Osprey isn’t joking when it calls its Exos-series packs ‘superlight’—these overnight-capable packs come with a stiff and robust frame yet weigh about the same as most frameless daypacks.

The 46-liter Exos weighs a remarkable two pounds, five ounces. Does that sound too heavy? My stripped-down Exos 34 weighs one pound fifteen point five ounces, lid and frame included (more…)

I’m happy to report I and my boy made it to Marina del Rey last night for the fireworks show. He shouted “boom” every time a big one went off, carrying on the family tradition of loving all things loud and explosive.

Every 4th I always find myself pausing and considering what a remarkable experiment our nation has been. As pessimistic as I get sometimes about the current state of affairs, it’s helpful to remember that our forefathers (and mothers) saw some very dark times of their own, including a war (against the crown) that they really had no chance of winning. But they did win (thank you, GW and France), and their legacy today is a nation where people of all colors and creeds gather peacefully (if a bit drunkenly) to cheer like maniacs as fireworks light up the sky. As Andrew Sullivan says, know hope. And Happy Birthday America!

This past weekend I and two friends made a go at Williamson via the big-big West Face/Shepherd Pass route. We made it as far as Anvil camp, but had to turn back the following day when AMS took out one of my companions overnight.

While I was disappointed at not getting a shot at the summit (it would have been my third time up there), I’ve been struggling the past week or so with a mysterious but painful stomach ailment, so turning back was probably the smart choice for me as well. Maybe a winter’s worth of drinking untreated snow/water has finally caught up with me.

Conditions on the Shepherd Pass trail were very much typical for this time of year following a strong winter: dry all the way the Anvil Camp, with snow appearing at that level, and the usual snow gear required or at least strongly recommended on the headwall and west face sections. As usual, I cursed the trail designer going both ways up (and down and up) Symmes Saddle. That really is a painful approach, which is probably the only reason I don’t hike up the area more often!

Originally our objective was a fiercely ambitious loop in the Williamson arena, but conditions didn’t look favorable, or maybe we just weren’t stoked about putting in that much work, so we kept driving north. Farther up Highway 395, Split Mountain’s south face looked enticing, so we gave it a go.

Without having scouted the area beforehand at home, I wasn’t terribly confident I could stay on-route in the dark, so I got a relatively late 4 a.m. start. That proved to be about an hour too late. The California sun turned Split’s upper south face into one big slush field by the time I got around 13K feet. Post-holing down to my thighs and starting to wheeze to the point of having trouble breathing, I decided the prudent course of action was to turn back. I do like to try to be reasonable at least once in a while.

My partner Dave of course was on his usual blazing place, and topped out on the South Summit right about the time I decided to quit climbing. By coincidence, we ran into Howie Schwartz of Sierra Mountain Guides, who was playing hooky from his guiding duties and off having a little fun by himself. SMG, you may recall, was the company I chose to guide my climb of North Palisade, and Howie was also my teacher for the Level I Avalanche Class I took this past winter at June Mountain.

So, small world.

My impressions of Split? It is indeed a hard mountain to get to, necessitating a vehicle-bashing drive over some really ratty dirt roads. It is also one of the most strikingly beautiful peaks I’ve climbed. Check out the colors bursting out of the granite in the video. Yes, it really did look like that. The skiing was fantastic: smooth, glorious snow that just went on and on and on. The climb itself up Split from the Red Lake trailhead is a long one. I’ll be back—and I’ll definitely be budgeting a little more time for the ascent.

Hooray—sort of. It’s probably not news to you by now, but Tioga Pass Road has opened for the 2010 season as of 8 a.m. Saturday. Bummer of course is that this year’s opening coincides with psycho high temperatures in the mountains. The forecast I watch was calling for a high of 61 today at the 12K level in Palisades. Obviously, Dana Plateau and lower is probably cooking today. If you do get up there this weekend, get it early. And let me know how it goes.

Here’s what I was thinking: I was nine hours deep on a ski attempt of North Palisade’s U-Notch Couloir, and all was going well until the easy snow I was climbing abruptly transitioned to ice thirty vertical feet or so below the top of the couloir. The ice was steep—probably 45° to 50°—and it definitely wasn’t skiable…but there was a patch of powdery snow immediately below, on a slightly flatter pitch, that could with some optimism be viewed as a sort of marginal safety net.

The prudent choice was to stop right there and ski down. Instead, I decided to keep climbing and try to manage the ice on skis. Watching this clip, from the comfort and safety of my home, I’m not exactly sure what to make of that decision. I knew there was a good chance my edges would break loose, but I also knew there was a good chance I’d be able to stop once I hit the powder pillow below.

So, it’s possible to look at this and say everything went exactly according to plan.

On the other hand, when I did break loose, the speed and violence of it was terrifying. At a 45 degree angle, on ice, your acceleration is basically equivalent to free fall. Additionally, when I started sliding my angular momentum caused my body to rotate so that my ski tails were pointing downward. This complication, as you might imagine, was not something I had anticipated.

Probably this video clip ought to go straight into the vault and never see the light of day. But it’s fair, for those of us who practice the art (or madness) of high-angle skiing, to be reminded now and then just how close the edge is when you’re standing on skis, on a steep slope, deep in the heart of an icy wilderness.

Who could have ever expected it?

ABC’s “Lost” arrived about the same time as another smash-hit drama, the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica.” Both shows, in the early going, showed clear flashes of virtuosity, but as a pair they couldn’t have been more different (more…)

I had a dream: I wanted to create a website to share my California hiking and skiing adventures. Problem was, digital cameras were primitive and expensive. Consumer video cams shot fuzzy SD footage on analog tape (which was incredibly expensive to edit). And I didn’t know the first thing about starting a website. Still, it just seemed like such a natural extension of my interests in the outdoors, writing, and photography: bring the backcountry to the binary realm, so that people all across the world could experience it.

How things have changed! Technology today makes it possible for me to bring you my first film, shot entirely in HD, edited at home in my living room, and distributed worldwide, instantly. It was obvious, looking over the raw footage from our Iron Mountain adventure, that the material deserved more than just a cursory edit. As I became immersed in the project, I was inspired to try to retell the story of hiking and skiing this amazing (and amazingly-remote) mountain, located a mere 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

To help bring the film to life, my son and I recorded four songs: a classical piece I like by Manual Ponce from his Suite in A, as well as three variations of an original theme (loosely inspired by Ennio Morricone’s work on The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) which we’re calling “The Men of Iron.” That we ended up with such fertile raw video footage is due in large part to the work of David Braun, who proved to be an amazingly disciplined second cameraman, ensuring we captured the complete top-to-bottom ski descent. This project, on many levels, wouldn’t have happened without him. Credit is also due to Lou Bartlett, who joined us for the hike, shot a few clips himself, and helped keep me moving upward when my body and spirit began to sag.

And finally, thank you to all of you who visit this site, write in, say hi in the backcountry, or otherwise inspire me to keep it going. Southern California has a vibrant backcountry skiing and mountaineering community, and I’m proud to be a part of it. One last note: I am going to get a run a professionally printed DVD’s (and BluRay if I can afford it) put together. If you would be interested in getting a copy for maybe $10 or so, please email me so I can estimate how many to make. Enjoy the Video!

Looks like this weekend is it for skiing at Mt. Baldy resort. I was there yesterday to enjoy one last day on my pass, closing out what has been a surprisingly strong year at the always-quirky Mt. Baldy ski area.

Rumor is Mt. Baldy got a double cash infusion this past season, first from a new investor, and then from the sale of those variously priced Chamber of Commerce passes (more…)

I’m going to have to make the drive out to the San Bernardino Mountains more often! Al and I skied San Gorgonio Mountain yesterday, and aside from a little wind up top, we were treated to a positively gorgeous day of Southern California backcountry skiing. In terms of snow quality, this was probably one of the best days I’ve had in the local mountains. The summit ridge was predictably bulletproof, but things softened nicely as we descended, and the lower gullies were nothing less than perfection. A long day, but definitely worth it.

We hiked in from the South Fork Trailhead on Highway 38, and ultimately ascended and descended San Gorgonio from the summit via the north/northwest face. I should also mention that we crossed the path of a recent (2 months ago?) large, destructive avalanche, which knocked down a huge swath of trees along the South Fork trail in an area where few people would have assumed there was any risk. Makes me glad I’m a Spring mountaineer. Enjoy the video!