Baldy’s southeast ridge (more…)

On January 13 at approximately 0800 hours, a renegade band of NorCalers drove to the Tuttle Creek drainage, spent the night, and then proceeded to ascend 14,027′ Mount Langley, in the Southern Sierra, the following morning.

These shameless individuals, traveling under aliases (and one using an alias for an alias) climbed and skied Langley’s East Couloir. One of them reportedly vomited. Afterward, as if unsatisfied, they clearly expressed their intent to return and ski more of California’s fourteeners.

For complete details on this shocking and sordid affair, please see the Teton Gravity Research Report.

It’s not exactly cutting-edge Gonzo filmmaking, but this helmet-cam video (edited by the Telluride Daily Planet) is certainly a poignant reminder that sometimes those annoying “cliff” signs really do mean…Cliff.

Earlier this season two young skiers from Texas decided to duck under the rope at the extreme west end of Telluride’s Gold Hill, tempted by the sight of untracked powder. Being members of the tech generation, they naturally decided to video themselves, which was no doubt of great value to the sheriff’s department. Both were subsequently charged with Reckless Endangerment.

The video does run on the long side, at eight-plus minutes, but the moment when they break through the trees to discover their line is completely cliffed-out is priceless. Soon after that, they trigger an avalanche that knocks one of them over the cliff (this part of the mountain is closed, after all, not only because of the cliffs but also the extremely high avalanche danger).

Incredibly, neither kid was seriously injured, though their effort remains a potent entry for this year’s Darwin Awards.

I’ve just uploaded a preliminary review of the new Spot Satellite Messenger.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Spot, it is a very intriguing alternative to a Personal Locater beacon.

Spot regularly accesses the GPS satellite network to fix your current position. Upon prompting, or automatically if you choose, Spot sends an email/cell text message via satellite to the accounts of your choice, telling them your GPS coordinates with a link to Google Maps™, plus a pre-formatted ‘OKAY’ or ‘SEND HELP’ tag.

Since this is a satellite-based system, Spot is capable of sending messages from virtually any location on Earth, provided you have a clear view of the sky. And all of this happens in real-time. Based on my experience, Spot emails your location within about ten minutes of activation, with an accuracy (measured) as high as 10-20 feet!

That kind of functionality makes this a revolutionary safety device—potentially. Check out the review for more details. I’ll keep posting information as I gain more in-the-field experience with the Spot. Also, comments are enabled here, so you can add your own thoughts as well.

» Read the Review

‘What Los Angeles took a century ago — a 62-mile stretch of river here in the parched Owens Valley — it is now giving back.’

Tired of getting tongue-tied when the subject of Benito Mussolini comes up? Looking to impress your friends with your knowledge of the roots of Fascism? In the interest of public service, here’s an amusing little history lesson.

Here’s a look at Mount Baldy’s north face (Mt. San Antonio) as seen from the summit of Baden-Powell on Saturday.

Compared to last year’s bare rock, the sight of all this snow in the San Gabriels is surely cause for celebration, though in truth you’re probably looking at about 2′ of coverage, so let’s keep hoping for a few more big storms.

I zoomed in on the north face to try to spot any natural avalanches. I didn’t see anything at all, though I have to say Baldy’s north face strikes me as one of the most likely places in the entire range where skiers or snowboarders could get into trouble. This shady, high (10,000′) face is big and broad, windswept, and just possibly cold enough to build a layered snowpack instead of the usual mank-on-its-way-to-doom Southern California snow.

Yesterday I skied Baden-Powell in the San Gabriel Mountains with the Man Formerly Known as Bullet.

Conditions were excellent—much better than I was expecting.

We parked at Vincent Gap and immediately began hiking up the steep northeast ridge on snow.

After 1300 vertical feet or so, the angle moderated, allowing us to switch to skis and skins for the rest of the ascent. We were treated to impressive views of Mount Baldy’s north face, which was looking very tempting itself. The snow varied greatly with aspect and location. Wherever the sun had touched it, the snow was well on its way to corn. Elsewhere, we saw everything from crusts to still-savory powder, with an average settled depth around two feet.

After taking the requisite photos of ourselves posing on the summit with downtown L.A. in the background, we skied a few turns on the upper east face, then cut back to the ridge for a 2700 vertical foot descent through unexpectedly fine powder back to the car. All in all, it was a fantastic day in the SoCal backcountry.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we weren’t alone. We saw several other skiers on Baden-Powell, plus a snowboarder or two hiking up. And driving out, incoming traffic to Mountain High at 2 p.m. was backed up past Wrightwood all the way to Highway 138—the worst I’ve ever seen it. It pays to get there early!