California

Matterhorn Peak was one of the very first mountains which I put on my Sierra Nevada "to-do-list", even before I moved to California. A mountain with such a legendary name is a must for a Swiss and in addition the routes to its top seemed quite interesting. It seems like every mountain range on this planet has to have some peaks...

After Alpin_Rise arrived in California, we (obviously) started talking about potential goals for a hike. His 3 wishes for this weeks Wednesday outing were: 1. to get some scrambling in, 2. not too much of an altitude difference and 3. if possible some snow for sliding down the mountain. Still being a California novice myself, the...

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...

Lochschnee? - Was ist Lochschnee? Lochschnee ist Schnee, der nicht trägt; mal steht rojosuiza beim Schritt oben drauf, mal sinkt er ein bis zum Knie, bis zu der Hüfte; und manchmal steht er ganz unten, mit beiden beiden Beinen tief im Loch... Daher der Name Lochschnee. Lochschnee bietet sich rojosuiza überall auf dieser...

Eine Wanderung ist's nicht geworden. Ein Spaziergang auch nicht. Zur Wanderung fehlte der Abstand, denn vom Ort Bridgeport zu den Thermalquellen von Travertine sind's vielleicht zwei Kilometerchen... Ein Spaziergang auch nicht, denn zum Hinmarsch habe ich mich für barfuss entschieden - was entschieden Vorteile in nassem...

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...