SierraDescents | Category | Current Conditions
January 16, 2018
Snow Valley, Express Edition
Happy 2018 everyone! While we are once again watching the long range forecasts and hoping for the elusive 'pattern shift', here's some good news: Snow Valley finally got its (more)
December 25, 2017
Merry Christmas 2017
Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Year! This winter alas has so far opened as yet another dry one, but there is snow to be found in the high country, particularly if you're (more)
December 1, 2017
December
Happy December to you, Sierra skiers and beyond. Hope you had a short but sweet summer; now is the time for long shadows, piercing afternoon sunshine, clouds of breath visible in (more)
September 10, 2017
Mammoth in August
We're a little late with this update here, but I did want to mention that Mammoth Mountain closed August 6, making for a 2016/2017 season that offered skiing in ten consecutive (more)
June 17, 2017
Mammoth in June
There's no end in sight to this season of spring skiing delight at Mammoth Mountain. June conditions are clearly as good as they've been since 2011, offering groomed racer crunch (more)
June 1, 2017
Mammoth In May
Mammoth in May is simply untouchable. There is no place on Earth I'd rather be. Give me the free-fall magic of Wipeout/Dropout in sun-kissed spring snow, lap after lap, till my (more)
May 2, 2017
Mount Carillon — Southeast Face
Mount Carillon's southeast face was supposed to be just an incidental snowfield en route to California fourteener Mount Russell, but instead it turned out to be 2000+ vertical (more)
April 24, 2017
What’s Going On Out There?
Yesterday I and two partners climbed and skied The Thumb from the Birch Creek trailhead, marking my first 7000-vertical-foot Eastern Sierra day since 2011—and my first (more)
April 15, 2017
The Air Is Alive With Snow
I ski for many reasons, but for a sunny Southern California resident days like this are a rare treat indeed. Mammoth's record-setting 2017 winter continued this past spring break (more)
March 20, 2017
Scouting Folly
What do you do when the mountain says, 'I want to hurt you'? That was the question this past weekend, when Al and I scouted Folly Peak, for a planned but aborted ski descent of (more)
February 10, 2017
Snow Valley Musings
2017. Whatever you were expecting, I doubt this was it. Took the kids to Snow Valley this past weekend. Slide Peak is open, and that does tip Snow Valley into a genuinely (more)
January 30, 2017
Snoverload
It is like the Sierra of old: a great gleaming white shield dominating the horizon. Do you have a fantasy line? The Sirens are calling. Everything—and I mean (more)
January 23, 2017
Waterman
Snow, snow, and more snow. Al and I wound our way up the 2 on Saturday during the mid-storm break to check out Mount Waterman. We skinned up for an easy run down the face, and (more)
January 17, 2017
It’s a SoCal Winter!
Southern California dead-enders rejoice: 2017 will finally mark the end of the past semi-decade's accursed endless summer. Across the Southland there is snow—and lots of (more)
January 8, 2017
Super Storm
The satellite images are stunning but also sobering. With Mammoth currently reporting a 170" upper-mountain snowpack, yet another powerful storm is en route, this one described (more)
