United States

Same setup as last week with the difference that I wanted to ski a little more. Almost the same start, just "the other" pull-out on Highway 431 at Incline Lake. My goal today was Relay Peak via the west ridge, ski down to Ginny Lake, skin up to Incline Peak and then back to the car via the same route as last week to Incline Lake....

After a very slow start to the winter 2017/18 with very little precipitation, the Sierra Nevada received a lot of snow in the last weeks to reach an almost average snow-pack by now. This finally gave me the chance to open the ski tour season. This tour had to be short and sweet for many reasons and was also meant to find out what...

Nachdem ich so viel Gutes über den Appalachian Trail in den USA gehört hatte, und ich zufällig in der Nähe war, wollte ich mir die Sache mal etwas näher anschauen. Für den gesamten, 3500km langen Trail reichte aber bei mir definitiv weder die Zeit noch die Lust. Eine lohnende Alternative schien mir daher die Besteigung des...

What sounds like a politically incorrect statement is what I told my wife the other day: "Can you pick me up at the Negro Bar?" However, I didn't go out to have a drink in a bar, but asked her to pick me up at the "Negro Bar" State Park, after I walked there from home. "Negro Bar" is the site which was mined by African...

California's weather is currently influenced by a so-called "blocking high" off the Atlantic coast which brought us nice warm and sunny T-Shirt days down in the valley for almost all of December so far (and it doesn't look like it will change any time soon). Unfortunately this prevents the winter storms from rolling in and the...

After my failed attempt to climb Tells Peak last week I did my home work, studied what went wrong and why I didn't find the Highland Trail. After checking the different topo maps on caltopo.com, I realized that the US-Topo Map which I had with my (and was on my GPS) was outdated and contained an old version of the Highland Trail....

Recently I discovered that the 4 peaks of the extended Crystal Range north of Rockbound Pass (Red -, Silver -, McConnel - and Tells Peak) have a relatively short access from west. The so-called "Ice House Road" from Kyburz to Loon Lake is a regular asphalt road and supposedly plowed all winter long too. The minor single lane...

Quick trip to the Sierra to check out the snow situation at Round Top. I should have brought my skis along, because there was more than plenty of the white stuff. Walked from Carson Pass to Winnemucca Lake to the saddle between The Sisters and Round Top and then via west ridge (snow free) to the top. Back the same way. (For...

After last weeks outing to Flagstaff Hill, I actually didn't think I would go back to this mountain (ever) again, because there wasn't really much which was extremely attractive for a mountaineer like me. However, I kind of had to, because I lost something precious up there (most likely during the bushwhacking up to the summit)....

Fall has arrived in California and with it the first winter storms. My plans for the Sierra Nevada were cancelled the night before due to extensive snowfall in the Tahoe area. As an alternative I planned to visit Flagstaff Hill, a mountain on Folsom Lake which should give me a rather good view of the Lake and the surrounding area....