After I looked at Old Man Mountain on the US topo map, I was wondering why there was a "Tunnel" clearly indicated as such in its south flank at an altitude of approximately 6700 ft. After doing some research and asking a friend, all I found out was that it probably is connected to the former mining activity at the Carlisle Mine at...

Last weekend the Sierra Nevada got about 8 inches of fresh snow and even though the past winter had only way below average snow, I fancied doing another ski tour before the snow definitely melts. As my goals I chose a few peaks in the vicinity of the Squaw Valley Ski Resort (which is closed for the season). The fact that the...

On my tour to Thunder Mountain at the beginning of January, I peeked over to Thimble Peak and noted it as an interesting project in this area. After reading up on it on summitpost and Bob Burd's page, I knew that getting to it's highest point wouldn't be easy. After Thimble Peak I also planned to visit the Covered Wagon Peak...

On my hike to Pyramid Peak (my first Sierra hike after moving to California last October) I noticed an interesting looking mountain in direction southeast which looked like a volcanic peak. I asked the person who was on the summit of Pyramid Peak together with me what the name of that mountain was, but he could not tell me. After...

Hidden Falls Regional Park is a popular local recreation area. It offers 30 miles of natural surface trails suitable for hiking, running, biking and horseback riding. I explored about a third of the trails on this rainy day in Northern California and saw lots of beautiful flowers and wildlife. The Park Map at the parking lot shows...

Mount Tallac is a favorite destination for Tahoe’s backcountry ski crowd and it's also popular with boarders. According to some sources it's actually rated one of the "top 10" backcountry skiing destinations in the US. My plan to get to the top via N-Ridge (which used to be the standard) and ski down the NE bowl had to be...

Mount Diablo, the "center peace" of Mount Diablo State Park is an isolated peak which is visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area and much of northern California. It's "only" 3557 feet high (1178m) but has a remarkable visual prominence. On a clear day one can see many of the Sierra peaks, a lot of the Central Valley and of...

My plan on this day was to climb Sawmill Ridge and Robinson Peak, they are both north of Twin Lakes (Mono County). I chose these peaks due to the fact, that they have steep south facing flanks, where the little snow which the Sierra got this season should have melted away again in order to allow the ascent without any 'snow-toys'....

When I drove to Carson Pass for this adventure, I knew I would be back soon again. Not only because I liked my snowshoe hike a lot then, but also because I saw many other potential and interesting goals in this area. The view of Thunder Mountain and in fact the whole ridge northeast of Silver Lake made such a good impression to me...

A good hikr-buddy of mine gave me a hiking book as a farewell present before I left Switzerland. The book was written by no one less then Daniel Anker himself and is called "Wanderungen in Kaliforniern". It covers 54 hikes (ranging from very easy to serious expeditions) all over the state of California. It has been out of print...

The Sierra Nevada hasn't gotten much snow so far this season. In fact it looks like this will be the driest year on record (all over California). Therefore the amount of snow in the Sierra is rather meager and after my last weeks test of the snow up there, I decided to not scratch my skis any further until some serious snowfall...

Mount Tamalpais (the locals call it Mount Tam) is probably one of the most popular outdoors playground in the San Francisco Bay Area, not just for hikers but also mountain bikers. Due to it's steep slopes on all sides it offers spectacular views over the surrounding cities, the rolling hills, the Pacific Ocean and the bay with all...

After yet another month of mountain abstinence, I planned to conquer the county high point of El Dorado today: Freel Peak (3318m / 10,886 ft) an easy T2-3 hike. Since the two peaks Jobs Sister and Jobs Peak are relatively close neighbors to Freel Peak, I had planned to also visit them on this day. However, due to the fact that the...

Viele von Euch haben es bemerkt… ich war 1 1/2 Monate lang alpinistisch untätig. Dies hat einen tieferen Grund, denn mein Lebensmittelpunkt hat sich seit meiner letzten Tour geographisch um fast 10'000km gegen Westen und knapp 1'000km gegen Süden verschoben. Die CH-Alpen sind nun nicht mehr mein Haupt-Gipfel-Jagdgebiet,...

Der Yosemite National Park besteht bereits seit 1864 und ist mit 3081 Quadratkilometern ziemlich gross. Die meisten Touristen besuchen ausschliesslich das Yosemite Valley, das Kernstück des Nationalparks. Um den vielen Besuchern am Memorial Day ein wenig zu entkommen, entschliessen wir uns zu zwei kleinen Wanderung beim Tiago...

Dienstreise nach San Francsisco – perfekt für einen anschliessenden Abstecher in den nur vier Stunden entfernten Yosemite National Park. Wir wollten die grosse klassische Tagestour machen – den Half Dome. Aufgrund der Beliebtheit der Tour gibt es seit ein paar Jahren eine feste Quota und man braucht ein Permit, um den Berg...

Kalifornien ist wohl für die meisten Leute nicht in erster Linie für seine Berge bekannt. Allerdings gibt es dort mehr und fast so hohe Berge wie beispielsweise in der Schweiz. Neben der Sierra Nevada (welche eine stattliche Länge von 640 km und Breite von 80 bis 130 km aufweist) gibt es im Süden Kaliforniens auch noch die San...