The Los Angeles Times is reporting Steve Fossett’s plane has been found in the mountains near Mammoth Lakes, California.

Billionaire Adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared back in September 2007 while flying solo. The subsequent search for Fossett was among the largest and most expensive in U.S. history. When the search turned up empty, speculation began that Fossett had faked his disappearance. Some people argued it was impossible for a plane to simply disappear—despite the fact that Fossett hadn’t left a flight plan, leaving authorities with a nearly unlimited area to search.

The discovery of Fossett’s plane was precipitated by a Mammoth ski shop owner, Preston Morrow, who found Fossett’s wallet while hiking in Red’s Meadow in the Inyo National Forest.

That find soon led searchers to the wreckage of the plane, as well as human remains, which have been sent to a lab for forensic identification.

According to the AP, there were large storm clouds over the Mammoth Area on the day Fossett disappeared, suggesting the possibility that foul weather may have been responsible for the crash.

Since Jan this year, the Sierra Descents blog moved to a separate directory, leaving the home page—here—a sort of static ‘front page’. There were a number of reasons why I moved the blog (some involving the way Google likes to see content), but I just wasn’t happy with the result.

Having a front page that (almost) never got updated just didn’t sit well with me, and added extra work maintaining the site. So, I’ve moved the blog back. Blog entries, which are still managed behind-the-scenes by wordpress, will still live in the blog directory, but now you can get all the headlines by visiting my home page, and you won’t have to check back and forth to look for new content.

Apologies if you notice things going a little awry here at the website. I’ve been doing a flurry of work behind the scenes to deal with some server performance issues, as well as adding a large number of gear reviews from my PCT hike. These reviews are all in various stages of completion, and some are partially uploaded.

I’ve been noticing really slow load times for my gear pages, so I rewrote how my site builds these pages. That should make things much better (for gear, at least), but anytime you mess with the guts of your site, you can expect things to get a little quirky until the kinks are worked out. In the meantime, new gear reviews are up or will be up for MSR’s Hubba Hubba tent and Hyperflow filter, Marmot’s 30° Hydrogen down sleeping bag, Jetboils PCS stove (love that Jetboil!), Granite Gear’s Vapor Trail pack, and more. Sorry, links for these aren’t all yet available.

Sorry also for such a slow week of getting content up and running. Fixing the performance issues has been a big drag on my available work time. The Pacific Crest Trail feature is coming—I hope to have that ready for prime time by next weekend. Until then, at least you can enjoy all the crazy news surrounding the Pres. candidates.

One of the blogs I enjoy reading on a regular basis is SierraJournal.com, run by Matthew DiPietro, a Bay Area tech and communications specialist.

Matt seems to have a knack for finding interesting and news-worthy backcountry tidbits to write about, and does a far better job staying on topic than I ever could.

He also runs occasional climbing and backcountry skiing trip reports, like skiing Matterhorn Peak’s East Couloir.

Matt’s site used to be called sierra-alpinist.com, but he wanted to branch out to cover environmental and alpine news as well as offering climbing TR’s, so he nabbed the SierraJournal domain and hit the ground running.

From the mission statement:

Sierra Journal was born of a passion for mountain climbing, backcountry skiing and wilderness travel in the Sierra Nevada. Sierra Journal’s mission is to provide great outdoor-related content in the form of trip reports, mountain adventure narratives, environmental news, local and national mountain-related news, gear reviews, and other outdoor tidbits.

SierraJournal is one of a very few active Sierra-themed blogs I know about. If you haven’t already visited, browse on over and check it out.

The Mt. San Antonio Ski Hut crew are back to work this weekend and coming weeks, and still looking for volunteers to assist in carrying loads up to the hut, as well as extra hands while they’re repairing the hut.

I believe people who help out earn credits toward host usage, which means you get to stay in the hut in winter and use it as a backcountry skiing basecamp, so if you’ve got some free time and energy, RSVP to Gil and get your hands dirty.

Robert Bland and I will be installing the “dry” portion of the Hut roof the week of July 7th and are reaching out for some help. We need a minimum of 2-4 people to assist. The more people we have, the quicker things will go. We anticipate 2-4 days to get the job done.

Please email me if you are available to assist for a day, or more.

We still need some help for this weekend if you are available.

RSVP:

Gil — OffPiste1@aol.com

I’m in Arizona right now, going through old family photos and contemplating the meaning of life. Saturday I attended my grandmother’s funeral in Phoenix. Thoughts of that upcoming occasion undoubtedly contributed to my feelings of impending doom while hiking and skiing Lone Pine Peak (not that the route needed any assistance in that regard).

We drove out Friday from L.A. to Phoenix, taking the 60. A black car appeared behind us, going extremely fast. They tailgated me for a short while, allowing me to look at the drivers’ and passengers’ faces–they all looked like kids. And then the car shot past us on the right, and accelerated away at a rate uncommon even for L.A. drivers (more…)

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…)

Just a quick announcement here: Glen Dawson, one of the pioneering Sierra climbers (he was on the first ascent of Whitney’s East Face), will be giving a slide show entitled “Golden Youth: The Adventures of Glen Dawson Growing Up In The Sierra Club” at this month’s Angeles Chapter Ski Mountaineer’s meeting, March 18 at Griffith Park Ranger Station Auditorium, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles.

If you can stand fighting the traffic, this sounds like a don’t-miss event. For more info, see the SMS Website.

Ugh…back in city…can’t breathe, can’t think…blood thickening into sludge…concrete…people…signal breaking up…must wallow in self-pity for foreseeable future…

Time for some R&R over here. We’re going to be hitting the road this week and next for a trip to Arizona and Colorado. I’m looking forward to skiing Telluride and checking out the new terrain that’s open off Palmayra Peak.

Not sure how much of Palmayra is actually open, but I’m been wishing I could ski that summit ever since I first skied Telluride some 20+ years ago. Even getting to cruise the drainage below the peak would be fantastic—I expect the views are magnificent, even by Tell standards. I’ll check in with more info about the terrain when I know more: what’s open, what it looks like.

Until then, be mindful of unsettled weather in the CA backcountry, and have a safe week!