SierraDescents | Category | Skiing
January 16, 2020
Vail, All These Years Later
Originally an unnamed Colorado sheep hill near the training grounds for the US Army's 10th Mountain Division, Vail was born in winter 1957 when hunter, prospector, and skier Earl (more)
December 25, 2019
Christmas Snow
We were just about to head to the car yesterday when they suddenly opened Chair 23. A mad every-man-for-themselves dash later, Al and I flashed through an empty maze and boarded (more)
November 15, 2019
My Dreams of Vail
I have a number of recurring skiing dreams, all of which start happening around this time of year. The best involves me skiing down and disconnecting from the snow and pulling (more)
June 24, 2019
Return to Dana
With Tioga Pass Road now open to the east Yosemite gate (and intermittently all the way through to the Central Valley), this past weekend seemed like the perfect time to revisit (more)
March 25, 2019
Mountain High East
I knew I loved to ski Mountain High East, but I had forgotten why: MHE offers by far Southern California's best intermediate/cruiser skiing, reminiscent of Colorado groomers, with (more)
March 20, 2019
Waterman Spins its Lifts
Here's one of the Holy Grails of Southern California skiing: I finally got to ski Mount Waterman, which opened this past weekend. Yes, I've skinned around the area before, but (more)
February 6, 2019
Southern California Dreaming (Reprise)
Motivated by forecasts of ultra-low snow levels and dreams of cold-smoke glory, Trevor and I returned yesterday to the San Jacinto Wilderness to reprise our 2012 Southern (more)
April 17, 2018
Skiing Baden-Powell, 2018 Edition
You should have seen the look on my wife's face when I brought out my skis this past weekend. For the record, this was 100% Al's doing, not mine. He's the one who had a (more)
June 8, 2017
Mount Sill: Two North Couloirs
After a long break, I made my way back to the Sierra's Palisades Crest for a climb and ski of Mount Sill. My expectations were modest on this one, but Sill turned out to be a (more)
May 3, 2017
Mount Russell – Northeast Couloir
I haven't skied anything remotely like this since Mount Muir six years ago. This is normally just a giant cliff face. When we crested Russell-Carillon Col and saw it was covered (more)
