California

Anderson Peak is one of the few mountain tops in the Tahoe area which haven't received a visit from me yet, even though I tried twice already. The first time, I failed due the icy steep north face and not carrying crampons with me and the second time I ran out of time due to an unplanned detour. This time I was rather sure I would...

La plus belle rando de Tuolome Meadwos selon le Lonely Planet (itinéraire détaillé ici), ou en tous cas la plus belle des randos faciles…à faire absolument si on poursuite le voyage en direction des PN désertiques du Nevada/Arizona. C'est bucolique tout du long, pour le coup vraiment adapté aux enfants (plus que le...

C'est monstre long, blindé de monde, mais c'est quand même l'ascension incontournable du Yosemite dans des paysages vraiment exceptionnels - si on a la chance d'avoir un permis ! Si on n'a pas participé à la 1ère loterie de mars, il faut tenter sa chance chaque jour pour 3 jours après jusqu'à ce que ça marche (10$,...

1ère "vraie" rando de notre séjour familial dans l'Ouest américain…heureusement on s'était entrainés aux sorties kilométriques en marchant à tord et à travers dans San Francisco les jours précédents (45k au Garmin, vive les vacances), car la caractéristique des sentiers locaux est de serpenter à l'infini pour...

An easy and short hike from Camp Sacramento to Lovers Leap on the way to Lake Tahoe. After a pick-nick at Camp Sacramento we hike along the obvious trail all the way to the top of Lovers Leap. Unfortunately the smoke from the many wildfires in the Sierra makes the view very hazy. Nice viewpoint along Highway 50. There are...

Stanislaus- and Sonora Peak are two relatively easy accessible peaks from Sonora Pass. They are both pretty high, with Sonora Peak actually being the highest peak of the Sierra Nevada north of Sonora Pass. I had plans to climb these two mountains at the end of September last year already. However, I miserably failed due to the...

For this day I had 3 concrete goals: Climb Mount Elwell, test my newly acquired trail running shoes and catch some fish for dinner. I didn't think that I would successfully be done with all of this shortly after 2 PM already... Climbing Mount Elwell didn't seem like a big alpine challenge since there are easy accesses from the...

The first time I saw the Horsetail Falls, I wasn't all that impressed. Due to the drought then and the late season, the waterfall had nothing but a tiny bit of water trickling down from the Desolation Valley. The current situation with record amounts of melting snow should give the falls a much more impressive character. In...

In Northern California we had an unusually long lasting period of very hot weather for more than a week now. The high temperatures were up to 110°F (43°C)! Luckily where we live, we have two options to flee the heat, we either go to the Pacific Coast where temperatures are always cool even during the hottest days in the summer,...

I had plenty of real life views and took many many pictures of Round Top in the last few weeks. Due to the massive amounts of snow this area got during this winter, I thought of an approach to the top from northeast. I did not find any reports in the www about such a line, but judging from my inspection last week from the top and...